[thenovice]

Looking at the posts, sock lambs seem to be more popular than ever. My brief experience of them was that they were a pain in the backside. Never leaving you alone, getting under your feet when you try and walk across the field, and endless calling when they think they are hungry, at anyone they see. Not always as healthy as ewe fed lambs too. What is the appeal folks? 

[Brucklay]

We all want to be loved....

[twizzel]

They taste nice and give me something to do during Jan-March when my work is quiet 

[LouiseG]

You have something good to do in summer and don't have to look after them through the winter    totally agree they are a pain in the neck though.

[ZaktheLad]

They taste nice and give me something to do during Jan-March when my work is quiet 

Unfortunately, if I ever have any of these lambs I get too attached to them and end up keeping them as can't bear the thought of them going in the freezer (the fact that I don't eat any lamb meat probably helps!) 

[plumseverywhere]

All of our 4 remaining sheep were bottle fed. The negs are just as you have said! Not to mention they attack the dog, bowl me over from time to time and can be a pain in the bum.
On the plus side...I can call them for foot trimming with just a whistle, if chosen wisely (ie from a farmer who was able to give them a good start in life colostrum etc) then you can have a healthy lamb for next to nothing (I raised them on 'free' goats milk and they cost me a bottle of home made wine for 3)  and my children enjoyed raising them.
 

[toaster]

Where I had problems my first year lambing and lost two ewes the bottle fed lambs have turned out wonderfully - friendly but not a pain

Where we rehomed Cade 'mule' lambs they have always been a nightmare and grown in to huge hulking lap dogs that will tank themselves through the nearest fence to get to food - I think that says more about our raising rechniques than anything else though!! We haven't had any this year but one of last year's is still here getting under our feet... But I'm somehow missing that wild wide eyed look that says  'I'm so starving you can't even comprehend it'

[sh3ph3rd]

But I'm somehow missing that wild wide eyed look that says  'I'm so starving you can't even comprehend it'

LOL. I get that one all the time.

The uses of a bottle-reared lamb...
1) Can tame your flock by proxy, that's always great; it's all fine and well to leave them be so you don't distress them, but sooner or later you must handle them, and then what? I prefer all my livestock to be well handled, for their sakes as well as mine.
2) Great practical life experience for children, possibly helps them understand why they DON'T want to rush into having kids of their own... lol! Take those rose-colored glasses off, this is how a baby is: it cries and it poops and it screams and it pees and it cries and it wants feeding no-matter-what, on-the-dot!
3) If it's an unwanted and later unfriendly male, extra-delicious spoilt-pet-flavored meat... 
4) Some great breeders, valuable animals, have gotten their start via bottles. Just because the mothering thing didn't work doesn't mean the baby is automatically a waste, in fact, some are special, and worth it. I was surprised to learn that Black Caviar the racehorse was a bottle-bub, off-topic...

Having said all that in defense of bottle-bubs, if I find myself in the position of taking on another charity case, I'll get a second, and raise them in a pen with eachother as company, to avoid the excessive dependence on humans, remind it it's a sheep/goat/whatever, not part of a human herd.

[17AndCounting]

For us our cade lambs were our first foray into sheep, they were cheap to purchase and obviously incredibly friendly once they knew we had the milk bottles! Our children have loved feeding them but understand that at least 1 is going for slaughter this year, and others may too. Because they're so friendly we have been able to handle them and find out lots ourselves about sheep keeping.

We quite quickly also bought some ewes with young lambs at foot. These will only come near us when we're holding their food buckets, catching them is quite a job and we'd have never learnt anything with them.

I do completely appreciate the point about the cade lambs being over-friendly and this is something that concerns me a little, but I'd do it again without question!

[SteveHants]

4) Some great breeders, valuable animals, have gotten their start via bottles. Just because the mothering thing didn't work doesn't mean the baby is automatically a waste, in fact, some are special, and worth it. I was surprised to learn that Black Caviar the racehorse was a bottle-bub, off-topic...

