The Art of Raising Orphaned Lambs

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Raising your orphaned lamb 101


If you find an orphaned lamb whose mother has died, you will need to feed it and care for it or it will most likely die, depending on its age. You will have to decide between the responsibility of caring for the lamb, or the responsibility of letting it die. The choice is yours. While it is time consuming and incurs costs to keep an orphan lamb alive, it is well worth the time, money and effort. Lambs are great fun and very affectionate, and make excellent pets. I have successfully raised 31 orphaned lambs over the last 10 years, and unfortunately, have been unsuccessful with three little lambs. That's a 90% success rate so that should give you hope!
If the mother is not dead but instead has rejected the lamb you could try re-mothering the lamb, as long as the mother is well and capable of feeding her lamb. I have never done this, but I will add this information from the Western Australian Agriculture Department website for you if you want to try it:
Place the ewe and lamb in a small enclosure. One can be made from four 1.25 metre mesh screen wired together in the corners. Cover the screens with old seed or fertiliser bags so the ewe cannot see out. This will reduce distractions. Stabilise the enclosure by driving star pickets into the ground and tying the mesh to these. Apparently, the ewe will usually mother the lamb in 24- 48 hours.


If you choose to raise the lamb yourself, as we did with all of our orphans, here is my advice: