Bottle Baby

[Betania]

OK, so I'm bottle feeding a three-day old lamb. I gave her colustrum replacer the first two days, and am in the process of switching her to milk replacer. Today she's had diarrhea all day, but in the morning it was kind if reddish, and now it's bright yellow, like baby poop. Is this good, bad or OK? What should her poop look like?

Also, is there anything in particular I should know about bottlefeeding? Any specific problems to look for?

Right now, we are feeding her every two to three hours. We are mixing the milk replacer with the colustrum, to switch her over. I didn't figure it would be smart to switch all of a sudden.

[Bigiron59]

They only need colostrum for 24 and really 12 hrs. That is likley the problem. Just milk replacer mixed exactly as the directions state. No weaker,no stronger. Most bottle lambs have "wetter" poop. As long as she is feeling fine,eating well , and running around,I don't worry about it.
My bonus lambs get one dose of colostrum replacer, and them milk replacer. Have not had a problem with that . I have about a dozen on nipple pail right now.
After a week ,free choice water in a small pail.

 If hand feeding,I feed 3 times a day. This year, because of weather,I have pulled 1 trip on all my ewes.
Time will tell if I do on the March gruop. That will likely be at least a dozen more.  That gruop has historically been able to rasie trips.

[Don Drewry]

Ditto on what BI posted.  Yes, it is smarter to switch from colostrum to MR "all of a sudden".  Free choice, cold milk is by far the best way I've seen to raise bottle lambs.  It less work, lambs grow better, look better and there is less death risk from bloat.  Have hay, creep feed and water available free choice.  They should be eating creep feed pretty good by 2 to 3 weeks.  Wean at the later of 30 days or 30 lbs.  Wean cold turkey.  In spite of the good intentions behind the idea one of the meanest things to do to bottle lamb when weaning it is to dilute the milk.  Somehow, it has to figure out  that it's supposed to eat more grain even though it's eating the same volume of milk. 

[Betania]

OK, thank you!! I will switch her to completely milk replacer.

[Honey Tree]

I placed this link in another subject but you might find it of interest.
http://www.lolmilkreplacer.com/lolmilkreplacer/media/AMP-AnimalMilkProducts/LOLLF_DSANA-2015_Proceedings-Paper_FINAL_122815.pdf

[Betania]

Thanks!!