[amcgwn]

I'm not planning to get sheep any time soon but I have read that you can get pet lambs to raise yourself instead of  starting off with ewes to breed.

Just wondering what the benefits and downsides are to raising a pet lamb without a ewe to look after it?

[jaykay]

It's hard work and <broad generalisation here> they haven't had the best start in life and don't always do very well.
Of course it's very nice to look after little lambs but......

If you want to start in sheep, you're best off buying good young stock with someone experienced guiding you as to what to look for. That way you stand a good chance of it being a rewarding, rather than potentially traumatic experience.

Some folk advise buying wethers (young castrated males) to begin with, so you learn about sheep keeping without the problems of lambing.

I usually buy young females, and have some time to get to know them before I start lambing with them. This years lambs, when they're sold in the autumn, are a good place to start in my opinion.

[plumseverywhere]

My only experience of sheep has been pet lambs so I can't say too much really apart from I feel a warm glow seeing small lambs in the fields feeding off of their mums and always a bit sad for my little flock.
Like Jaykay says they quite often haven't had the best start in life. We had a sheep club graze our land last year and they bought in all cade lambs at £15 a head. I think 50% died in the first week before they'd even reached our pasture, they weren't sure if they'd had colostrum in some cases.
This year I spoke to our large animal Vet who recommended me to a local sheep farmer. This farmer made sure each lamb had 24 hours colostrum, was tagged with EID and non EID as he knew I was keeping over a year, he castrated them and then gave them to me for free saying "call me if you have any problems and should one die, come and get another...". The 3 boys we have are 6 weeks old today and thriving, busy lambs!

It is hard work, you have lots of feeds to start with and need to keep the bottles scrupulously clean. You need to be clued up on how to mix the feed correctly, how to deal with bloat should it arise, when to introduce creep feeds. You will need to vaccinate them at about 5 weeks and then again a month or so later.

On the plus side, when it comes to routine hoof care/dagging/shearing you will have some very tame sheep that come to you at the shake of a bucket. In fact one of the lambs from last year is now like a pet dog to me 
On the negative side...you get very attached to them, when they are grown up and huge they still run to you thinking they are cuddly wee lambs and can bowl you over.....

I wouldn't change a thing 

[Fleecewife]

I'm not planning to get sheep any time soon but I have read that you can get pet lambs to raise yourself instead of  starting off with ewes to breed.

Just wondering what the benefits and downsides are to raising a pet lamb without a ewe to look after it?

First point is that you would never have just one lamb - they are a flock animal and need their own kind as company, so at least two and preferably three, as at least one is bound to die.

I have always tried to avoid having pet lambs by fostering on to a ewe and definitely wouldn't take on someone else's orphans, bringing bugs and problems onto my land.  I know it's a drastic approach but I like an easy life 

We did once have a pet ie bottle fed lamb which appeared to be doing fine but dropped down dead at 4 months, causing a bit of heartbreak to the agric student we had who was looking after it - too enthusiastically I feel as it was overfed which is perhaps why it died.

I think it is far better to buy your breeding stock as carefully selected ewe lambs at weaning ie about four months old.  That way you have plenty of time to get to know them before they reproduce, and they are still quite young when you first get them but have had the best possible start in life by being raised by their own dam.  Ewes for breeding need to be the best of the bunch, not bought because they were orphaned.
The need to bottle feed and mother something is the reason, I suppose, for the current popularity of orphan lambs and teacup pigs - best to be led by your head not your heart.

[Womble]

Some folk advise buying wethers (young castrated males) to begin with, so you learn about sheep keeping without the problems of lambing.

So if you were to do that, what age would you get them at, and when would they be ready to go to slaughter?

[Moleskins]

Bad idea in my experience, they are known for dying so all that care and hard work is wasted. Ewes with lambs at foot might be better, your getting a better chance of a full grown lamb at the end of it and then you can sell that and the mother separately. Then do it again the next year. Hark at me that was where I started ........

[piggy]

BAD unless u have plenty of time to spend mending fences,what we had were 2 orphan lambs bottle fed no problems there,they were in for a few weeks then out in the day in at night all still fine,once they were older its when the problems started they went in to the field with all the other sheep but they wouldn't mix with them which wasn't a major problem but what was is that the minute they saw us they would run over to us and they even knocked my 10 year old boy over,i just couldn't keep them in the field they would somehow get out over a 5ft fence or if they couldn't jump it just trash it enough to,if my front door was open they would wander in to the house,we have a long drive from our house to the gate and they would chase the cars going up the drive to the gate and then if u opened the gate they would run out they thought it very funny not when you are in a rush!
I tried every sort of fencing and they would still get out, in the morning i would find them laying by my front door.
Whilst i saw the funny side the rest of my family didn't and looking back they were a complete pain but i was in denial as they were my babies,the trouble was they were just to tame and wanted to be with us all the time,they did better heal work than my dog! i was so fond of them i couldn't send them for meat so luckily they went to a petting farm which suited them down to the ground.
This year when i asked to take orphans i politely declined.

