[Libertyhiberty]

Hi I have three bottle fed pet lambs. They are 3 and a bit weeks. They are all drinking milk really well and 2 have been nibbling on grass and the other is eating well. They have access to creep food and the bigger one and another one are both eating some creep food. I want to transition them down from 3 feeds to 2 feeds in just under a week to prepare them for fully weaning at 35 days. Is this a good idea? I’ve seen mixed things online about how old they would have to be to lower the number of feeds.

[SallyintNorth]

You'll get mixed responses here too.

My input is that the rumen isn't developed sufficiently to process a wholly non-milk diet for optimum nutrition until 6 weeks minimum, and is not fully developed until 8 weeks. 

So personally, I certainly wouldn't wean at 5 weeks.

We will report differing experiences here of later weaning and the incidence of bloat.  As a result of which, some folks wean at 6 weeks. 

Whenever you wean, they need to be eating 1/2lb hard feed a day each in order to be able to replace the nutrition they're not getting from milk.  (That's per commercial type lamb, it's obviously less for a wee primitive.)

Personally I like to keep a bottle going for the 7th week and half a bottle for the 8th, but I take some care in terms of when they're getting the milk, the grass and the hard feed, to minimise risk of bloat.

I did have one batch had to be weaned abruptly at 6 weeks, but that batch had been partially reared by other people, so I do wonder whether there was something about how and what they'd been fed and how they'd been kept earlier which made them more prone to bloating. 

[PipKelpy]

In the past me (muggins) would keep them On the bottle for as long as necessary! (Timmy was 6 months if I recall, but that was 24 years ago and I had more sympathy then for cades, plus I cried at everything that went wrong. Sheep do like to die!)

Now, I've toughened up, that and milk price is more. However, my 3 cades, I have been brutal, I've pulled them off 4 times feeding, NOT because of cost, but because I'm flipping exhausted due to blasted sheep (interesting lambing this year!!) So my little darlings as of yesterday were kicked out of shed for nights and plonked on back field permanently with siblings and their mothers and are now on 3 times a day, 5am, 1pm, 9pm. Yesterday, they howled! This morning, never made a sound until they heard me creeping through the yard.

I have considered weaning (as bag says) which means 1 more week for the twins, 2 weeks for the single, then that's it, BUT the one is staying as a replacement and because I'm a mug...... I'll feed them for another month at least! Possibly 2, knowing mum she'll start whinging that they are babies and they need the milk......... Besides, Ivy needs to be a nice frame and I was always told get it On them when they're young. (Used to feed calves for longer than necessary on a bucket, turned into nice sized animals, no wonder I got no money!)

[Libertyhiberty]

Thanks for all the advice. I think it might be better leave weaning for a while longer. Is it alright to take them down to 2 feeds in the coming week?