Pet sheep - help!

[CrazyParrot]

We have just got four lambs from a friend, they are fine at the moment, but we are a bit unsure about care when they grow up. the original plan was that they would be eaten by autumn, but we have got so attached that we couldnt bear to see them go! They are only one week old and drinking over a litre each of milk a day. We will start the weaning prosess soon. does this sound OK?:

1 week old: start introducing lamb weaner pellets, and water
3 weeks old: start offering hay and reduce milk slightly
7 weeks old: stop feeding milk (they will be out at grass long before then)

what feed do you change to after the lamb weaner pellets (we are keeping the sheep as grass cutters)? when do you start feeding the new feed?

What do you do to prevent parasites in adult sheep? our friend gave us these instructions:

Shear once a year, and apply pesticide stuff (like sheep dip) to deter sheep scab, lice and blowfly. you can get the solution from the vet.

cut the wool around the rear end and stomach twice a year

trim feet twice a year

do a worm count twice a year or if sheep looks unwell

is this right? I havent a clue! maybe I should have done more research before accepting the boys![/b]

[red]

see if you can't befriend a neighbour with sheep!

- dunno much about lambs - my parents have bottle fed them until they were eating grass.. then gradually cut back on bottles until they had none - though the bottle fed lambs, now sheep are still easily identified by their hopeful looks when we show up!

My sheep are not getting any supplimentary feed apart from the occasional handful of ewe nuts to bucket train them (easier to lead with bucket then chase about) - they live on grass and thats that (unless it snows)

If I were you, I would plan to trim their feet or at least look to see if they need doing any time you have the sheep unended for any reason. if one starts limping.. do a foot inspection. as for worms - watch out for very grubby bums (although this tends to happen a bit when the new spring grass comes in). you can cut down on worms if you move your sheep around form field to field, leaving a field to rest for 2 weeks (worms in droppings are likely to be dead by then),. if, like me, you have boggy ground - consider fluke and make sure your drench covers it.
in hot weather - later in the summer - be very aware of fly strike - which looks like a dark patch on the wool, closer inspection - maggots - eww. You have to act quickly so go buy some treatment ready,

best advice we have got is from our local farmers suppliers. find who your neighbouring farmers use and go to them - ours are very kind to us newbies and tell us what we need.. and what we dont need.


are you really sure about not eating them - cos cute little bah lambs now soon get to look like the picture of 'lamb' you see in cookery books.. you know with the dotted lines showig the joints. my OH looks at our ewes and imagines the joints out of the oven!

however if you are really sure.. i gues syou have considered what sex they are? you dont want two rams together.. or more lambs...

[CrazyParrot]

Thanks for the advice! Any farmer we ask (apart from the one we got them from) seems to think that all pet lambs die, so we dont get much advice from them apart from how to dispose of bodies! The four of them are males, but are being castrated on sunday so hopefully wont get aggressive.
To be honest, I think eating them would save a lot of trouble, but I live in a house with two eight-year old girls so any suggestion of some nice organic meat just brings tears and tantrums! It looks as if they are here to stay!
What age do you start to wean them off the lamb creep? just when they are happily eating grass and seem to be fully grown?

thanks again!

[red]

well raising lambs on the bottle is not always easy - so those farmers are right. My parents raised 2 orphaned lambs last year - but it was a bit touch and go for one of them. Like I said - I don't have much knowledge of raising bottle fed lambs personally - but my impression was my parents waited until the lambs were taking grass and then they slowly backed off with the bottles.

The ram lamb they raised is about to go to slaughter.

I'm not surprised you have been given these lambs - orphan ram lambs are not worth a whole heap. - very time consuming to raise etc.. so they are lucky boys! - as whethers they should be fairly docile.
I must admit I enjoy our sheep.
I would warn those 8 year olds that raising lambs by hand is hard.. and sheep die for a hobby anyway... you know.. better prepared... and they are only 1 week old at the mo. long way to go yet.

definitely go t oyour local farmer suppliers... they should be helpful.

and you will have to think about doing the legal paperwork bit at some point. although many farmers wont make a lamb official until its made it through the first few weeks.

[CrazyParrot]

thanks again! the lambs were just spare triplets - the farmer had so many this year that around 80 had to be put to sleep. We offered to take some, and just chose the brightest, healthiest looking ones - so they are very lucky boys!

we are dreading all the registering and stuff that goes along with keeping pet sheep, no one has a clue how to get sheep or land registered! but I suppose we will just see how the lambs do and think about that later...

