Here I am giving Teapot her bottle (:
In everything I had read when we first adopted lambs, I was told NOT to hold the lambs while feeding them.
Well, miss Teapot just would not drink her milk unless I picked her up! She had been in a small space with about 10-15 other bottle lambs and they fed from a communal bucket with nipples along the side of it. From what I could see when I went to pick out a lamb, some of them were drinking up all the milk and the weaker ones weren't getting any. Very sad.
Our little Teapot didn't even bother to try getting her share. She just sat in the corner and looked up at me with her sweet, sad brown eyes. I grabbed her up and took her home and now she is a happy, happy lamb (:
She was very sick though, and had we not taken her in I'm sure she wouldn't have made it. It was a stressful first two weeks and I thought I was going to lose her...but she pulled through, thank goodness.
I love her so much!
She hides under my skirts and snoozes with her head on my foot, just like a dog! And she loves to have her cheeks scratched. Oh, she is such a lovely sheep-friend!
Now that she is older, she drinks her bottle while standing on the ground. This is a good thing, as she is very heavy! But when she was much smaller, I had to hold her under my arm and cuddle her to encourage her to eat. She wouldn't let anyone else feed her ~ I am very much her Mama (:
I would hold our lambs when bottle feeding and I cannot imagine anyone allowing their lambs to go hungry. Very sad. Kind of breaks my heart to think of it :-(
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, it was so so sad. If I could have taken them all home, I would have for sure. There were so many bottle lambs, all crammed into two small pens in a freezing-cold, open, windy barn. I imagine that most of them perished as Teapot had severe scours; I'm sure they all did, living in such close quarters. A complete polar opposite experience from where Pippin was born.
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