iron man wrote: » Lads... My shepherdess will be with-drawing some services this year at lambing time which is 5 weeks away. To be fair, its time I got a feeder. Any recommendations on a good one??? From the scanning this year I reckon I could be 10-15 mark. I hear that there are dear ones that are no good and cheap ones that are good.... Any advice would be appreciated... Thanks
sheepfarmer92 wrote: » We have 3 of the "sturdy" feeders find them very good we had up to 70 pets on them at one stage this spring, ours were around 300 euros each
Sheep breeder wrote: » In the exact same position with triplets this year and need a feeder.
Ard_MC wrote: » Is get a new shepherdess an option?!!!!
iron man wrote: » Sherpardess will have a New smallie to look after.... some things we take for granted in many ways...
arctictree wrote: » I'm making my own this year as I have no ESB in the shed. Big water pot over a gas ring on very low heat. Plastic bucket with the milk in it in this. Then a couple of line feeders to the teats. Hopefully this will work.
wrangler wrote: » We rear all our pets on cold milk after a week old, feeding them warm milk would rob you, they drink a lot more when it's warm and difficut to get them on to creep
White Clover wrote: » Would this set up not be a dangerous fire hazard?
arctictree wrote: » Do you just let them feed ad-lib? I keep losing lambs when bucket feeding them as they seem to drink too much at each feeding time.
wrangler wrote: » yea adlib, it takes a bit of work at the start, you have to feed them individually on warm milk for five or six feeds at the start to make sure they drink enough. We have a bucket with one teat forr training and a bucket with three teats for following that will be alright for 8 lambs.https://www.ebay.ie/itm/323260909169 these are the buckets we use......there's soft teats for baby lambs and hard teats for bigger lambs
funkey_monkey wrote: » The step in the bracket prevents it from sliding up and coming off. We used these for drop calves with no problems.https://www.fanevalleystores.com/categories/sheep/lambing-products/feeders-teats/products/75879/Plastic-Bracket-for-Lamb-Feeder-Bucket/?viewAll=yes EDIT: This is the metal version: https://www.fanevalleystores.com/categories/cattle/calf-products/feeders-teats/products/67526/Metal-Bracket-for-Gewa-Calf-Bucket/?viewAll=yes
wrangler wrote: » yea adlib, it takes a bit of work at the start, you have to feed them individually on warm milk for five or six feeds at the start to make sure they drink enough. We have a bucket with one teat forr training and a bucket with three teats for following that will be alright for 8 lambs. Have to say here that our scan is around 1.8 so plenty of opportunity for adopting, when we had 550 ewes we'd often do 50+adoptions so there are other options but if you're scanning 2 or over it's important to have facilities to rear petshttps://www.ebay.ie/itm/323260909169 these are the buckets we use......there's soft teats for baby lambs and hard teats for bigger lambs
Oldira wrote: » How often would you have to fill the bucket? Lambing only started this weend and already I have ttow lambs rejected a single and a twin. Triplets havent even stareted yet
grayh0und wrote: » Any tips on successful adoptions?
wrangler wrote: » Wet adoptions always have the best chance here Tie the foster lambs legs so he can't get up, Bath him with in a bucket of warm salty water if he's dry Put the lamb in a basin under the ewe and pull the new lamb down on top of the foster lamb and get as much of the fluids into the basin on top of the lamb. Take away her own lamb and leave her with the foster lamb, After ten minutes cut the ties on the legs and then twenty minutes later give her own lamb back, That's the basics, but it works all the time here, The two things that mess it up is if 1, You have everything perfect then discover the ewe has milk in only one teat. 2 scanner gets it wrong and she has another lamb. The longer they're lambed the less chance of success. we'd always try to pull the lamb so there'd be loads of fluids available
grayh0und wrote: » Nice one, thanks for the tips. We generally have lambed all outside, but could maybe still make it work. If we had a foster lamb, and got it going on colostrum / milk replacer, could it be introduced to a ewe some time after it was born? Or would it need to be done very near its birth.
wrangler wrote: » We've done them up to a fortnight old . Another trick is if the ewe has lambed less than 24 hrs you can put your hand into her as if you're lambing her and keep working her until she starts licking her lips and your hand if you put it to her nose, we use a glove and a bit of lube, The foster lamb has to be well wetted and salted and you have to take your hand out a good few times and rub the lamb to get enough of her fluids on him
Sami23 wrote: » I actually attempted this trick a few weeks ago after seeing a previous post of yours wrangler but I 'chickened out' when she started forcing strongly and I was afraid she might force out the lamb bag so I tried her in the crate for nearly 2 weeks but the rap still wouldn't take to him, she just wanted her own lamb so the foster lad is on the bottle now ��
