Michael's Got A Little Lamb

[Mike'sgotalittlelamb]

(creative title is creative)

Hello! My name is Michael! You've probably seen a post or two of mine around, but now I've finally decided to make a journal to share all the details of me and my experience raising my orphaned lamb, Speckles.

So, to start off, I'll introduce myself. My name is Michael, I'm 29 years old, and I was born, raised, and live in West (by God) Virginia. I'm a trans man, I have AuDHD, and I can sometimes come off as distant/stand-offish, but I promise I'm just shy.

To give a brief run down of my story, my younger sister's boyfriend's father has a small farm on which he raises sheep. On, or around July 1st, a couple of stray dogs got into his pasture and killed two of his sheep. When my sister's boyfriend and his dad got out there to check they found two lambs laying next to a tree with their sadly deceased mother not too far from them. By the state of them, they could have only been a couple hours old.

The two of them work in the mines, and so are gone quite often so they were unable to raise them themselves so my sister suggested me for the job. I was given the two later that day.

My lamb, Speckles, was actually the weaker of the two when they first showed up. Didn't want to take a bottle for nothing and was much less adventurous than her sister. Both seemed to do fine for a couple days, thankfully it didn't take long for them to take a bottle and Speckles started thriving. Her sister, on the other hand, did not. I'm not sure what happened to her exactly, but whatever it was thankfully took her quick. I watched Speckles closely for signs of the same thing, but from what I could see she was happy, and healthy. So no worries there.

Four weeks seem to fly by and Speckles is doing amazing. She's eating like crazy, loves her bottle and loves me even more. Then she starts doing something peculiar. She starts grinding her teeth. Every thing I can find tells me that it means she is in pain, but other than her doing that there are no other signs or symptoms. She'd been miming chewing her cud for over a week before, so I thought, maybe, just maybe, she was doing that. That was when I found this site and decided to join for advice. Nothing ever changed, and Speckles still grinds her teeth even now so I'm sure I'm just to assume it's one of her many unique quirks.

Few more weeks pass and she is still doing absolutely fantastic. She's happy, she's healthy, she's eating like a horse but then I notice something... She's a little on the small side. I was doing some random research and found that a lot of places were telling me that a six-seven week old lamb should be around 50lbs not 20lbs, which is what Specks was at the time. I've no idea on her breed so that didn't help. I asked my sister's boyfriend if he knew what breed she was and he had no clue so that wasn't any help. Once again I find myself here asking for advice and whether or not I'm even doing any of this right. The consensus was that as long as she wasn't having any major issues it wasn't anything to worry about.

Speckles is still small, but she's gained over 10lbs since then. She is now up to 31lbs as of Friday.

I'm currently in the process of weaning her, I dropped her down to a single bottle last week and today was her first day without. She's been very vocal about her displeasure of not having her bottle, but I've made sure she has tons of hay. I've also upped her grain intake from just two half cup scoops to three. And she's getting these twice daily. So, three cups overall(no idea if that's a good amount, but she loves it when she gets it).

A little more about the girl herself is that she's a little hellion who despite her cutesy name is anything but at times. She will chew on anything and everything she can get her mouth on and can and will try to eat it if she can. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've torn paper and plastic out of this lambs mouth.

Her biggest quirk is still her grinding her teeth and I tell her all the time to stop because one of these days she's gonna do it for the reason the internet says and I'm going to ignore it. lol All in all tho, I'm having fun raising her and I can only hope I've been doing good by her.

Last, but not least, here's some pics from today of her for tax.

 

[Baymule]

I see you let Speckles run around in the house. When I have bottle lambs, I keep them in a large dog crate with those adult pads for incontinance. When I let them out, I put Depends on them, roll up the top and secure it with clothes pins. I don’t cut a hole for the tail because those absorbent granules fall out all over the place.

Hir grinding her teeth bothers me. But you’ve checked everything out and she is ok. Just keep an eye on her.

