HABRI Central

Newborn lambs were studied in 6 experiments to identify simple cues that elicit teat-seeking behaviour, and to incorporate these cues into a device that would guide lambs to find and suck from a colostrum bottle. Lambs were removed from the ewe before sucking and were observed for 10 min in a small cubicle where alternative design features were presented in pairs. When presented with a horizontal ledge at head height with a fleecy undersurface wide enough (160 mm) to cover the lamb's muzzle, most lambs performed teat-seeking behaviour, including contacting the fleece repeatedly with the muzzle, opening and closing the mouth on the fleece, and upward butting movements of the head. These activities occurred much less if the fleecy undersurface was replaced by a hard wooden ledge (P<0.01), if the fleecy ledge was oriented vertically, or if the ledge width was reduced to cover only the mouth area (P<0.01 in most comparisons). Differences in surface texture (fleece vs. cotton-covered fleece), surface temperature (10 vs. 37 degrees C), and use of extra padding beneath the fleece had less marked effects. Reactions of lambs were then tested with a prototype colostrum bottle holder which incorporated soft rubber teats surrounded by a fleecy horizontal undersurface. Of 27 lambs tested with a blind teat, 24 found and sucked the teat without assistance in a median of 2.1 min. In a final test, of 13 lambs offered colostrum from the bottle, 10 found the teat and consumed 100 ml of colostrum in a median of 4.9 min. Thus, the prototype makes it easy to bottle-feed a newborn lamb in most cases, but some handling would be needed for certain individuals.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Animal behavior
2. Animal nutrition
3. Colostrum
4. Design
5. Drinking
6. Feeders
7. Feeding behavior
8. Lambs
9. Mammals
10. newborn animals
11. nipple drinkers
12. peer-reviewed
13. Sheep
14. suckling