How to Raise Bottle Baby Lambs and Goats 

Hello, Ellen. We haven’t heard from you in a while. Thank you for taking the time to leave a message and thank you for the kind comment about the art work. We hope you are well.

@@LinessaFarms All is good, praise Yah. It’s just me and 13 ducks, seven (with more due any moment) goats, three cats, and a great livestock guardian dog living completely off grid, except for my cellphone. I often don’t have the time to look at the latter being straight out with the former; but I always love your videos, share them with goat keeping friends, and learn much. I tell people, especially those newer to goats than me, that you are the best resource out there. Very grateful for all the knowledge you share with us.

Ha! Baling twine is a farming secret weapon. Fancy equipment and things are nice but we have to keep the lights on just like everyone else. 😬 Great to hear from you, Lynne. Hope you are doing well.

@LinessaFarms: doing pretty good here. Breeding for late May through June deliveries. Hoping for some colors again this year and more than one doeling. Last year was rough personally but I'm doing better now.

Very nice. We have had very good luck with cow milk based formula for them with no scours. It seems the powdered formula really messes with their stomach. Thank you for watching and thank you for taking the time to leave a message!

It happens! Good luck to you and let us know if we can be of any assistance!

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Will do. Thanks for the idea.

We hope you never have to as well! Thanks for making a comment and thanks for your continued support. Hope all is well.

Thank you! The machines are on demand and will feed them any time they nurse while the machine is turned on. When the babies can have milk anytime they want, you will notice they tend not to overeat. Most babies overeat when they have the mentality of “I’d better eat this all now because it’s going to be a while before I can eat again”. This is the same mentality with free choice creep feeding. People often ask us how we keep the babies from overeating creep. We don’t have issues because they know they can eat whenever they want. Only animals that are limited tend to overeat. Hopefully this makes sense. Thanks again for the questions and comments. Much appreciated.

Yes. They have free choice hay, so it’s not an issue. I have never had an issue with them eating or attempting to eat the bedding. We have used pine shavings in the past as well.

We start providing them with a free choice mineral at weaning. We provide them a complete ration with everything they need during bottle feeding. If this were not the case, I would consider offering them free choice mineral earlier. It has been my experience lambs and kids don’t really go after mineral, but placing it near their water would not hurt.

It’s all about how they are handled or “over handled”. Babies raised as pets, especially males, can become more aggressive as adults. Keeping your relationship business only can and will help to prevent this from happening.

This is a common occurrence as the female gets back into normal physiological status. Watch her for any additional signs or symptoms of infection or illness. If there are any problems, you may need to consider a round of antibiotics. Overall, what you are seeing is normal though.

Thank you

More precisely, do you see problems with how we managed her ?

This is a tough call. We have a lot of people let their mom’s raise babies on pasture from birth to weaning. There are a lot of factors to consider such as how well the mom is doing and how well the baby is doing. Since she is a first time mom, you could pull them both and place them in a pen together for a few days just to observe and identify any potential problems. This will also allow them to bond properly without any distractions. We like that you allowed the baby to go out and be with the other animals. This is a great way for them to learn how things work and how to eat. I would play it by ear based on what you see after birth. If in doubt, pull them and then let them back out once things are going well.

Yeah, we spend 24 hours with them in a box....mom started taking her and was totally not interrupted so we made her a bottle baby and sent her out. If that ewe does it again this year, she's gone

Thank you for the response.

We used a 19% medicated, texturized lamb feed. Your big box stores will carry a lamb feed you can use or you can purchase from us and mix your own.

Great thank you 👍

Yes. You can switch them. They will be used to eating it fast from the bottle and will start to slow down once they figure out it makes them cold (generally).

@@LinessaFarms Do you have a recommendation on how to switch? Just keep it full and watch closely? Slowly add it in?

@@allyssaicard3867 the first few times I wouldn’t put much more in there than you want them to drink. You can slowly increase the amount. I usually freeze the milk and most of the contents when put in are all frozen but a little bit.

THANK YOU!!!

These are mixed. Some boys and some girls.