Hi all- apologies if this is going over old ground but despite scouring previous posts on the subject I cant find the precise answer to my question.
we have ended up for the first time, with twin lamb orphans. We'd been supplementing them (both ewe lambs)since birth as it was clear that mum wasn't up to the job of feeding them both. Gradually, what milk she had dried up and earlier this week it became clear that they were almost totally reliant on the bottle. a couple of days ago we took the decision to have mum put to sleep. Mastitis and strong suggestion of TLD, left us little choice
The girls are 3 weeks old today, currently thriving and are now on 4 feeds a day, totalling about 1400 mls- they are out in the field with the rest of the flock by day and we bring them in to the shed every night.
not sure they are doing much other than investigating grass and hay, but I have read that beginning to offer creep can be done quite early and this can reduce the time spent on the bottle. We will be keeping them here, as we have promised our neighbour's little lad who does much of the bottle feeding that we would do that. so growing quick isn't especially important. all we need to know is whats the healthiest thing for them