[red]

yeh - oftren 'orphan' lambs are triplets - sheep only have two teets you see - so the weakest lamb often loses out - particularly as the ewe doesn't seem tobe able to count beyond 2 so she will often leave one behind - and many farmers cut the numbers down to 2 as you say.
I did write up a little bit on paperwork on my page here which might help you get started. when you feel ready....

[CrazyParrot]

they have just been castrated, and the poor guys were rolling around and piling on top of each other for hours. They refused their food and are looking a bit hollow now. poor things!

[ina]

How did you castrate them? I don't know where you live, but in the UK it's illegal to ring them after one week old. The earlier you do it, the better; ours don't seem to suffer for more than half an hour, an hour tops once the deed is done. After one week, it should really be done by a vet and under anaesthetic (although most farmers don't take that so seriously - hence prolonged suffering).

And to put 80 lambs down - I consider that a crime. I raised 40 orphans last year. They did very well - in fact, some of them were amongst the first to be ready for slaughter. Of course it takes time. This year, so far most of the "extra" triplets have found new mums - ewes with just a single, or twins where one had died; but I know I'll end up with quite a few in the end again anyway.

Don't leave registering your lambs too late. If a nosy neighbour reckons you are doing something not quite legal, they might feel obliged to inform the authorities...

[Magpie]

Here in NZ you can castrate with rubber rings up to about 6 months I think. Apparently, some study showed the slightly older (ie 8 weeek old) lambs suffered less than smaller ones, as thier bits are bigger, and the blood flow is more effectively cut off.

We do ours at 6-8 weeks, they show almost no ill-effect, except having a quiet lie-down after. No writhing or anything. They actually react more to having their ear-tags put in!

[ina]

Maybe after that time it gets easier for them again - wouldn't know, as I said, it's illegal here... But I do know that they always seem to suffer less if you do it after just one day rather than after 7 days. (I have had to wait the full week occasionally as the testicles sometimes don't go down straight away...)

[CrazyParrot]

I think its really sad that all the extra lambs get put to sleep - thats why we got ours! I just couldnt bear to see all those healthy lambs die, so we agreed to take four. they were 10 days old when they were castrated with a rubber ring - I know its illegal, but our farmer insists that its pointless until they are a month old because the testicles often havent dropped. after reading up on the subject we convinced him do do it early though, as apparently (as well as bieng illegal) if you wait too long some lambs start to behave more like full rams and beat you up if you go near them! our friend has one of those as a "pet", and she cant even go in the same field as it without fear of bieng killed! she says it weighs 18 stone.

oh well, they seem to have recoved now, and are back to their usual cheeky selves. :-)

as for the registering - we are going to try soon. the farmer says that we should just tell people the lambs belong to them right now, as technically we werent even allowed to put them in the car and drive them 2 miles home without a liscence. this registering business is so confusing! we need a land number and a flock number and everything for 4 pet lambs! does it cost anything to register the sheep?

[red]

doesn't cost anything to do the paperwork.

I'm not surprised the farmer said to say the lambs were technically his - as he shoudl have completed an AML (animal movement form) and part of it gone off the local authority within 3 days of the movement. he would get into trouble if they realised that the movement has taken place without the right paperwork.

I know the paperwork is a bore - but it is there for a purpose, really - I would get on with it if i were you.
I have to say, I dont agree with the castration at this late a date using the rubber rings. My parents have always done their ram lambs the day after birth, and it does not seem to bother them in the least. Its not allowed to be done after the first week as its very painful.

how much land do you have for them?

[CrazyParrot]

We have two acres, which I suppose isnt much, but should be OK for just 4 lambs. One is ill now though, so I hope it doesnt go down to three :-(

do any of you have any advice, or know whats wrong with the lamb?
he was absolutely fine yesterday, but today he is off his food (only drank half of his milk, and even then he wasnt going crazy for it as usual) and is very lethargic. he just sleeps in the corner and wont get up until feeding time (usually he is leaping against the side of the pen as soon as he sees us). We are quite worried about him, and asked the farmers wife who will ask the farmer., but I would really appretiate any advice from you. the lamb isnt constipated or scouring, and isnt bloated either.

[red]

I hope someone can advise on the sickly lamb - what milk are you feeding it? did it get any colostrum (sp?) - only thing I can say is make sure he keeps drinking.

2 acres should be ok for 4 sheep - good idea if you have it in different sections so you can rotate.

[Magpie]

Were the lambs vaccinated and drenched? Don't know what sort of parasited you have there, but a lot of those can have a lamb down very quickly.