Hollowing out? Maybe? Im bad at this lol

Fluffy_Flock

Overrun with beasties
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
70
Reaction score
133
Points
93
Location
Milam county Texas
Sorry I do tend to give too much advice. :hide

Pictures are always good. :)
No I always love advice! Please don't hold back :thumbsup

I just realized that the bottle baby is in my profile picture. That was him at about 1-2 weeks old though so he is kinda scrawny in that picture compared to today.
20200320_180419.jpg
he is about 4 weeks here
20200408_163856.jpg
black head second from the right is my other ram. He is about 3 months old here. He is a bit of a butt head lol (no pun intended) but he is meaty.

I will take better pictures tomorrow
 

Sheepshape

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
1,706
Reaction score
3,095
Points
373
I don't disagree with what folk are saying about bottle lambs, but individual circumstances always come into play. I'm a longstanding vegetarian (near vegan), so my freezer isn't for lambs.Over here we cannot slaughter our own animals (not that I want to). They have to go to a licensed abattoir which has veterinary input.

Why was the lamb a bottle lamb? Was he a triplet...though to be too much for mum to cope with? Did mum die? Was he rejected by her? etc. I personally only leave triplets with young, fit, fairly fat ewes as it can be too much for her to cope with under less than ideal circumstances. An episode of wet and cold weather can place a ewe under stress and temporarily drop her milk supply.Over-suckling by triplets will then likely lead to mastitis.

Mum had a low milk supply. .....Is she ill? Does she have mastitis? Neither of these are heritable traits. If she had a low milk production because of an illness or udder condition, there's nothing wrong with her lamb's genetics.

Personality and temperament of the ram matter to me a lot, though he has to look right, too. Aggression is a heritable trait. I like the 'Gentleman Ram'. I want a ram that I can feel safe with when I have to treat him.

At the end of the day, there's a lot of factors to take into account when deciding which rams go and which stay.
 

Fluffy_Flock

Overrun with beasties
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
70
Reaction score
133
Points
93
Location
Milam county Texas
20200416_134044.jpg
20200416_134007.jpg

There is about a month difference between the two but they are almost the same height. Bottom is the bottle lamb and he just got weaned this week. He was not happy 🤣

It's hard for me to picture what these guys will look like when they grow up.
 

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,275
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
Hard to tell at this age and they will change as they grow. You have time to decide which one to keep. The other can go in the freezer as late as 12 months without any ram taint to the meat. One year DS1 kept "Mufasa" as a ram because he was a lovely silver color. DS1 bred him to all his ewes, then we ate him. He tasted fine. All his lambs were white anyway. LOL
 
Top