Bottle Orphan Ram-Seeking Advice/Encouragement

[secuono]

Learn how to cut castrate. I do it at a week to 2-3 weeks old and they get over it quickly. No mistakes of banding a wrong part or not getting both testicles. I have one out there now that I’m going to cut this coming week. Picking up my granddaughters ages 9 and 8, tonight. Im gonna have them hold him for me. They sit watching Dr Pol, totally entranced, nothing is too gross. They help me when they are here, this time they are gonna get a real lesson in animal husbandry. LOL

Video it to share with us?

 

[Baymule]

Video it to share with us?

Got to have a YouTube channel to post here and I don’t have one. Plus I don’t really do videos.

 

[Farmercharliesblog]

Keep it warm, bottle feed it every day, slowly make the milk more watered down, provide grain and minerals around day 5-10, provide hay around day 10-20.

 

[farmerjan]

Going to disagree... I have never fed watered down milk... Better to space feedings a little farther apart and to cut one out than to water down milk in bottle. They fill with empty calories from the water that they would be better off eating some grain, then drink a little to swallow the feed/grain/hay they have been munching on.

Plus, how much milk is he getting? He might just be getting more milk than he needs and so is not trying other feed. They start eating other feed for 2 reasons when they are little.... if with the ewe or with other lambs, it is a "copy cat" thing... oh boy, they are eating that, I need to try it...
Or , they are hungry and will try something because the milk is not filling them up. Might be he is just not really hungry to want to try other stuff.

He will get over the constant "crying" if you just let him cry it out. The other animals will get over it. Unless it is a cry of horror, from being attacked, the other animals will soon ignore it. Do not superimpose human reactions and feelings over on them. They are animals, they will react to certain sounds and such... they do not reason that he is "upset" and therefore they need to be upset also... they will react to cries of pain and terror, such as an attack... they will soon learn to ignore the "whining" especially at the age of nearly 2 months.

 

[FranklinHazelGardens]

Learn how to cut castrate. I do it at a week to 2-3 weeks old and they get over it quickly. No mistakes of banding a wrong part or not getting both testicles. I have one out there now that I’m going to cut this coming week. Picking up my granddaughters ages 9 and 8, tonight. Im gonna have them hold him for me. They sit watching Dr Pol, totally entranced, nothing is too gross. They help me when they are here, this time they are gonna get a real lesson in animal husbandry. LOL

I love this. I remember watching the vet come and artificially inseminate my grandpa’s dairy cows or just check on them with that long glove. It was like watching a train wreck lol. Fascination and horror lol

 

[Baymule]

I had a cattleman friend of mine show me how. It’s easier than you think.

 

[FranklinHazelGardens]

Going to disagree... I have never fed watered down milk... Better to space feedings a little farther apart and to cut one out than to water down milk in bottle. They fill with empty calories from the water that they would be better off eating some grain, then drink a little to swallow the feed/grain/hay they have been munching on.

Plus, how much milk is he getting? He might just be getting more milk than he needs and so is not trying other feed. They start eating other feed for 2 reasons when they are little.... if with the ewe or with other lambs, it is a "copy cat" thing... oh boy, they are eating that, I need to try it...
Or , they are hungry and will try something because the milk is not filling them up. Might be he is just not really hungry to want to try other stuff.

He will get over the constant "crying" if you just let him cry it out. The other animals will get over it. Unless it is a cry of horror, from being attacked, the other animals will soon ignore it. Do not superimpose human reactions and feelings over on them. They are animals, they will react to certain sounds and such... they do not reason that he is "upset" and therefore they need to be upset also... they will react to cries of pain and terror, such as an attack... they will soon learn to ignore the "whining" especially at the age of nearly 2 months.

Thank you for this. He’s doing so much better day by day. The guard llama and two bull calves keep him company in the pen which is pretty cute I must say. He’s in a wire dog crate in the pen and cries far less like you said. I let him wander around with me while I do chores and today he munched on hay a lot which made me really happy. He mimics the calves I’d say.

When I was done I put him back in the crate and added fresh hay and water and he actually drank the water right away and started eating the hay in there which he rarely does. So it’s very much easing my anxiety.

I think it helps that we have had a lot of snow and cold which is not normal for Kentucky. So instead of grazing in the pasture the sheep and animals are mostly staying inside the barn and chomping on hay.

He’s not much interested in the grain still but I’ll give it time. Grain goes like hot cakes with the ewes so I doubt he’s really seen what it is they are freaking out about in order to mimic them

Watering down bottles: so I chose to do this with the two bottle calves I have because one of them needed the calories and the other needed to start weaning but if I was feeding the weaker one a bottle the other would be all up in my business trying to steal his bottle. So I gave the strong one bottles with less milk replacer and the other more just so I could get more calories in him. It worked and I don’t know if it was the right thing but I had to do what I had to do in order to get the weaker guy to continue to be on the mend.

For the lamb I’ve been reluctant to decrease his milk too much until he starts eating something (anything lol). He’s down to an am and pm bottle and I’ll slowly decrease the amount now that he knows what food is.

 

[FranklinHazelGardens]

Update on little buddy: he finally started to eat the creep feed and hay! I think he needed to see other sheep do it because being in the house he was never going to see it and become interested. He’s doing great, I try to let him frolic with the sheep in small (supervised) doses. They mostly tolerate him but occasionally try to be too rough with him.

 

[Mini Horses]

My 2 bottle kids run with the herd, bed with them and do well. I don't have to find them to bottle -- just call and they run to me. One was rejected by mom, other a trip and small, so pushed by siblings...I supplement him. And he then runs back with fam. They are both eating some grass, hay, grain now but not enough to not bottle. Sometimes a mom will push one away -- usually when it's trying to nurse.

You're doing fine...keep it up.