[mowhaugh]

I have to agree that they are a big spend for just one or two lambs but if you can't be there to regularly feed younger lambs then it does come down to animal welfare.

Not sure this stacks up for me.  They can't go straight onto the shepherdess on day 1 or day 2, can they?  They need to be trained?

 I put ours straight on to the Shepherdess, and the vast majority do just go straight on and suck.  But for the first couple of days, I would still be checking them to ensure they have fed at the same intervals as I would bottle feed.  And of course there are always the ones that are harder work to get going!

[twizzel]

We have a shepherdess, I couldn't be without it now. Each year we raise between 15 and 18 tame lambs, they go on it for 5 - 5 1/2 weeks. Growth rates are improved with lambs on the feeder and can wean slightly earlier. We have 7 on it at the moment and they've had 7 litres of milk (full bucket) twice a day.

We put ours on as soon as they come to us at a couple of days old, obviously for first few days I put them on the feeder every few hours but within a couple of days they get the idea.

Think we've raised around 45 lambs in 3 years on our feeder and only 1 has never taken to it and had to remain on the bottle. Huge time saver and much more natural, I don't like leaving young lambs overnight without milk and this is the biggest advantage for me.

[SallyintNorth]

I thought I'd seen you say you had to get them onto cold milk before you could put them on the shepherdess or they were too greedy and guzzled you out of house and home... or maybe that was someone else?