Many of you may be wondering how Steven Jr., our bottle lamb, is doing. I’d like to report that he is doing very well. He was born on February 23rd, early in the morning. By that Sunday, he was finally getting up and walking on his own.
We gradually moved him to the barn. Living indoors isn’t healthy for sheep and he needs to learn to live socially with other sheep. We left him alone outside for one hour and brought him in. We then tried two hours out and four, and finally an overnight. He adjusted fine to the temperatures, as we’ve had quite a thaw in the last little bit. Getting used to other sheep has been harder. He baas a lot and seems to irritate them with his lack of lamb social skills, but they are patient and generally kind.
He found a friend in Ohio-65’s ram lamb. They are the same size and age, and their common interests are sleeping in the sun and play-butting each other. Steven isn’t really big enough to run around with the bigger, older lambs, so he sticks with his buddy. He has also grown impressively – we are pleased with how well he is doing on milk replacer. His mother, Dalek, doesn’t seem to acknowledge him, so there was no possibility of him returning to her care.
I was very worried about him when he was born- a lamb that can’t stand has very poor prospects unless it can make huge gains quickly because they can’t digest their food properly lying on one side. Steven completely surpassed my hopes for his recovery and I’m happy to have this cheerful little fellow in the barn.