Colostrum & Newborn Lamb Care: The Vital First 24 Hours

A lamb is born with almost no immunity and almost no fuel reserve. Everything it needs to survive its first weeks, antibodies, energy, warmth, has to be supplied in the first day. Get the first 24 hours right and most lambs look after themselves from there. Get them wrong and you spend the rest of the season treating watery mouth, joint ill and hypothermia.

Three things decide the outcome: colostrum, warmth, and a clean navel.

Why colostrum is not just milk

Colostrum is the thick, yellow first milk, and it does three jobs at once:

• Antibodies. The ewe’s placenta does not pass antibodies to the lamb before birth, so every antibody a lamb has in its first weeks comes from colostrum. This is why the ewe’s clostridial booster, given roughly 4 weeks before lambing, matters, it puts protective antibody into the colostrum.
• Energy. Colostrum is far more energy dense than ordinary milk. A newborn lamb has very little reserve and will chill quickly without it.
• Gut protection. It coats the gut wall and helps clear meconium.

The critical constraint is time. The lamb’s gut absorbs whole antibodies for only a short window:

• Absorption is best in the first 2-6 hours.
• It falls sharply after about 12 hours.
• By 24 hours the gut is effectively closed.

Colostrum given at 30 hours provides energy, but almost no immunity. The clock starts at birth.

How much, and when

The working figure is 50 ml per kilogram of bodyweight per feed, and roughly 200-250 ml/kg over the first 24 hours, split across feeds.

Lamb birth weight	Per feed (~50 ml/kg)	Total in first 24 h (~200-250 ml/kg)
3 kg	~150 ml	~600-750 ml
4 kg	~200 ml	~800-1,000 ml
5 kg	~250 ml	~1,000-1,250 ml
6 kg	~300 ml	~1,200-1,500 ml

On timing: the first feed should come within 2 hours of birth, ideally within the first hour, then every 4-6 hours through the first day. Small, weak or triplet lambs need smaller, more frequent feeds, an overloaded abomasum does no good.

Most lambs will get there themselves. Your job is to check that they have.

Checking that a lamb has actually fed

A lamb standing beside its mother is not necessarily a lamb that has drunk.

• Feel the belly. A fed lamb has a full, rounded, slightly firm abdomen. An empty lamb feels hollow and tucked up.
• Check the ewe’s udder. Strip both teats and remove the waxy plug. A ewe with mastitis, a blocked teat or no milk is a lamb emergency.
• Watch the lamb suck. Look for a vigorous, tail-wagging suck, not just nuzzling.

Sources of colostrum, in order of preference

1. The lamb’s own mother. Always first choice, matched to your farm’s pathogens.
2. Another ewe on the same farm, milked out and given fresh.
3. Frozen ewe colostrum from your own flock. Freeze surplus in small, labelled portions from ewes with singles. Thaw gently in warm water, never in a microwave on full power, heat destroys the antibodies.
4. Commercial ewe colostrum replacer, a genuine replacer, not a supplement. Mix strictly as directed.
5. Cow colostrum is a last resort. It can cause anaemia in lambs, so use it only with veterinary advice.

Never buy in raw colostrum casually, it is a route for importing disease into the flock.

Stomach tubing

If a lamb cannot or will not suck, tube it. Get the technique shown to you by your vet before you need it.

• Only tube a lamb that is warm (see below) and has a swallow reflex.
• Measure the tube from mouth to last rib and mark it, so you know how far to pass it.
• Pass it gently down the left side of the mouth; the lamb should swallow it. If it coughs or struggles, withdraw and start again.
• Let the milk flow by gravity. Never force it with the plunger.
• Never tube a cold lamb, a hypothermic lamb cannot digest, and the milk sits in the gut.

Hypothermia: the biggest killer of newborns

A wet newborn on a cold, windy night loses heat astonishingly fast. Normal lamb rectal temperature is roughly 39-40°C. Treatment depends on the lamb’s age and temperature, and the order of operations matters:

Situation	Action
Temp above 39°C	Dry off, return to ewe, ensure it feeds
Temp 37-39°C, any age	Dry, feed colostrum (suck or tube), warm
Temp below 37°C, under 5 hours old	Dry, feed colostrum by tube, then warm
Temp below 37°C, over 5 hours old	Do NOT tube first. The lamb has used up its blood glucose. It needs veterinary intravenous glucose before warming, or it may convulse. Call your vet.
Warming	Use a warming box with warm air (around 37-40°C), dry the lamb first, keep the head out, monitor continuously

Warm the lamb back to a normal temperature, feed it again, and only then return it to the ewe, checking that she takes it back.

Navel dipping

The navel is an open door to the bloodstream. Untreated, it is the route into joint ill, liver abscesses and septicaemia.

• Dip the navel in a strong iodine solution (or as your vet advises) as soon as possible after birth, ideally within 15 minutes.
• Fully immerse the cord, use a small dip cup, not a spray, so the whole stump is covered.
• Repeat 2-4 hours later.
• Do not cut the cord short; leave a reasonable length and let it dry.
• Keep the lambing pen clean and well bedded. Hygiene at the point of birth does more than any dip.

The first 24 hours: a checklist

• Clear the airways; check the lamb is breathing.
• Dip the navel in iodine, and again a few hours later.
• Check the ewe’s udder, both teats, milk flowing.
• Confirm the lamb has fed within 2 hours; feel the belly.
• Ensure it gets 50 ml/kg per feed and roughly 200-250 ml/kg across the first day.
• Keep the pen dry, deeply bedded and draught free, and check the ewe has bonded.
• Record the ewe, the lambs, the birth weight and anything unusual.

Be ready before they arrive

None of this works if you are still looking for the stomach tube. Gestation averages 147 days, with a normal range of 142-152. Put your tupping dates into the Sheep Gestation Calculator to get your expected lambing date and window, and have the iodine, tubes, warming box, thermometer and frozen colostrum bank in place from day 142, not day 147.

This article is general husbandry guidance, not veterinary advice. For decisions about a specific animal or flock, speak to your vet.

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Plan your lambing dates: use the free Sheep Gestation Calculator to turn a breeding date into an expected lambing date, a 142–152 day window and a full milestone timeline. Estimates only, always consult a veterinarian for animal-health decisions.

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