Orphaned lambs
Miriam Fuller
Although they are very sweet and so friendly, shepherds always start out a lambing season hoping not to have any bottle fed lambs. We have five this year! Ewes only have two teats and so if they carry triplets we will try to adopt off one of them to a ewe with a single lamb. We managed to successfully adopt a few lambs this year but we didn’t manage with the bottle fed ones.
Polly and Larry were our first two lambs, Polly was a triplet who had a rough start in life and after a trip to the vet has recovered even though she is still a bit wonky! Larry was a twin who was very small and his mum wasn’t able to feed him enough so he has stayed pretty small but is so devoted and will follow Lou and I around like a puppy. Sabbath, the little black Jacob's, and Horse, the biggest lamb, came around the same time. Sab was a triplet and Horse’s mum had mastitis so could only feed one lamb. Finally Ruff, who is the fluffiest and youngest. He is a Shetland/Icelandic cross Romney lamb which means he is very, very fluffy and has brown spots. He was involved in a midnight mix up and his mum didn’t recognise him anymore and wouldn’t feed him. Ruff is one of the mellowest lambs I have ever looked after, he loves to be cuddled and everyday he is getting stronger and faster.
In the first few days the lambs need to be fed every 4 hours which meant we devised a routine which enabled us to sleep enough; I would do the 11pm feed, Gala the 1am feed and Lou the 5am feed! We had the lambs in the kitchen to start with, bringing the hurdles in at night and putting them back out into the garden during the day. It was lovely just to sit with them in the evening after their 11pm feed as they would play around and then head to sleep. We then had them in the laundry room as we needed a lamb free kitchen and now they are in the garden all the time with a big straw bed.
We will feed these lambs replacement ewe's milk for around 35 days or until they can eat enough grass to sustain them and then wean them off and they will rejoin the rest of the flock. These lambs will always be more friendly to people and will come for a scratch even when they are big.
