• Colostrum is essential. If ewe’s milk is not an option, bovine colostrum is the next best choice. Avoid diluting with water or warming frozen colostrum too quickly.
• Remove lambs from the sight and hearing range of mothers.
• Lambs need a dry, draft-free, warm area.
• A quality milk replacer containing 30% fat and a minimum of 24% protein is recommended.
• Be prepared to help 1-2 day old lambs get started nursing on the provided feeding device early, as young babies start easier.
• Self-feed cold milk replacer. Mix milk replacer with warm water, then cool it down. Lambs do well with cold milk and experience less incidence of scours and other digestive disturbances. Additionally, cold milk takes longer to spoil.
• Most commercially available milks are acidified to retard bacterial growth. To help babies find feeders, install or hang a light over the milk feeding devices and dry ration feeders.
• Because older lambs may push younger lambs away from feeders, it’s best not to group them together. Lambs on ewes drink 25 to 40 times daily, and grouping babies based on available milk space helps ensure adequate milk access (if using a bucket feeder with 6 nipples, training groups of 6 may be a good option). Once lambs are trained, the groupings can increase to 25, assuming enough milk space is available.
• Depending on the deficiencies of your region and on the recommendations of your vet/nutritionist, lambs may need Selenium-Vit E injections, Vaccination for overeating (Clostridium perfringen type C & D) should be administered to lambs at 7 days of age.
• As soon as possible, put a high quality creep feed in front of lambs. Be cautious of offering hay, oats, and leafy alfalfa immediately upon weaning due to a high likelihood of bloat. Leafy alfalfa can be introduced two weeks after weaning, and hay and oats can be provided three weeks after weaning.
• Lambs should have continual access to fresh water.
• Wean bottle lambs at 30 days of age, as long as they are consuming adequate feed and water. Realize that newly weaned lambs often decline for several days after weaning. After a little while, they will show gain that makes up for their short decline.