Author Topic: Trouble with tame lamb sucking (Read 5732 times)

twizzel · « **on:** February 07, 2015, 03:57:52 pm »

Thought I would pick your brains if I could !

The first of our orphan lambs are in this year. 5 out of the 6 are sucking away brilliantly on the Shepherdess feeder and have been since day 2. We've had them 10 days now. 1 ram lamb (biggest of the bunch) just will not suck, doesn't seem to have any motivation to suck off the Shepherdess which I find most strange. He won't drink from a non vac bottle but will drink small amounts from a Pritchard teat. He doesn't seem to have any palate issues or pneumonia. I introduced some creep and hay today and he's nibbling at both.

Anyone got any ideas? He's had 4 or 5 feeds of colostrum to get energy levels up. I've given him some pen&strep as a precaution. They have a lamp and the feeder has new teats on (the first set were too soft and split). I feel awful as the other 5 are growing away nicely but he always looks hungry yet doesn't seem interested in milk when offered. Out of 40 odd lambs over 3 years he's the first not to take to the feeder after a few days

Maureen · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2015, 04:11:55 pm »

Try backing him into a corner and hold him between your legs so he will not be able to move backwards, then open his mouth and put teat in (the teat of the bottle!). He will resist at first, but I fine this works = good luck.

twizzel · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2015, 04:17:10 pm »

Yep tried that with Pritchard teat, on the shepherdess and on non vac bottle, sucks a little but starts to resist pretty quickly... worse on the feeder, better with the Pritchard teat $:-\$

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #3 on:** February 07, 2015, 06:24:25 pm »

You'll find plenty of posts from me over the years talking about getting fussy feeders on the bottle. He will drink in the end, and once he's on the bottle properly I'm sure he'll take to the Shepherdess.

twizzel · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2015, 07:20:10 pm »

I'll have a bit of a search. I've had fussy drinkers before but nothing like this for such a prolonged period of time. I'm hoping one day something will just click...

Crbecky10 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2015, 07:40:21 pm »

There can be the stubborn ones, sometimes if they don't want to suck a bottle a ewe or a goat usually works, although I guess this isn't an option! Persevere, if they get hungry enough they usually give in

twizzel · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2015, 08:24:21 pm »

Yes unfortunately we don't have ewes, all our lambs come from a local farmer who ends up with a lot of triplets and quads. He just drank well on the bottle tonight so will leave it until 6am and try him on the feeder again, in the meantime it's full so hopefully curiosity shall take the better of him at some point !

farmvet · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2015, 08:58:59 pm »

Sucking from a feeding teat is a very different mouth process from sucking naturally. Some lambs & calves never learn. He may drink from a bowl? Occasionally they just need tubed until they eat enough solids to survive.

twizzel · « **Reply #8 on:** February 07, 2015, 09:56:35 pm »

Good idea- will try bucket tomorrow and see if that helps

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #9 on:** February 08, 2015, 11:16:31 am »

Quote from: farmvet on February 07, 2015, 08:58:59 pm

Occasionally they just need tubed until they eat enough solids to survive.

My understanding is that, although a hungry very young lamb will eat creep and hay in a desperate attempt to stay alive, their rumen isn't fully developed until 5-6 weeks old, or older, so that a lamb not getting milk until then won't be getting what it needs for health and growth.

I just wanted to clarify that in case people reading this thought it would be okay to leave a lamb that won't suck if it seems to be eating cake and hay.

I'm not sure I could bring myself to tube-feed a lamb for 5-6 weeks though...

twizzel · « **Reply #10 on:** February 08, 2015, 10:25:34 pm »

Well he sucked off the Pritchard teat a lot better today and put him on the feeder before tea and he sucked the best he's ever done on it... still a long way to go but I think we could be winning