[beagh-suffolks]

as we breed sheep commercially we don't tend to keep pet lambs, and normally sell them on. But due to this special pedigree of mine dying a few days after giving birth, i plan on rearing this ewe lamb and potentially maybe if all goes well showing her..anyone any tips the best way to rear a orphan lamb? she too well used to a bottle now to go on a foster ewe (hardly any foster ewes about at the moment anyway) ..she is now 6 days old and we named her Annie

[Marches Farmer]

Haven't had to do this for some years as we have a tight lambing and can generally manage some creative fostering, but recommend keeping her penned where she can see other sheep, feeding at least six times a day, including once in the night while she's small, and making sure she can sleep in a draught-free area.  I hope she had a bellyful of colostrum if she was still with the ewe for the first day.

[beagh-suffolks]

Haven't had to do this for some years as we have a tight lambing and can generally manage some creative fostering, but recommend keeping her penned where she can see other sheep, feeding at least six times a day, including once in the night while she's small, and making sure she can sleep in a draught-free area.  I hope she had a bellyful of colostrum if she was still with the ewe for the first day.

we milked the ewe for colostrum, ewe wouldnt take the lamb and she was very sick

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Ah finally a topic am familiar with.... When i rear pet lambs, every year, I give them whole milk for the first month of their lives, then I give them denkavit, mixing it with whole milk until they're used to it, then they do perfectly, I also give them growers, I wean them at about 2-2 1/2 months,  then they get growers, I do give them growers all the time they're on the bottle, but by then I know they can eat them and survive on them. If it is summer time they go out of a day to eat grass, they get growers too, in the winter though it would be growers. Hope this helps.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Yes I always feed them colostrum, if i can't milk the ewe out I use buffalo colostrum!

[shygirl]

what do u mean by whole milk? lamb-lac? or buffalo milk?

[waterbuffalofarmer]

what do u mean by whole milk? lamb-lac? or buffalo milk?

I use milk from my own animals, you could always use milk from your own cows, you can buy in whole milk local, if anyone supplies it. When I say whole milk I mean fresh raw milk, I usually have a few buffalo milking, but you could feed the lambs on goats milk or cows milk.  If whole milk is not an option you could use Denkavit powdered milk, the best in my opinion, it is a little more pricey than lamblac, but contains more milk and they grow better on Denkavit. I have had experience with lamblac and to be honest it is not a powdered milk I would use, it is made mostly with oils and not a lot of milk. Hope this helps.

[Anke]

Where in the country are you? Goatsmilk is the best and cheapest - see if you can find a local goatkeeper.

I still have two 4 and a half months old Shetland lambs on half a bottle a day - in my experience if you want to keep an animal for breeding in future it helps to keep them on milk (and in my case that means fresh home produced goatsmilk) as long as I can manage. If you want to sell for meat asap then wean early and feed high protein feed to bulk them up...

[Sbom]

I would recommend getting on to a bucket with a teat for feeding so she dosent associate you with the bottle as there is nothing in the world more frustrating/dangerous  than a full grown sheep hurling itself on every human it sees expecting a bottle, especially if you have children about.

Hope she continues to thrive 

[SallyintNorth]

If you want her for showing or breeding, then if there is any opportunity to get her onto a ewe (of any variety), then do it.   They always do best on a real ewe.

And I've fostered lambs that've been on the bottle for longer than 6 days, so that's not necessarily a problem. 

However, if you can't get her fostered, then 'formula'.  Many on here say goats milk is as good, if you can get it - just make sure it's raw, untreated.  Cow's milk is not as good; I can rear lambs on my Jerseys' milk, but Jersey milk is a special case.  And they do need more of it than they would of sheep's milk.

I start mine on every 2-4 hours for the first 24 hours, then every 4 hours for a few days, then 4 feeds a day.  I don't get up in the night after the first few days, lambing time is busy enough.  They get their last feed when I go to bed and their first as I get up.  (I'm sure it is better for them to have smaller, more frequent feeds for a couple of weeks, so if you have the time and energy and want her as a show/breeding sheep, then by all means do that.)

I always follow the guidelines on the ewe milk powder pack in terms of quantity per day, but generally don't wean quite so soon.  I find 6-8 weeks is plenty young enough to wean and I don't attempt to wean them unless they're eating creep well.  Some people seem to get a lot of problems with bloat if they keep bottle-feeding once the lambs are eating cake, and others keep all orphan lambs away from grass certainly until they're weaned (and some people never let them onto grass) but have a read of this post by jaykay about how bloat can happen - so long as you are scrupulous with hygiene of milk and bottles (and troughs) and don't let them have too much of any one thing at any one time, you should be fine.

Good luck !

[twizzel]

I put ours onto a shepherdess feeder and wean at 5-6 weeks no later otherwise they bloat. Creep in with them after 1 week, by week 3 they are eating a fair amount then take out the feeder and just feed milk twice a day reducing each week so by middle of week 5 they are fully weaned. Keep them in with hay and creep then turn out in garden at 7-8 weeks building up grass intake, then out in field at 10-12ish weeks. Works for us we reared 18 this year, lost 1 very unluckily to bloat at just under 5 weeks but the others went through to finish very well (9-16kg per half lamb and lean too). We turf ours out in the field with weaned bullocks so by the end of the summer they aren't quite as tame.

[ballingall]

However, if you can't get her fostered, then 'formula'.  Many on here say goats milk is as good, if you can get it - just make sure it's raw, untreated.  Cow's milk is not as good; I can rear lambs on my Jerseys' milk, but Jersey milk is a special case.  And they do need more of it than they would of sheep's milk.

I start mine on every 2-4 hours for the first 24 hours, then every 4 hours for a few days, then 4 feeds a day.  I don't get up in the night after the first few days, lambing time is busy enough.  They get their last feed when I go to bed and their first as I get up.  (I'm sure it is better for them to have smaller, more frequent feeds for a couple of weeks, so if you have the time and energy and want her as a show/breeding sheep, then by all means do that.)

I agree with Sally- I would never feed a lamb on cow's milk (maybe I might if I had jersey milk to hand though!) Cows milk is much harder to digest than sheep or goat milk. So if you can't get hold of either sheep or goat milk, I would use formula.
 
Also agree completely with 4 feeds a day. After the first 1-2 days, they are perfectly fine on 4 feeds a day.
 
Beth

[beagh-suffolks]

Had a ewe lamb , one live and one dead lamb, managed after 3/4 days to get Annie fostered on...Annie never sucked from a ewe to begin with so was little harder than normal...All are doing well ,the ewe has more than enough milk for the two

[devonlady]

 

[SallyintNorth]

That's great, well done