How long do lambs need colostrum?

[DUCKGIRL89]

We have 2 baby sheep. Both girls. We are hand raiseing them, but we are wondering if 2 days of colostrum is enough? We are useing the powdered stuff from TSC, and we have about 2 cups left. should i just use this till its gone and go on the other powdered formula? Or should we get more colostrum?

Thanks in advance!

 

[kelliepulido]

I am not a sheep herder but from raising skin babies you breast feed for about 3 d or so estimate before the real milk comes in.So I would feed what you have left if and start giving more calories which I assume is in a pre packaged sheep milk formula from tcs as well.Maybe some one else will help out here.

 

[remuda1]

A very good book that I have by Laura Lawson called Managing Your Ewe And Her Newborn Lambs states that colostrum is produced by the ewe for "up to eighteen hours after lambing". However, it also states that for orphan lambs they should receive it for 24 hours. After that, it says to put them on "appropriate, rich milk", but never to feed more than 8 ounces at a time (that sounds like a lot at one time to me, for newborns but if they're a couple of days old, they may be able to handle that amount well).

Hope that helps

EF: correcting autocorrect

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

A very good book that I have by Laura Lawson called Managing Your Ewe And Her Newborn Lambs states that colostrum is produced by the ewe for "up to eighteen hours after lambing". However, it also states that for orphan lambs they should receive it for 24 hours. After that, it says to put them on "appropriate, rich milk", but never to feed more than 8 ounces at a time (that sounds like a lot at one time to me, for newborns but if they're a couple of days old, they may be able to handle that amount well).
Hope that helps
EF: correcting autocorrect

Yes, that does help! thank you!!! The lambs were born around this time, yesterday. THANKS!

 

[jbourget]

as long as they have a good start, are active and warm and seem to not show any signs of weakness, then you can put them on regular milk replacer or goats milk if you can get it. Good luck raising them, duckgirl and how bout some photos???