There is evidence that mothering behaviour in sheep is learned in the first few minutes of life - I would never ever breed from a suck lamb and neither would I buy stock of anyone who did. Sheep are not racehorses - I fail to see why any breed of sheep ought not to lamb itself and be up and sucking with no interference from humankind. If wild animals fail at mothering, they fail to pass on their genes because the offspring dies and such traits are culled from the genepool.

[Brucklay]

See where your coming from SH but in defense of the bottle lamb some of them are not bottle lambs because of rotten mothers - 2 of mine from the farm I was helping at had a great start in life in fact I would say the mum's were so over protective they were evil but for one reason or another they died.

[kanisha]

I like to have my ewe lambs in with my ewes when they are lambing this I feel is natures way of learning about motherhood. I have yet to have a ewe refuse to bond with her lamb although one or two have been kept in a small area away from the flock to concentrate on getting to know their lamb... I don't know would this be enough to be considered a cull?

[SteveHants]

I like to have my ewe lambs in with my ewes when they are lambing this I feel is natures way of learning about motherhood. I have yet to have a ewe refuse to bond with her lamb although one or two have been kept in a small area away from the flock to concentrate on getting to know their lamb... I don't know would this be enough to be considered a cull?

Depends on your system and whether you have the time to keep doing this. I lamb all my first timers (ewe lambs and shearlings) on paddocky ground so I can deal with problems like that. However, they have to lamb out on the downs after that and it is not practicable to deal with slight mothering problems up there as the fields are big (is basically two 75 ac fields, one of which will have lambers in) and there is public access etc, so Id have to take eny ewes away I wanted to pen. So I dont take the risk and cull anyone who doesn't give birth to and mother her lambs all by herself. his year, out of 40 first-timers, that tally is a whopping 2.

[ZaktheLad]

It will be the chop for those 2 then 

[sh3ph3rd]

There is evidence that mothering behaviour in sheep is learned in the first few minutes of life - I would never ever breed from a suck lamb and neither would I buy stock of anyone who did. Sheep are not racehorses - I fail to see why any breed of sheep ought not to lamb itself and be up and sucking with no interference from humankind. If wild animals fail at mothering, they fail to pass on their genes because the offspring dies and such traits are culled from the genepool.

I didn't compare sheep to racehorses, lol... Of course sheep are not racehorses, funny idea. I said the racehorse remark was off topic, not related to sheep, rather just a remark on how well she's done for a bottle baby.

I don't believe the first few minutes of life teach a lamb all it needs to know about mothering, though doubtless it could have an impact; I believe decent instincts breed true the majority of the time. As for you not buying off anyone who's bred a suck lamb, I think there's not too great a chance your sheep don't have at least one of those in their ancestry somewhere. And, of course, I'm not saying any breed of sheep ought to require help lambing nor mothering, I don't think anyone's espousing that; this is more a discussion of why a motherless lamb might be chosen to be kept alive rather than culled outright.

Many lambs aren't on the bottle because they failed to stand or suckle, in fact I'd surmise that possibly the majority of those particular lambs fail to make it to adulthood. Quite often the mother was lost or something else happened that was not the lamb's fault, as Brucklay noted. The particular lamb I'm raising now came down with paralysis tick poisoning, neither her nor her mother's fault, nor even a congenital weakness. In fact she's by far the best animal that flock's produced. I am aware being a bottle baby puts her behind though.

I have yet to have a ewe refuse to bond with her lamb although one or two have been kept in a small area away from the flock to concentrate on getting to know their lamb

In experimenting with the resuscitative powers of kelp to restore lost instinct, I've given some completely un-mothery animals chances at mothering, even those who had no instinct for most of their early breeding life; the majority have come good and are now able and reliable mothers. Some mishaps are always bound to occur with those coming from environments where they've been prevented from naturally mothering for generations, so I give them leeway if I think they show promise but as to whether or not that's a culling offense, is up to you and how much you'll put up with. Lost mothering instinct can be restored, with kelp and patience. Not that I blame anyone who doesn't take that path. More effort, who needs it...? I know it's not actually an option for many farmers.