Please help! (New Owner)

[Lamb Lover]

I recently picked out two lambs from some friends and had questions as I've never owned sheep before. They are crossbreeds, but we aren't too sure what the breeds are. They should be around a month old now, the girl is about a week older than the boy. I've already gone through my yard and picked every harmful plant I know of, and have made sure all my neighbors do so. (I do live in the city but I have a large yard.) We dont use any bug killer or chemicals either. Both lambs are bums and our local livestock store said to keep them on milk replacer until they are at least three months.

1. What brand do I buy, and how much?
2. Once they no longer need the milk replacer, can they eat grass alone until winter? During the winter we'll feed hay.
3. How often do they need minerals, salt, grain etc?

I'm brand new to this site, and I'm sure I'll have many more questions but for right now this is all I need help with. Thank you so much!

 

[mikiz]

I think there's a mix of cow's milk better than replacer but I can't remember what's in it, @Sweetened might know?

 

[Sweetened]

While there are a few people who have never had issues with it on this forum, i have only ever had bad experiences with replacer and so has everyone i personally know. Lambs tend to start out well and suddenly bloat and die on it.

They will do better on raw cow or goat, or the highest fat content of milk you can get (usually whole or 3%). To a gallon of store milk, i will add a one liter carton of liquid whipping cream as sheep milk is fatty. I also add, to every bottle, a scoop of proviotic yogurt and let the bottle sot on the counter for a couple hours (this allows the bacteria to grow).

Itll run you about the same. Replacer is NOT cheap at all. Give them access to grass, hay and if you want, oats daily. They will start nibbling and tasting early on and the earlier the start, the easier it is to wean them. Keep them out of your flowers and garden or you will quickly grow to hate them. We exclusively feed our sheep and goats grass/hay, and dont grain them with the exception of bottle babies to help with growth, and even then not much. Start slow on any grains to prevent bloat.

What are your plans with them? Will you eat them, sell them? If you wknt be breeding them, get that male castrated around 6 weeks. Dont allow ramming behavior with you or itll become an issue quickly as they get bigger.

Good luck, post pictures!

 

[Lamb Lover]

Sorry these are sideways. The brown one is the girl, Georgia, and the spotted one laying down is Elliot. I love them so much!

Thanks @mikiz and @Sweetened. You're completely right, replacer isn't cheap. If you've had luck with cows milk I'll give it a try. Is it good to ask the people we are getting them from since they were on that milk? (Their mothers died early on so they were put on different ewes or bottle fed. I've seen them milk the ewes...)

We plan to build a large mobile pen like you use for rabbits but much bigger, then move that around the yard to keep them out of things.

They won't be for meat, I wanted to sell their wool but they're not all white and I'm not sure if anyone will buy it. I want to breed them but if we did they would have to be moved to a friend's pasture. Do sheep get along well with horses and cows? I would assume so, just want to make sure.

We'll go see them this weekend and I'll check everything out. We aren't finished getting ready for them but in a couple of weeks they'll be home.

 

[Sweetened]

You can ask what they are on now and transition them, but ive always just switched. The probiotics help with transition but they may scour. Keep them hydrated - the risk of scours to me is better than that of bloaty death.

They are gorgeous little lambs for sure! Its fine if you will breed him, but dont ever let him dominate you. I use force the samr way a ram does with another and will push them hard o to their side and then hold them down until they stop flailing, and ill do this if they so much as paw at me and bow their heads. Rams can be dangerous where as bucks tend to just be stinky.

We didnt have a problem with sheep and other animals but with the wrong animal im sure things could go awry. Just have to watch and see how it plays out.

 

[Lamb Lover]

Ok I'll keep that in mind. I'll definitely ask, and if it's something we can get then I'll look into it.

Thank you! Elliot is my sweet little boy! (Don't tell the cat.) I was told never to touch a males head or he will butt when he gets bigger. Some website said to spray them in the face with water but I don't like that idea. I'm not sure if he will grow horns, but if he does my parents would prefer to have them removed. He's pretty laid back and he doesn't really care what you do to him, not sure if that will carry on or if it was temporary "I'm tired and hungry" behavior. Georgia will be the one to worry about I think. She doesn't mind us, but she ran away twice and doesn't want to be touched very much. I don't know though, it could change!

