worried bottle lamb is not thriving

[chicken little]

My little guy is 7 days old and is not as active or as solid as his peers .. feel his bones... feeds every 4-5 hours about 8 oz Manna Pro lamb milk...my first bottle baby... should I worry?
Thanks guys and gals!

 

[babsbag]

I don't raise sheep, I have goats but not much difference really. I would be a little concerned. A few more questions. Does he take his bottle willingly and would he take more if you let him have it? If yes to both of those I would up the amount a little each feeding. My Boers were taking about 36 ounces a day at 10 days. I also don't use replacer, I use whole cows milk from the store.

 

[BrownSheep]

How is his stool?
Is this the formula he has always been on or did you switch him?

 

[elevan]

Welcome to BYH @chicken little ! I've moved your thread to the sheep forum where it will get the attention that it deserves.

 

[SheepGirl]

What's his temp?

 

[chicken little]

Oh my! You all are awesome! Thank you so much for your responses... I'm new to the site, a technophobe,and did not know if my cries were heard > Bless you all.. the little lamb seems to be doing great...He has trained me well... I switched to a rich whole cows milk concoction I found on line. He's taking in 12 oz every 4-6 hours... bright eyes, wiggly tail,pees, poops,plays well with others etc,... but he IS different developmentally than the others... but then again he has the weird worrywart "mother" ... I'll try to get a photo up for ya'll

 

[trampledbygeese]

Welcome @chicken little. Can't wait to see the photo. Bet he's cute as a button.

Questions - did he have Colostrum? Was it natural right from the sheep, or commercially made, or altered/pasteurized in any way? Have you given him any vitamin or other shots? You say He, are you raising him for food or wethered him in any way? Does his belly button - or the area soon to be one - feel warmer than the rest of him?

I've got my first bottle lamb now as well. Was raised on milk replacer for the first month, then switched to goats milk when he came to me.

From what I've been reading, bottle babbles can develop quite differently than mamma raised ones, both in personality and physically. For example, the ones I've seen mamma raised were eating hay and chewing on everything by 4 days old. At just over a month old, I realized that my little guy didn't know that green things were yummy. Took two days, but he never knew that eating grass or other green things was what he was suppose to do. He hasn't had any interaction with sheep yet, just lived with a dog for a companion, so he likes fetching sticks.

I'm really curious about using cows milk. My local sheep community seem to think it's the most evil thing ever to give a baby sheep. They are all big advocates of giving the lambs sheep or in a pinch, goats milk, raw if you can get it. What's the thoughts about it here? Does how it's pasteurized and homogenized make a difference for cows milk? I hear some places they ultra pasteurized it, and it won't make cheese if this happens. Isn't making cheese basically what happens when lambs drink milk, the rennet in their stomach makes the milk solid and easy to digest, ie, cheese. Then again, this lamb is improving now, so cows milk can't be all that evil.

 

[SheepGirl]

The reason cow's milk isn't used is because it doesn't have enough fat in it for a baby lamb. Compare the composition of ewe's milk to cow's milk and you will see ewe's milk has a lot more fat in it than cow's milk. Lambs thrive on that fat.

 

[trampledbygeese]

Fat content, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for letting me know.

So, I'm feeding raw goats milk right now, should I be adding something to it like powdered goats (or other) milk for example? He's almost 5 weeks old and gaining weight, but he came to me at only 13 pounds. For a mixed meat breed, I understood that he should be somewhere between 20 and 30 lbs by now.

Right now he's on 500ml raw goats milk, 4 times a day. Though if I can, I try to break up the feeding so it lasts about an hour. Feed a bit, do some work so he follows me around the yard and gets use to the other animals, then feed some more. He seems to be quite happy with the current amount I'm feeding him, as sometimes he won't finish the full 500ml right away, so I come back a few hours later and give him the rest. At his last place, he was on 300ml of milk replacer with egg yolk and pablum, 4 times a day, so for volume mine is quite a step up, but I did it gradually over a few days. He didn't mind the extra milk at all!

Next I need to find a way to decrease the frequency. I need him weaned in just under 4 weeks (so about 8 and a bit weeks old) because I'm going away... unless... maybe I could teach him to be tethered? Then he can come with me. It's 2 weeks living in a medieval encampment (yes, I'm weird) for an educational display in a park. They had sheep in 13th C England... hmmm...