Its a boy.  Its a girl.  Its another boy.  IT’S TRIPLETS!!! But ewes are just not designed to feed three lambs, what with only having 2 teats in all.  So invariably there’s the weakest one that either dies or has to be taken in and hand reared.  I usually leave them on the mum for 12 to 24 hours to try and get some colostrum, but you always know which one isn’t getting a good feed because they are the one either frantically baa-ing and running around after mum, or they are nearly dead on the ground, as this little boy was.  And I just can’t make myself leave them there to let nature take its course 😦

“But what do I feed him?” I hear you ask. Well there are three options.

1.  Ask a friendly dairy farmer for some cow colostrum, dilute it 50/50 with water and feed him that for a couple of days.
2. Invest $70-80 in a bag of lamb milk powder.  But only do that when you are sure that he is going to survive.
3. Make this emergency milk formula to feed him while you see over a couple of days whether he’s going to make it or not.

I did both 1 and 3.  My son had some colostrum frozen into ice cube trays in his freezer, so I pinched that off him, and then put him on my formula until I can find a home for him, or decide whether to rear him myself.

So the cow colostrum is thick and gluggy, especially after it has been frozen.  But all is not lost.  Thaw it, warm it a little, then force it through a fine-ish sieve with the back of a spoon.  This breaks it all up so that it doesn’t clog up the teat.  About 4 ice cubes of colostrum melts down to aprox 50mls I find, so diluted 50/50 with water it makes 100 mls which is plenty for each feed on the first day.

Before lambing season I always have a bit of a emergency kit ready.  Heaps of old towels and a crate big enough that they can’t climb out.  At least not initially.  Some warm old blankets – I go to the second hand shop and look in the ‘pet bedding’ section.  A dropper bottle for those ‘flat’ lambs that can’t even suck.  A couple of lambs teats, and a plastic vinegar bottle or ‘pump’ water bottle to screw the teat to.  Oh, and some iodine spray for their umbilical cords if they were lying in mud.  And some eye ointment because it often seems to happen that the weak ones end up with a gammy eye or two.  And some cod liver oil to make the formula with.

The formula is simple:

750mls blue top (homogenised) milk.

1 egg lightly beaten.

2 tsps sugar

2 tsps cod liver oil

Gently warm to dissolve the sugar and then make sure it is no warmer than blood temperature.  (drop some on your wrist, if you don’t feel it, then it is blood temperature).

Easy as.  Feed about 100mls 6 times a day for the first day. For the 2nd to 4th day feed 150mls 6 times a day.  After that they should be on lamb milk powder so follow the instructions on the bag.

Make sure that the lamb pee’s within a couple of hours after its first feed from you, and then poo’s.  the poo will be black at first, and then it will turn to karitane yellow as the milk starts to go through its system.

Have fun with your new baby.

Yours sincerely

Mumma Bear