Most of all, enjoy her.

 

[Mike'sgotalittlelamb]

I do indeed, but mostly that's cause I do not have an enclosed place on my property to put her. And yeah, totally get that about her grinding her teeth, but I swear besides that she has no other signs of anything being wrong. She plays, she jumps, she leaps. She eats her hay/grain and chews her cud. She took her bottle fine when I was giving it. I cannot find any reason for it to be pain related in any way.

I know I joked about ignoring it, but I promise I'm keeping a close eye and any slight change in her behavior I would notice.

As her enjoying her, I am. She is my baby. I think I've become just as attached to her as she is to me. lol

 

[Baymule]

I see a backyard fence in your future.
Look up sheep fence panels, they have 4”x4” holes and she cannot escape. You could build a pen with 4 panels, a 5th panel cut in half serves as a gate. Use T-posts to secure the panels to.

 

[Mike'sgotalittlelamb]

I see a backyard fence in your future.
Look up sheep fence panels, they have 4”x4” holes and she cannot escape. You could build a pen with 4 panels, a 5th panel cut in half serves as a gate. Use T-posts to secure the panels to.

Thank you! I'll definitely look into those! ^^

What about housing for her? As I know she cannot stay in my house forever, I will need somewhere to put her. I was thinking of actually repurposing one of those little pre-built buildings I see for sale that are for like storage and stuff. I've also seen ones that are supposed to act as dog kennels so I was thinking of looking into one of those. If you have any other suggestions tho, I'm all ears. XP

 

[Mike'sgotalittlelamb]

Day two of my Journal and here's the rundown:

Still vocal about not having her bottle, but doesn't seem as agitated about it today. Has been eating lots of hay, and was left to forage for about an hour or so. From what I saw she nibbled on clover, ragweed, and goldenrod. Also chewed on whatever type of grass I have which I'm thinking is a type of meadow grass(particularly foxtail), but I don't actually know.

Also chewed on some dock leaves, but I made sure to only have her have a little.

Frolicked for a bit chasing my niece around.

So far she still seems to be doing just fine.

And for tax, here's a couple pics from today.

 

[SageHill]

Thank you! I'll definitely look into those! ^^

What about housing for her? As I know she cannot stay in my house forever, I will need somewhere to put her. I was thinking of actually repurposing one of those little pre-built buildings I see for sale that are for like storage and stuff. I've also seen ones that are supposed to act as dog kennels so I was thinking of looking into one of those. If you have any other suggestions tho, I'm all ears. XP

For just the one or two or maybe even three one of those should work just fine.

 

[Sheepfarmer22]

Thank you! I'll definitely look into those! ^^

What about housing for her? As I know she cannot stay in my house forever, I will need somewhere to put her. I was thinking of actually repurposing one of those little pre-built buildings I see for sale that are for like storage and stuff. I've also seen ones that are supposed to act as dog kennels so I was thinking of looking into one of those. If you have any other suggestions tho, I'm all ears. XP

It doesn't get more efficient than putting some wooden pallets together with screws and laying a roof on top. They work great!

 

[Baymule]

Whatever you put up, leave a dirt floor. If you try to put her in a building with a wood floor, the floor will eventually rot.

Dirt is easier to clean, you can bed it with straw or pine shavings.

I have Pallet Palaces for quick shelters for some of my sheep. Pallets are usually free. I made one, one pallet wide, 2 on each side, 2 on top and tin over the 2 on top. Cozy.

 

[fuzzi]

Whatever you put up, leave a dirt floor. If you try to put her in a building with a wood floor, the floor will eventually rot.

Dirt is easier to clean, you can bed it with straw or pine shavings.

I have Pallet Palaces for quick shelters for some of my sheep. Pallets are usually free. I made one, one pallet wide, 2 on each side, 2 on top and tin over the 2 on top. Cozy.

With feed bags stapled on the sides...