I think they should be ok with most of the horses, but the cow is pretty ornery. They're separated anyway so I think we find a couple horses they get along with and stick them in there, or maybe section of another part of the pasture.

 

[purplequeenvt]

If I could, I would feed all my bottle lambs raw goat or cow (preferable Jersey milk) instead of replacer. That's what we did last year and the lambs grew so well.

This year, our cows weren't due until April and June and the goat didn't get bred until really late so she wasn't in milk either. We ended up feeding replacer to the orphan lamb. She's done really well. She's just as big as all the others and had no issues with diarrhea or bloating.

Tricks for success with replacer are:

Mix it properly. You are better adding a little but less powder than a little extra.

Don't over feed. I don't know what size your sheep are, but our lambs are an average of 9 lbs at birth and by the time they are the age of your lambs, they are getting feed 3 times a day and up to 16 oz of milk each feeding.

Make sure it is an all milk based replacer and not soy.

To feed grain or not depends on the breed, the available nutrition via hay/grass, and your goals for these lambs.

If they are just going to be pets and you have good quality forage for them, then they'd *probably* be ok without any grain. Personally, I'd offer them grain now until they are around a year. Adjust the amount given based on their condition.

They looks like they are blackface crosses (ie a blackface meat breed such as a Hampshire or Suffolk crosses onto a white face breed such as a Dorset). Your dark lamb's face and legs will stay dark, but her fleece should turn white. Without knowing what kind of cross they are, it's hard to say what their fleece quality will be. Meat breed sheep are not bred based on fleece so there is a wide range of quality. Some of them are quite nice, but others are horrid.

I'd wether that ram lamb pretty quickly. Don't let him (or her) rub their head on you or play butt you. No jumping either. They need to learn to respect you now so when they are 200 lbs you don't have an issue.

We don't use excessive brute force or spray bottles when traing our ram lambs. If we don't like what they are doing, we simply push them away and ignore them. Sometimes it takes a while, but they eventually get the message. Our rams grow up calm and respectful, even the bottle fed ones, but still friendly enough to not be hard to catch.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

find out what breed(s) the people have and what they are/probably are. knowing the breed(s) will help you selling the wool to handspinners. some really like certain breed wools. and if you want to really sell the fleeces I would have them micron tested when they are bigger, smaller micron count means finer wool and usually sells for higher for a good fleece. but don't expect to make too awful lot from the fleeces, and not all areas have a market for them. if you can find a spinners guild in your area or nearby that would be helpful for selling the fleeces.

 

[firstimehogger]

this comes from Vicky Thompson in Michigan on the Michigan Babydoll facebook page:: Hope it helps someone, I'll be using it soon (April 12th 2016)
*****************************************
Need to supplement? GOT MILK?
If at all possible get raw goats milk but if not available I heard this milk replacer works better than powdered lamb/goat milk replacer:

1 gallon whole milk
1 cup buttermilk...
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup whipping cream
baking soda

Empty 3 cups of milk out of your gallon of milk. Add the buttermilk, evaporated milk and cream. Shake, ready to use. Add 1/8 teaspoon baking soda for each 12 ounce serving you feed.
Baking soda helps reduce sour stomach.

 

[purplequeenvt]

this comes from Vicky Thompson in Michigan on the Michigan Babydoll facebook page:: Hope it helps someone, I'll be using it soon (April 12th 2016)
*****************************************
Need to supplement? GOT MILK?
If at all possible get raw goats milk but if not available I heard this milk replacer works better than powdered lamb/goat milk replacer:

1 gallon whole milk
1 cup buttermilk...
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup whipping cream
baking soda

Empty 3 cups of milk out of your gallon of milk. Add the buttermilk, evaporated milk and cream. Shake, ready to use. Add 1/8 teaspoon baking soda for each 12 ounce serving you feed.
Baking soda helps reduce sour stomach.

Skip the expensive milk replacers and formulas and just use whole raw goat or cow milk.