# Bottle Baby questions.



## BarredRockMomma (Jan 31, 2016)

We have adopted a bottle baby. She is about 5 days old. For the time being, she is in the house until she is ready to be out with the goats, (no choice I have 1 sheep and 45 goats). Getting her a sheep friend is in the thought process.

The three questions that I have are Vaccinations, what, when, why?  Starter feed, she is on Lamb replacer right now but soon needs to start on feed, type, brand, protein content, ect. Tail docking when, how, why?

I will keep looking around here for more information.


----------



## purplequeenvt (Jan 31, 2016)

We do CD&T at 3-4 weeks and a booster 3-4 weeks after that. 

Most important feed right now is the milk replacer. Try to find an all-milk protein type instead of one made with soy. When she's a couple weeks old, start offering some sheep pellets. 

Tail docking is going to depend on breed. Do you know what kind she is? If she's a hair sheep, don't bother docking. If she's a wool or wool cross, do her, yourself, and your shearer a favor and dock ASAP. Docking is really easy with an elastrator band.


----------



## BarredRockMomma (Feb 1, 2016)

I know that she is a meat/wool breed and loving the ManaPro milk. Other than that I don't know much. Just had a guy in town call and say that he had a bottle lamb  and that her siblings didn't make it because the ewe wasn't producing enough milk. All I had to do was pick her up and bring her home. She is eating and making a general mess of the house. So glad we don't have carpet! She is sleeping in a play pen at night next to my daughter who she has bonded with.


----------



## Latestarter (Feb 1, 2016)

Could you call the guy you got it from and ask does he dock the tails of his sheep? Or swing by and look at his sheep and visually look for yourself?


----------



## BarredRockMomma (Feb 1, 2016)

When I picked her up I was looking and it was about 50/50. I will call or stop by and talk to him sometime this week. We are snowed in right now with 3 to 4 foot drifts on the driveway.


----------



## Latestarter (Feb 1, 2016)

Wow... guess this front really got you folks. I suppose like everyone else (it seems), you can probably use the water. 

I don't know if I'm correct or not but believe I understand that wool sheep normally get docked and hair sheep don't...


----------



## purplequeenvt (Feb 1, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Wow... guess this front really got you folks. I suppose like everyone else (it seems), you can probably use the water.
> 
> I don't know if I'm correct or not but believe I understand that wool sheep normally get docked and hair sheep don't...



Most wool sheep get docked, but there are a few breeds that don't. The East Friesian (dairy), Finn, Icelandic, Soay, Jacob, and Shetland (primitive or unimproved) are some that don't get docked. 

Most hairs breeds don't get docked, one exception being the Dorper. Commercial flocks will usually leave the tail on, but anyone who shows will dock.


----------



## Latestarter (Feb 1, 2016)

Awesome! Thanks PQVT!


----------



## BarredRockMomma (Feb 2, 2016)

I think that we will dock her either later this week. I have a bander that I use on the goats. Where on the tail do I place it? My thought is about an inach and a half to two inches from the base of the tail.


----------



## purplequeenvt (Feb 2, 2016)

BarredRockMomma said:


> I think that we will dock her either later this week. I have a bander that I use on the goats. Where on the tail do I place it? My thought is about an inach and a half to two inches from the base of the tail.



Don't leave the tail too long as that complicates things during shearing. For a pet sheep, I would put the band at the end of the caudal fold (the pink hairless area under the tail). Try to place the band in between the bones. There seems to be less discomfort this way.

I like my tails a bit shorter, not extreme docking like you see on some of the show sheep, but I dock pretty close to the body.

You can kind of see where I dock in this picture.


----------



## BarredRockMomma (Feb 3, 2016)

Thank you that gives me a good idea of where to place the band. She looks like a mini verison of the ewe in your picture.


----------

