# Lamb eating dirt



## StockDogLovr (Apr 13, 2009)

I posted about my bummer lamb that my friends are raising. He is going through a bout of orf and now that I've looked at my other lambs more closely, so are they! I've never noticed this before, but then I haven't necessarily examined the mouths of the lambs so closely because they were happily on their moms and it's not noticeable without close-up investigation.

I think they'll all work their way through that - probably came in with the ram lamb I bought last spring who is likely their sire. Henry, the bottle baby, is lucky to be receiving lots of goats milk, more than lamb replacer.

However, we have noticed when he is out and about with us that he has a real attraction to eating dirt! He goes out of his way to eat the crusted dirt on our car fenders, and today he was munching on dirt from a gopher mound.

He'll be three weeks old on Thursday and is experimenting with eating grass, behind the others in that regard without sheep to observe. Is this dirt-eating a sign that he's missing a mineral or two in his diet? What is the best way to address this?


----------



## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> Is this *dirt-eating* a sign that he's missing a mineral or two in his diet? What is the best way to address this?


It's just what they do.
It's not a problem


----------



## Laurie J (Mar 9, 2005)

The only times we've had lambs eat dirt, they ended up dead within a few hours. Lost 3 or 4 that way before we started vaccinating.


----------



## acde (Jul 25, 2011)

are the trying to get iron?


----------



## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Do you have loose Minerals out for them?


----------



## Bouncenhumble (Jan 12, 2004)

We occasionally have a lamb eat dirt as its learning to eat grass. We even had one who would always eat mom's poop! 
But they rarely do it to any extreme. I'd be sure to put sheep mineral out with the creep feed.


----------



## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

I've seen this before, but never lost any lambs. I do vaccinate the ewes and lambs with CD&T, so that may be why I've never lost a lamb to it. This is a good article on lambs eating dirt from pipestone:

http://www.pipevet.com/userfiles/file/SheepArticles/GrowingLambs/DIRT-EATING%20LAMBS.pdf

Ron Parkers book also talks about dirt eating being related to low iron, but I doubt that is my problem as our well water has a lot of iron


----------



## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

LibertyWool said:


> I've seen this before, but never lost any lambs. I do vaccinate the ewes and lambs with CD&T, so that may be why I've never lost a lamb to it. This is a good article on lambs eating dirt from pipestone:
> 
> http://www.pipevet.com/userfiles/file/SheepArticles/GrowingLambs/DIRT-EATING%20LAMBS.pdf
> 
> Ron Parkers book also talks about dirt eating being related to low iron, but I doubt that is my problem as our well water has a lot of iron


Good article. Thanks.


----------



## eieiomom (Jun 22, 2005)

LibertyWool said:


> I've seen this before, but never lost any lambs. I do vaccinate the ewes and lambs with CD&T, so that may be why I've never lost a lamb to it. This is a good article on lambs eating dirt from pipestone:
> http://www.pipevet.com/userfiles/file/SheepArticles/GrowingLambs/DIRT-EATING%20LAMBS.pdf


Thank you, good article 

Livestock deficient in salt will also eat dirt, but I would think young lambs, during this time of year, aren't doing it for that reason.

As Bearfoot noted, "It's just what they do."

Deb


----------



## StockDogLovr (Apr 13, 2009)

I think this lamb fits in the "just what they do" camp. he doesn't get grain and hasn't learned to eat hay very well and puts everything in his mouth! We don't see sheep mineral sold in the feed stores around these parts. They sell goat mineral, which is a no-no for sheep, and they sell selenium salt for sheep but that's about it. The only other thing I could easily get is sheep pelleted feed. 

Is goat milk a source of iron for lambs? I haven't looked at the milk replacer label to see how well supplemented it is, but you would think they would cover the nutritional bases in the formula.


----------



## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> We don't see sheep mineral sold in the feed stores around these parts.


They should be able to order it for you even if they don't stock it


----------