[Fleecewife]

Some folk advise buying wethers (young castrated males) to begin with, so you learn about sheep keeping without the problems of lambing.

So if you were to do that, what age would you get them at, and when would they be ready to go to slaughter?

You would buy them at weaning which is about 4 months, or maybe 3.  For some quick growing breeds that would be when they went for slaughter, straight off the mother - no point in buying those breeds then !   If your idea is to learn about keeping sheep then ideally you would want a slow growing breed such as the primitives and some other rare breeds, which go for slaughter at around 16 months, or they can even be kept another year and go at 28 months.  That would give you time to have a full year or two to learn about worming, dagging, foot care, shearing, winter feeding and so on, before needing to add in all about lambing.

[plumseverywhere]

BAD unless u have plenty of time to spend mending fences,what we had were 2 orphan lambs bottle fed no problems there,they were in for a few weeks then out in the day in at night all still fine,once they were older its when the problems started they went in to the field with all the other sheep but they wouldn't mix with them which wasn't a major problem but what was is that the minute they saw us they would run over to us and they even knocked my 10 year old boy over,i just couldn't keep them in the field they would somehow get out over a 5ft fence or if they couldn't jump it just trash it enough to,if my front door was open they would wander in to the house,we have a long drive from our house to the gate and they would chase the cars going up the drive to the gate and then if u opened the gate they would run out they thought it very funny not when you are in a rush!
I tried every sort of fencing and they would still get out, in the morning i would find them laying by my front door.
Whilst i saw the funny side the rest of my family didn't and looking back they were a complete pain but i was in denial as they were my babies,the trouble was they were just to tame and wanted to be with us all the time,they did better heal work than my dog! i was so fond of them i couldn't send them for meat so luckily they went to a petting farm which suited them down to the ground.
This year when i asked to take orphans i politely declined.

We must have been very lucky with ours then so far! no escapee's and no real human bowling, even my tiny 5 year old daughter is fine with them..so far (they are a year old the bigger ones and certainly not small) fingers crossed!

[Sylvia]

I'm with Plums here. Hard work and a bloody nuisance to begin with but SO easy to handle as adults

[Hellybee]

Our first molly lamb is now 2 and is rearing a ram lamb, she has reverted back to flock behaviour.  we also have a bucket led flock. Brilliant for moving them, but yes we do get mugged daily.  but thats ok as the pros out  way the cons.  This molly lamb lived with the other sheep whilst being nursed, so i suppose she never lost the link..

Last years ones, a group of 7, due to the size of group where reared away from the others, brilliant alarm call of a morning, and they had the run of the yard.they then went into theyre own flock when everything was weaned, theyre still as dull as brushes and love fuss. Our biggest Ewe lamb is a molly, she is tremendous and very tame, heres the girls not very happy with me when they realised they had to live in a field, bless them
l-r Sophie, Pollymolly, Little Pinky, Sparkles, Button and Singing Pixie lol 

When Baz let them in together for a little while they joined up had a sniff and met up with mothers then they all parted again, back into two flocks 

[amcgwn]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it gives me a much better idea of how to start out with sheep. I like the idea of getting some wethers to rear first off but I'll have to try very hard not to get too attached! Once I know more about caring for them I'll think about ewes and lambs.

I'm looking for a local sheep farmer to do some voluntary work with for a while until I pick up the basics, there's only so much you can learn from reading about it, and besides, I'd really enjoy the work!

A

[Fleecewife]

Good plan 


For not getting too attached, a couple of tips are: get several, not just a couple so they are a group rather than individuals.  This goes against what I usually say which is that all animals should be treated as individuals, but you can treat your group well without getting too attached to just one or two.  The second tip is to know even from before you buy them that they are for eating, so there is never any option or thought of keeping them.  Think ahead to when you finally get your ewes, which will be for keeping and you can get attached to them 

[Mel Rice]

The hardest bit about 'pet' lambs is that word pet..... Along with what everyone else has said you do need to think if you want a permenant pet for life or are you a hard harted (realistic) person like me who adores her pet lambs, and their permenant mums but ALSO have no qualms about eating them.

[Bramblecot]

Excellent tips from FW - know when they arrive that they are 'going on'.