The idea of a tiny, adorable lamb living in your home that you get to take care of is a little more than enticing. Even I watch YouTube videos with tiny bottle lambs bouncing around, wearing diapers, and my heart melts a little bit. But something I’ve learned in my time working with animals is that people, specifically people whose animal experience is limited to dogs, cats, and fish, don’t understand the amount of effort that goes into bottle lambs.
There may be a million reasons why a lamb needs to be bottle fed. Its mother may have died, the mother may have had too many lambs to handle, or perhaps her udder was unproductive. No matter what, lambs end up needing to be bottle fed. Bottle lambs are often sold, especially when the farmer has sheep to deal with and not enough time to handle feeding bottle lambs. So the lambs are sold and trusted to someone who may not know how to raise a baby lamb.
Lambs are not puppies. Puppies are relatively easy. You feed them, play with them, get them their shots, and potty train them. One of the most annoying problems with lambs is that they cannot be house trained. Of course, this can be solved by make-shift diapers, if you’re willing to change diapers on a lamb.
As you might have guessed, bottle lambs need to be fed. But how often? Most people underestimate the amount of time is spent feeding a bottle lamb. Bottle lambs need to be fed every four hours. That means in the middle of the night too. Every four hours, you will be preparing milk replacer, warming it, and feeding your lamb. Lambs don’t care that you had to work at the office all day, or that you have a cold, or that you haven’t slept in weeks. They need food, and they need it every four hours. Which means you will shamble out in your best recreation of a zombie and feed them, no matter what. Wash, rinse, and repeat for a month to six weeks.
Other things people may not be familiar with in regard to lambs are docking, the removal of a part of the tail to prevent fly strike; vaccination, which is done at a very young age and at 3-4 weeks old; and drenching, which is done to prevent worms. Most farmers do all of this, even the vaccinations, on their own. The price of asking the vet to vaccinate, drench, and dock/castrate your lamb is enough to make most turn farm away from farming. Some may not have the stomach to vaccinate their own lambs, and that should be taken into consideration before one purchases a bottle lamb.
The most important and most dangerous thing to know about bottle lambs is Bloat. Bloat is caused in hand-reared lambs by the build-up of bacteria in the stomach of the lamb. As the bacteria multiply, the sugar in the milk ferments and creates excess gas, which cannot escape the stomach. The fluid in the stomach becomes more and more acidic and kills other healthy bacteria. The gas then bloats the abdomen and death is rapid and unpleasant. If it sounds like I’m trying to scare you, it’s because I am. Bloat is one of the worst ways to lose a lamb, and it is so easy to do. The most common way for a lamb to bloat is rapid ingestion of milk. Tilting the bottle up too high and forcing too much milk into the lamb at once can lead to bloat. Nipples that are slightly too big can lead to bloat. Giving your lamb that last little suckle because “they just act so pitiful” can lead to bloat. Using cheap, poor-quality milk replacers can lead to bloat.
Treating bloat is not easy. It’s estimated that 75 to 100 cases of bloat result in death. We have had bloat in some of our bottle lambs early in our sheep farming business, and have only managed to save a few. Bloat progresses quickly, as early as 30 minutes after feeding. Treatments include oral Penicillin, Sodium Bicarbonate mixed with water, or, in extreme cases, a needle inserted into the abomasum. The latter should ONLY be performed by a trained professional.
I didn’t write all this out to tell you to never, ever get a bottle lamb. Like any pet, research should be done beforehand and the owner should realistically evaluate if they are able to care for a lamb and are able to handle if the lamb does not make it. Knowledge is the key to healthy animals, and even then, mistakes might be made. Overall, if you are considering adopting a bottle lamb, do your research! If you are prepared and ready to take on a bottle baby, great! Enjoy raising the cutest little bouncing ball of fluff you’ve ever seen!
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