Free Choice vs. Limited Feeding
Okay, let's say you were locked in a room with a giant water jug and a lifetime supply of bread. You can't get out, so when you're hungry or thirsty you eat and drink what's available. Of course, the water will be good, but that bread is going to get old after a while, but you still have to eat. So instead of eating meals of bread, you just take a bite every now and then. Then one day all of your bread disappears. You go about 12 hours without food and you are starving. What would you do if someone offered you a piece of bread? You'd eat it in one gulp.
By leaving feed with your lamb all the time your lamb just eats when it feels like it. But if you only offer your lamb feed two or three times a day and what he doesn't eat is removed, he's going to get pretty hungry in between meals. This builds a good appetite. A lamb with a good appetite is a sign of a healthy lamb. If your lamb is on a limited diet and doesn't have a good appetite, this should show signs of concern. And I've found through experiments, the same lamb will eat more feed if it isn't left with it all the time. There are other advantages to not leaving feed with your lamb all the time too. Your feed isn't going to get wet, moldy, or insect infested like it would if it was sitting in a feeder all day. Mice and rodents can't sneak into the feeder for a midday snack. Feed that comes straight from the bag or air-tight container is a lot fresher than feed that has been sitting out all day. Also, lambs have a tendency to choke on their feed. If you leave feed with them at all times, they may choke to death while you are away.
Now that the concepts of free choice and limited feeding has been discussed, how do you apply this to your feeding program? Well, not every type of food your lamb eats should be fed in the same way.
Grain or Pelleted Feed
If it's not already obvious, grain or pelleted feeds should be fed at limited feedings. To get your lamb started on a limited feed program, first you must set down the rules of dinner time. Decide how often you will be feeding your lamb. Decide what times your lamb's meals will be served. Finally, decide how long you will allow your lamb to finish a meal. For example, my lambs are normally fed twice a day (unless I'm trying to put on finish, then they are fed three times a day) at 8 o'clock in the morning and 8 o'clock in the evening. Each lamb has a maximum time of 15 minutes to complete a meal. I feed my lamb and watch the clock. If the lamb begins eating, finishes half of its meal, and then walks away to munch on hay, I take the feed away, even if the the lamb's 15 minutes are not up yet. The only exception to this rule is if the lamb stops eating, gets a drink, and then returns to the feed. If the lamb leaves the feed for any other reason, even if it has only been eating for one minute, I take the feed away. If the lamb doesn't stop and continues eating for 15 straight minutes, I take away the feed, even if the lamb is still busy eating at the time. Many people don't like my way of feeding. They feel that it is cruel to force them to eat so quickly. This is only the training process. Normally, after about two feedings of this type of control over the feed, my lambs will eagerly eat all of their feed as soon as it is given to them in less than five minutes. I especially enjoy this type of feeding system because it really makes your lambs realize who their shepherd is. They soon realize when it's time to eat, and WHO feeds them. People often have trouble with scared or jumpy lambs who are afraid to come too close to people. I guarantee that if you feed your lamb this way, it will follow you around and not be afraid of you (unless of course you chase it regularly or scare it on purpose).
Hay
Roughage is a very important part of your lamb's diet. Of the few people who actually offer their lambs hay, very few feed it free choice. The reason for this is that people think their lambs will eat too much hay and develop a "hay belly". What these people don't understand is that if a lamb has hay with it all the time, they won't gorge themselves on it. Just like the bread in the scenerio at the top of this page, eating the hay becomes more of a thing to do out of boredom than hunger. So if your lamb has hay all the time, it won't eat the hay until it looks like it's going to pop. By feeding hay FREE CHOICE, and NOT LIMITED, your lamb will have access to the hay it needs, and won't develop the so-called "hay belly".
Salt and Minerals
Loose salt and sheep minerals should be fed free choice to sheep. Salt and mineral blocks are undesirable because sheep do not lick these blocks like cattle would. Instead, they chew on the blocks, often breaking off their front incisors. Sheep consume salt and minerals not when they are hungry, but when their bodies tell them they need it. This is why you should provide salt and minerals in separate containers. Sometimes a sheep's body needs more salt than minerals, and vise versa. However, if the salt and mineral is mixed together, like many people do, a sheep is unable to get the specific nutrient they need. Since we can never actually predict when each individual sheep needs these extra nutrients, they most be offered free choice all the time. If for some reason you are not offering free choice salt and mineral to your lambs or if they just haven't had access to it in a while, be cautious on how you reintroduce it to them. If sheep go an extended period of time without minerals, and are then offered free choice minerals, they may gorge themselves on it. Sheep will do this because they have been craving these nutrients for such a long time they just don't know when to stop eating it once it is offered. If this happens, slowly introduce the minerals to your lamb. Give it only a small amount of each mineral. Each day allow it a little more. Whenever your lamb doesn't go crazy over the minerals any more, you can once again offer it free choice.
To sum it all up, feed your lambs limited grain and free choice hay, salt, minerals, and of course WATER. Remember if something is fed in limited quanities lambs will have good appetites and always be ready to eat. If something is fed free choice lambs will still eat it, but they will eat it over the course of a whole day.
