Goat milk or lamb formula?

by Ann
(Walnut creek ca)

We are bottle feeding a baby lamb.
He did get his colostrum and was rejected at day 3. We have been feeding him goat milk.
Is this better than lamb formula?
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Yes, you can can use goats milk for orphaned lambs. Many a lamb has been raised like this, and rather successfully.

Goats milk is easily digestible and of course much cheaper than milk replacer, and you don't have to muck about with making it up either.

Is goats milk better than lamb replacer? Difficult to answer. From an economic perspective, yes. From a labor saving issue, yes. From a nutritional perspective, lamb milk replacer has been developed specifically for lambs and therefore has the right ratios of all the elements necessary to raise healthy lambs.

Goats milk is for goats. The composition is as follows:
13.5% dry matter,
26.7% crude protein,
29.6% fat,
37.8% lactose and
5.9% ash

The composition of ewe’s milk is:
18.2% dry matter,
24.7% crude protein;
39% fat,
26.4% lactose and
4.7% ash

If I had a good supply of goats milk and was not able to milk my ewes, didn't want to spend a lot of money on milk replacer and couldn't be bothered to make up the bottles every time because I had too many orphan lambs to deal with, then I would use goats milk as it can be used with success.

Hope that makes things clearer. In the end, you will have to make the decision as to whether you carry on using the goats milk, or you switch over to the milk replacer. However, if your lamb is doing well, and has no scours, I would carry on as you are doing.

Regards
Kathryn