OK, if you are like me (and a whole lot of other people), you are going to be anxious to make sure your lamb and mother bond and nothing gets in the way of the pair (or more!) bonding into a nice family. Read more: Lambing in winter? Stay ready to treat hypothermia. I have not yet had to do this, but I have all the supplies and try to be prepared just in case! The Purdue University Extension has a really good video on tube-feeding lambs that I try to watch each year. So in that case, you’ll need to tube feed the little lamb until he is strong enough to stand and suckle on his own. But some are so weak they are unable to even suckle on the nipple. To feed colostrum, you can start by trying to feed it from a bottle with an appropriate nipple. I’ve read about using cow colostrum as well, but the research says you must feed more of it, as it does not have as much fat as sheep colostrum.Īnother source is powdered colostrum that you can purchase from a local farm store or through several online sources. Some folks collect colostrum from another ewe that has given birth recently. If not, you’ll need to get the colostrum in the lamb yourself. You may be lucky enough to get some colostrum into your lamb from its mother before she leaves the picture. In addition, the colostrum contains antibodies that help the newborn lamb resist disease for the first few weeks of its life. According to Sheep 201, a lamb needs 10 percent of its body weight in colostrum during that key period. In short, it is the key to the lamb’s survival.Ĭolostrum is the first form of milk produced by sheep (and many other mammals, including humans) that contains extra energy and nutrition for the lamb to maintain its body heat. No matter what the reason, a newborn lamb’s first meal must be colostrum during their first 18 to 24 hours of life.
Be aware, however, that this is where you may end up. What I have learned after doing research and talking to some experienced sheep producers is that you don’t necessarily have to go straight to bottle feeding. In some cases, a ewe might have triplets or quadruplets and may not have enough milk for all of her lambs. If you raise sheep for any length of time, it’s probably inevitable that you will have an orphaned lamb if the mother dies or the lamb is rejected by the ewe after birth. Others (like me) will get into it later in the spring. For some, lambing season is done or underway.
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