Caring for a pair of orphan Lambs

In February 2019 we accepted a 2 week house sit in Hampshire, England caring for sheep and pigs on a small rural holding. The sit would be in April and we were told that even though it would be lambing season there would be no additional responsibilities. The sheep would look after themselves and theirā€¦ Continue reading Caring for a pair of orphanĀ Lambs

Caring for a pair of orphan Lambs

In February 2019 we accepted a 2 week house sit in Hampshire, England caring for sheep and pigs on a small rural holding. The sit would be in April and we were told that even though it would be lambing season there would be no additional responsibilities. The sheep would look after themselves and their lambs however prior to arrival things had changed.

One week before arriving, we received a message saying that two lambs had become orphaned and would require bottle feeding. This would be a new experience for us and we were excited at becoming surrogate parents for these twins.

The twins

The twin lambs had become orphaned at 4 days old when their mum died and were only 12 days old at the time of our arrival. They required four feeds every day from a bottle and their milk was made up the same way as human babies ā€“ formula powder mixed with warm water.
They were the cutest lambs we had ever seen and after a few days when we entered the field with our bottles of milk the two lambies would bleat and come running towards us. It was a lovely feeling and made this particular sit very memorable.

Over the two weeks we watched them quickly grow and frolic with the other spring lambs, but there was a little sadness in our hearts that they had no mummy of their own.

In addition to feeding the lambs there was a large pet pig named Gwendolin, two smaller weaner pigs and two guinea fowl who needed to be fed each morning. The pigs were so cute as they came running to us when they saw the feed bucket containing their food. The pigs also all loved a scratch behind their ears!!

Gwendolin
Breakfast time for the pigs

We really enjoyed this small farm sit as we had some great new experiences and learning opportunities.

What the home owners saidĀ ā€“Ā ā€œGlenn & Jacqueline housesat for us for two weeks and looked after the house beautifully. They had to bottle feed our two orphan lambs, which was a novel experience for them and they coped fantastically.ā€œ