I've had my first bottle baby, and first assisted lambing required in 5 years. This one was a twin, had his head turned. Don't know how long he was in the birth canal with his legs hanging out, and I expected him to be deceased...but as I delivered him, he shook his head to remove the after birth.....and there was borne "Lambie."
I took him out to the barn 2-4 times a day (as I could fit in my work schedule) and forced his mother to let him nurse for 48 hrs. I also milked out some colostrum and fed him 5cc at a time through a syringe. I have had some experience with several nursing modes... have not tried the Pritchard yet. But I find consistently that the black livestock nipples are just not acceptable to the smaller Blackbellies. I've used them on larger lambs with no trouble. Even with the holes made larger, they just seem to struggle. I started him on a baby bottle that had a naturally large hole. It was developed to prevent air intake...but it actually flowed too fast and he aspirated some. So I got him a new bottle... and he LOVES his bottle. I had to make the hole significantly bigger... forget the needle, I finally resorted to very small scissors. I got the hole to where he could enjoy the natural need for sucklng aggressively, and still receive enough milk to be satisfied. He continued to take small amounts for the first week... in the second week, he would take 1/3-1/3 a bottle per meal. Now 3 weeks old, he takes 1/2-3/4 a bottle each feeding. His feedings are now about 5 hrs apart. He started eating hay this weekend, and I expect him to start drinking water and exploring his creep feed. Anyway, the amounts he drinks are significantly less than what I've seen larger lamb breeds imbibe per meal. My lambie is robust and rambunxious. His first formula was Land O Lakes. I went through that tub and now he's on Merrick Super Lamb forumal. For creep feed, not being able to find one that wasn't medicated, I've made one up with beet pulp, cob with molasses, raw oats, and top dressed with dry formula. Tracy Wessel Intention Hill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Over the past 24 hours every couple hours we've been feeding 1 part kaeco Colostrum + 1 part mana pro milk replacer mixed with 4 parts warm water (best we could figure out from the conflicting directions) and she'll take the bottle but won't drink very much. I would say total she's had maybe 50-75 CCs total in the past 24 hours. I read on here that she needs at least 10% of her body weight per day. Which for 4.8 lbs would be something like 220 CCs. She looks pretty weak and thin and while she'll stand up and walk around she looks a lot less healthy and happy than her sister out back with her mom. Anything obvious we're doing wrong? Bob in New Mexico _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
