Got a Baby Lamb!!! what do I do??

spankymonkey_2

i think its great, i let my 9 year old son watch kill it,cook it,eat it...why not? he needs to know where his food comes from.
i dont think i could do it myself, reminds me of that program where families go back to the wartime and want to kill the rabbits they had been caring for,to make a stew, the children wouldnt let them as they had fell in love with them!

louisdog

Glad you have a CPH number, that was very quick! Hope you also got a flock number. Don't forget to get him tagged or they won't accept him at the abattoir.

Please get him some ovine company; does the farmer not have any other orphan lambs?

Might be worth getting him vaccinated for clostridial disease as I mentioned earlier in the thread - otherwise he could develop one of those illnesses and be dead within a few hours (no cure)

Also you will need to start worming him, the vet will be able to prescribe a single dose if you don't want to buy a huge bottle (or again maybe ask your farmer friend).

Cheers
Alex

border_collie

And fly strike will be your next obstacle.


Can you get him a friend? Why aren't you answering all the queries about a companion?

How are you castrating him?
If you are eating him before winter he won't need castrating.
BUT HE WILL NEED ANOTHER SHEEP.


How did you get your CPH number so quickly? What about flock number?

Slightly perturbed by your gloating over the eating while he is still a baby, recently orphaned and in need of a pal

Oh, and I keep sheep and never think or talk like you

laurauk

i dont think the op has too much time and money, but i do think she likes her food? i could understand if she was starving and couldnt find food, but to go and rummage in the garden for snails lol?
is any thing safe from her mouth?
i wouldnt like to be a furry pal in her house with four feet and whiskers, or any thing that moves,
watch out all you little furry critters who live near by, the the spit roast is calling your name in cypress lol:T

giantmutantbroccoli

Rest assured, OP, you're not the only one who looks at animals and thinks "I could eat that!".
Before I left home I used to keep chickens. I fed them, cared for them, cleaned out their house, nursed them back to health when they were sick, washed them (we had a serious mud problem for a while) and also killed and ate them. They were livestock, not pets, and even as a kid I knew the difference. I had a fair few arguments with kids at school who were shocked that I would happily eat something that I'd been caring for. I was shocked that they would happily meat from a packet when they had no idea where it came from or what sort of life it had led. At least I knew my chickens had been well looked after and humanely dealt with!
As for "gloating about eating while he is still a baby" I don't see the problem. He's a sheep, he wouldn't notice if you were staring at him and drooling! I used to check how the young cockerels were growing and yes, it was with nice thoughts of Sunday dinners to come. We had one called Best Before, one called Sell By, one called BernardMatthews Also geese called Easter and Christmas.

Anyway. A happy animal is generally a healthy animal, and a healthy animal produces healthier meat in greater quantities. Do read up on the subject, your library should have some books on smallholding and the like.
Snails, you say? So you're a proper experimental foodie, awesome!
Dandelion heads make excellent bhajis, BTW, but never make stir-fry with nettles. It tastes good but the little hairs get everywhere!

Fire_Fox

Oh grow up people. We had hens and pet rabbits when I was a child; when the chickens stopped laying they went in the pot and when the rabbits had babies they followed suit. Just because we in the West are mollycoddled by shrink-wrapped- neatly-butchered supermarket fodder, doesn't make it morally wrong to eat animals you have raised! It happens all over the world and not only because people are starving.

Did you write and complain to Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who 'gloated' over livestock just as much as the OP? What really is the difference between the OP eating that lamb and the one you eat for your Sunday lunch? Antibiotics and growth hormone. Do you drink milk? From a cow who has had her calf taken from her often within the first couple of days.

louisdog

Fly strike may not be such a problem in an indoor lamb but seriously yes, you should definitely be aware of that and understand the signs and also how to prevent. Maybe your friendly farmer can treat the lamb with preventative such as Vetrazin/Crovect when he does his own lot. Don't forget to mark that in your medicine book as there will be a withdrawal period i.e. a minimum time afterwards before you can kill for human consumption. Please don't be fooled by the harmless sounding name - Fly Strike is a big killer in sheep and it's not a pleasant way for them to go. Far easier to prevent than cure too.

Re castration, it is possible to have him done now but it will be a surgical procedure rather than simple band method, I reckon you'd be looking at at least £100 to have it done - also not recommended during fly season, and pointless unless you'll still have him in October imho.

I have 13 shetland ewes (used to have more) and have had lambs, bottle reared bought-in orphans, and have also had my slaughtered for meat (and had the skins made into rugs). I love my sheep and pet them and spoil them, yet I also know that they are not pets and really are better off in their paddock with each other - they are not domesticated in the same way that dogs and cats are.

OP please think about getting your lamb a friend and having him outside in fresh air with grass for at least 12 hours a day. (BTW make sure the grass hasn't been fertilised/weedkilled etc in the last few months).

Border Collie, what sheep do you keep? Just curious

Cheers
Alex

Edit: Re the comments on eating lamby, I am always surprised when people say to me, "oh wow you eat your own sheep? I could never do that, how awful" and I ask them whether they are veggie and they say no, and I ask them where they buy their meat and they say supermarket, then I explain that I know my lamb has had a really good like and it's me who has loaded them into the trailer and driven them 20 mins to the abattoir, and unloaded them at the other end, then waited 10 or 20 minutes until I know the deed is done. Compared with commercial sheep possibly being in the lorry travelling for days (and no requirement for water for the first 10 odd hours iirc), scared and jammed in, then unloaded all confused into the abattoir where they may face a 48 hour wait for slaughter. It seems people are hypocrites about smallholders eating their own meat, and see my as some sort of heartless monster. (I often shed a tear on the day tbh). Anyway, end of rant! I do think the pet board is a slightly uncomfortable home for this thread though...

~Chameleon~

Juliepink26 wrote: »

yes I have a CPH number.....

Have you really??? That was extraordinarily quick, they usually take a couple of weeks!!

Juliepink26

Its common place to go snail huntting Cyprus, as I said thats what we do that in the house over there, are house is by the beach so we collect crabs, the same way the fishermen would..Instead of buying the food from the shop we go and collect it ourselves..Its got nothing to do wilth money, its because I want to know where my food comes from and learn about the whole process,we go picking lemons, oranges its very intresting... we also collect coarse sea salt from the rocks I can buy it from the store or I can get off my !!!! and get it myself.

Anyways I dont have to explain myself to anyone on these fourms, and regarding all the leagal issues they have been sorted before we even got him by the farmer and my FIL.

Yes we may well get him a friend we are all getting used to each other at the moment so we are seeing how things pan out,

Diffrent cultures eat all lots of diffent food, just because you dont like it you shouldnt be so ingorant and knock other peoples way of living. If I grew up and lived in China I may well eat dog.. its part of the tradtional culture, if you grow up in so is normal to you.

Very narrow minded in my opnion.

~Chameleon~

I think we are kidding ourselves if we think this lamb is going to be kept & slaughtered legally here louisdog

It's my guess there is no CPH or flock number and nor will it be going to an abattoir. It will no doubt be a backyard slaughter, done by her FIL who will then butcher it for her. I might be wrong but aren't Greeks fond of the slit throat and bleed type of slaughter?

I doubt he was ever an orphan lamb either, farmers just don't give away lambs. FIL will have bought him so little girl could play being Miss Shepherdess before he's killed