Baymule’s Journal

[Mini Horses]

Several of us have had bottle kids this year. Mine were weaned from supplemental as mom made more milk and they began grass too. They still run right to me -- hoping for a snack Mine are both registerable Boer kids...from a middle age mom.

Yours is a Ringo daughter. Very much awaited.

At least I had milk just one stall over

 

[Baymule]

I have her full sister, recently moved out of Coopers pen, looking forward to what she has. I was hoping for another ewe. Naturally the biggest is a ram, ewe I want is a tiny bit of dandelion fluff. Hey! I think I may have a name for her! Dandelion! Or Fluffy? Nah, Dandelion it is.

 

[Baymule]

I put Dandelion with her mom while I did chores. Her big brothers wouldn’t let her at the milk, she started getting cold and hunched up. Going to town for supplies after I feed her again.

 

[farmerjan]

@Baymule try penning the ram lambs for a little bit and letting her get some milk straight from the ewe. If the ram lambs are eating good, it won't hurt them to be separate for a half hour or so at a time. Not saying you won't have to supplement her, and maybe keep her in the house and all for a bit... but if the ewe is tolerant of her/mother's her also, it will keep her "being a sheep".... and will give her the flock socialization she needs too.... and give her some "real milk" as well....

 

[Baymule]

I’ll try this. Saw the farrier up the road, didn’t know he was coming. Waiting my turn now. I think I’ll do this while I wait.

 

[Baymule]

Lucy is starting to reject Dandelion. She walks away. She got upset with the boys separated and wouldn’t let Dandelion suck. But I left her out there all day. I took her a bottle, she could get a suck every now and then, but it was never enough. When I went to get her to bring her in, she was trying to suck, Lucy was laying down, and poor little lamb was trying to find the teat.

It might work, leaving Dandelion out during the day, taking her a bottle and feeding her. Lucy is getting suspicious. She was sniffing the lambs butt, that’s not her milk smell. She hasn’t butted her away, but the more I feed Dandelion, the less she’s going to smell like Lucy’s milk.

 

[Mike CHS]

I'm not sure how those sheep brains work but in virtually every case that we fed the lamb that was on a ewe, the ewe protected and loved on the lamb but wouldn't let them nurse at some point. That has been OK since it let us have a bottle lamb that didn't have to be in the house, the ewes protect them, and they still learn to be a sheep.

 

[Mini Horses]

My trip I had to bottle a few yrs ago, like yours, wasn't getting to nurse. Mom did all mom duties but not let her nurse...I bottled her and left with family. After a few days, she'd run to fence when called, take bottle, go curl up with her siblings. worked for me. She's still here, a good mom!

I hope it works that way for you...it's easier on the humans. I did have advantage of milk from mom first couple weeks, other goat milk after that. But if she's allowed to sleep with her siblings, smell factor may be ok.

 

[Baymule]

Dandelion sucked down FOUR ounces this morning. I put a diaper on her so she could run around. Carson wanted in, he laid down on his towel. He has a dog bed outside on the porch, but a towel is easier to wash for inside.

He sat real still while she sniffed on him.

Our weather is so screwy, it’s been cold and drizzling, then a clear day, the drizzle again. Dandelion seems to have a hard time regulating her temperature, she gets cold and shivering. She is also able to steal just enough milk from Lucy, to not want the bottle. The next few days are going to follow that chilly, drizzle pattern, starting tonight. I have a couple guys coming to help me move some heavy things into the portable building this morning. I’ll feed her good and leave her with mom and brothers.

Right now she has a pretty hard life!

 

[Baymule]

It’s raining. No moving stuff today. Postponed till Friday.