How to water a lamb without a sheep: a feeding scheme at home

The situation when the lamb is without food, because the mother died or refuses to feed, happens often. Proper and nutritious nutrition is extremely important in the first weeks of a cub's life, it provides strong immunity. Every farmer must know how to water a newborn lamb without a sheep in order to save it from death. There are several methods of drinking, the owner chooses the appropriate one, taking into account the situation and his own capabilities.

How to feed lambs without a sheep

The reason why the lamb was left without a mother is not so important, but the important thing is that he will die if he is not properly watered. When a sheep is sick, refuses to nurse, or dies, the orphaned calf is fed in one of the following ways:

sit to another uterus;
fed with milk from another sheep;
fed with goat or cow milk;
fed with a synthetic analogue of milk.

Milk is the staple food of a newborn lamb. Within 2 days after birth, the cub should at least once receive maternal colostrum, without which the immune system will not “turn on”, the internal organs will not begin to fully work, the body will not survive. Then you can drink your pet in any of the above ways.

Experienced farmers keep a second lactating female nearby during the birth of one sheep, who, if necessary, becomes a nurse.

If a sheep that has given birth does not have problems with lactation, but refuses to feed, then colostrum is milked to drink the offspring. If the lambs suckle their mother, but she does not have enough milk for everyone, then complementary foods are required, without which the cubs will grow weak, get sick, and are highly likely to die.You can ask for colostrum from another farm if yours does not have lactating sheep.

Cow's milk used for feeding or top dressing needs to be enriched because its composition is somewhat different. The sheep product contains more fat. For enrichment, fish oil and chicken egg are added to cow's milk. The resulting mixture is heated to 35-40 ° C, poured into a bottle, put on a rubber nipple to make it comfortable for the cub to suck.

You can drink a lamb with synthetic milk powder, which is sold in veterinary pharmacies. The product contains the optimal amount of fat and nutrients needed by a developing animal. It is prepared like infant formula: the powder is dissolved in boiled water. It is impossible to give semolina porridge to a newborn lamb. The product is hard to digest, it is permissible to include it in the diet in an amount of not more than 100 g per day, when the animal is one month old.

But from the age of 2 weeks, the baby can eat a small amount of oatmeal.

According to the adult diet, the lamb is fed from the age of 3 months, from this period milk feeding ceases to be a vital necessity. The diet of a growing pet includes:

juicy food - grass, roots, silage;
roughage - hay;
concentrates - grain formulations, animal feed;
sources of vitamins and minerals - s alt stones, bone meal, chalk.

A lamb that has reached 3 months of age can be sent to pasture with the rest of the sheep.

How to put lambs with another sheep?

When several sheep are born at the same time on the farm, they can slip the lambs left without a mother. But sheep recognize their own offspring by smell, so they do not always accept other people's cubs, and those who do not receive colostrum die. There are several ways to make sure that poi are not discarded by non-native queens:

The wool of the refusenik is coated with colostrum or the contents of the amniotic sac of a sheep that has just given birth. The cub takes on the smell of a nurse.
The refuser is washed with saline to wash away the mother's smell. Then his body is pressed against the body of the nurse's own cub, the fur coats are rubbed against each other so that the smells of the lambs become the same.
A high-yielding sheep is tied to the machine, the head is fixed so that it is not possible to turn around, to smell non-native offspring. The lamb freely approaches the udder, receives colostrum. Usually, several such feedings are enough for a sheep to accept a step-calf.A similar procedure can be carried out with a mother who refuses to feed her offspring.

Basic feeding rules

Lambs growing without a queen are weak and do not have strong immunity. So that they do not get sick, their cultivation at home must be approached with the utmost responsibility. Small animals without a sheep are kept dry and warm, in a ventilated room. Artificial feeding involves the use of a bottle, which is disinfected before each feeding. All equipment for care and feeding is also disinfected, scalded with boiling water. Otherwise, pathogenic microorganisms will seriously harm the weak body of a lamb growing without a mother.

Milk for feeding lambs must be boiled, even if the concentration of useful substances decreases.

Newborn refuseniks are not overfed. But they don't have to go hungry either. Daily portions are strictly rationed. An overfed lamb is more likely to have stomach problems. Feeding pattern without sheep:

in the first week of a pet's life, the interval between feedings should be a maximum of 2.5 hours, only 6-7 meals are made per day, that is, they feed both day and night;
in the second week, the number of feedings is reduced to 5;
from 3 to 6 weeks, 4 meals a day is enough to feed a pet;
from the 7th week the lamb eats 3 times a day.

Feeding the lamb by age

The diet changes as the lamb grows. From the age of 2 weeks, the pet begins to consume complementary foods in the form of decoctions, from the age of one month - root crops. They are given at first 20 g each so that the lamb does not get sick of unusual food, then the portion is increased every day by 10 g.From 2 months, the animal is accustomed to the grass.

The table shows the algorithm for feeding small pets from birth to one year of age.

milkcow, sheep, goat, synthetic substitute800mlcomplementary foodsdecoction of oatmeal, cake, oatmeal porridge, wheat bran, hay, root crops30, 60, 60, 60, 150-200, from 20g2-months milkcow, sheep, goat, synthetic analogue400-600ml complementary foods minerals s alt stones, chalk3-month oldmain food decoction of oatmeal, cake, oatmeal, wheat bran, grass, roots from 4 monthsmain foodconcentrates, hay, grass, roots 300, 400, 2000, 600 gmineralss alt stones, mineral additives40%, 30%, 45% mineralss alt stones, mineral supplements

Age	Type of feed	Products	Amount per day
feeding a newborn lamb without a sheep	milk	cow, sheep, goat, synthetic substitute	200-400 ml
2-week	milk	cow, sheep, goat, synthetic analogue	400-800 ml
	complementary food	oatmeal decoction, oilcake, oatmeal, wheat bran	40, 20, 25, 25g
	minerals	Tetravit preparation	injection under the skin 1 ml per individual
monthly
monthly

	decoction of oatmeal, cake, oatmeal, wheat bran, grass, root crops	20,

		minerals	s alt stones, chalk


	from 8 months	main food	coarse, juicy, concentrated

What not to feed

A lamb, especially growing without a sheep, has a weak digestive system and a delicate body, so the introduction of new foods into the diet should be gradual and careful. It is unacceptable to feed young individuals, even those already switching to adult food, with the following products:

sour and marsh grasses (sedge, horsetail and the like);
sugar beet (it causes diabetes);
baked goods, pastries.

Possible problems

When a lamb is 2 weeks old, it is weaned from bottle sucking, taught to feed from a bowl. This is not an easy task. If the pet stubbornly does not eat from unusual dishes, then do the following: a finger is dipped in milk, brought to the animal's mouth, then again slowly, defiantly lowered into a bowl.

Soon the cub will be interested in the contents of the bowl. When this happens, you need to slightly change the feeding regimen, give food 30 minutes later. The pet will get hungry, interest in the contents of the dishes will increase even more.

Diarrhea in young animals is not uncommon. To reduce the likelihood of its occurrence, you should carefully control the quality of the feed and the feeding regimen, do not change the diet abruptly. If diarrhea does occur, the lamb should be given plenty of water to prevent dehydration and then taken to the veterinarian, especially if the diarrhea is accompanied by deterioration in well-being and appetite.