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Oh lordy!

A farmer friend of ours has offered us three orphan labs (which I gather are known rather amusingly as 'bummer' lambs) this weekend!

We weren't planning on keeping lambs, but this is too good an opportunity to miss. So now we are spending every waking moment researching lambs and how to keep them .

Does anyone have any tips that we won't find in the guidebooks? I am a bit worried about crows, as the farmers wife hand reared one once only to put it outside and find that crows had killed it !

Cannot wait...am taking time off work while the feeding schedule is every 3/4 hours...a bit like having a new baby. Have enlisted helpful parents - I am sure they would prefer grandchildren, but surely bottle feeding a little lamb is a very close next best thing?!

Chicks and now lambs. It must be spring.

P.s, they are Suffolk (or was it sussex?) Mare Crosses if that makes a difference.

I haven't got a clue hun. But I know Julie Sherris is bottle feeding a couple at the moment. If you need a hand one weekend or over the easter hols my girls would love to feed them. Good luck hun xx

Hi Nikki,

Thanks, it would be lovely to have you and your girls over. We can finally have that cup of tea!

I will let you know when they arrive and we can arrange a day.

Hi Bonnie,
Red aso keeps sheep the webite is www.colouritgreen.co.uk
Best of luck
Becks

Bonnie,be prepared for a few sleepless nights,(and maybe longterm an inability to eat sheepmeat !).Haven't done this for many years,but it aint difficult.There are loads of proprietry milk mixes,but if you can get unpasturised goat milk from your friendly local goatkeeper they will THRIVE,sorry ours is all spoken for(there are loads of sheepfarmers up here,but remember you can freeze it.)
If you have a few save time by devising a bottle feeder that will feed a few animals at a time...think marigold attached to the end of plastic watering can...not a necessarily a serious idea,just something to get your brain going through those sleepless nights!!
Given the price fat lambs have been making over the recent past,you don't get so many orphans given away these days,so you've done well,specially if you can get a ewe lamb,some people have put decent small flocks together on this basis.
Best Wishes.

good luck

bottle fed lambs can be tricky to keep alive.... hope they have been with the ewe for a little while at least to get the colostrum.

usually orphan lambs are not orphans at all, but the weakest of triplets etc, and being the weakest and small already, can be set back.

if a lamb is just curled up sleepy - then it is time to worry. if when you poke it it stretches, shivers bleats etc.. thats a good sign. might be worth getting a tube for tube feeding if the lambs are very young.. just in case...

dont get too attached...

Thanks both, wrote long reply but server lost it - just brief quick and stupid question - I take it I am giving my lambs access to drinking water as well as the colostrum/milk they are also getting during meals?

Hey Bonnie - our boys are just 2 weeks old now & doing well.

As Red said, there's an awful lot of triplets around this year & I don't know about the UK, but it seems like over here, the smaller sheep guys are getting overwhelmed with them.

Our smallest guy is getting bloat if I feed milk replacer alone, so now I'm mixing half & half with probiotic yoghurt & so far, so good.
Our routine is now 4 bottles a day, with the largest amount being guzzled first thing & just a token 200 mls or so just before bed. They have access to water, but don't seem too keen - they have access to lamb pencils (only a few each day) & they have a practice, but aren't too fussed about those either - they have access to hay bundles which have magically sprouted all around the garden & they nibble at those in passing.

At night just before dark, I take their milk out & they run up to Leah's old plastic playhouse which Andy converted for us & in they go - last night I was a few minutes late & they were in there already, yay!

Apart from that, during the day they love nothing better than to run at the Bassets & try to engage them in a game of chase - and usually fail!
Bear in mind that a few weeks ago when our 2 young bassets escaped, the guys next door told me that they were trying to get out because they are hounds & just want to go kill sheep at this time of year. They were made to eat their words when they saw the lambs cuddled up with all 3 dogs indoors!
(The dogs don't want to kill sheep at all - they were chasing a stray cat through the woods!!)

Anyway, Red had better steel herself, as it's a learning curve for us too - so what's better, castrate or not? I asked the lads next door if they could come & band ours - they did the tails, but the 'bits'... well, they just refused!

And on that note, bottle 1 of the day is calling, catch you later xx

i say castrate them. but it does depend on what you plan for them - obviously if you want them as a breeding ram then don't

on a healthy lamb, the band is only uncomfortable for an hour or so.. then its all over, what they can't feel they don't miss..

and if you are bottle feeding.. they they will be friendly. and a friendly intact ram is a *problem* as they can easily send you flying. Also - i hate the taste of ram taint. and i prefer to raise my lambs to at least hogget size, if not mutton, for meat, so unless you want some more lambs on the scene, you will either have to separate the ram lambs (and then they might fight each other) from the ewe lambs - or castrate.

the window for castrating with rubber rings is very small tho.. so Bonnie - this is something to think about very soon.

re water - they should not need any at first - with the bottle feeds - but it is not a bad idea to offer it. but be careful to keep the water level low whilst the lambs are very little.. they can easily drown.

Thanks Julie and Red, very helpful advice.

I am a bit shocked by the 'token' 200ml before bed' though - we have been told to feed 100ml each lamb (currently colostrum but after that, replacement) four times a day. Is this enough? We were told and have subsequently read that the recommended 140 ml is too much as overfeeding is the biggest cause of scours in young lambs. But then every time I go in to them and sit down, they are trying to milk my leg and suck my finger?

Eeek, it is so scary, I don't want to do anything wrong! God knows how people have human babies - I would be one of those mothers who go screaming into A&E because their baby hiccups!