[Jacob-list] new Mom

[sbennett]

The first lamb born at our farm was out of a first time mother. She tried 
to kill it, repeatedly. We cleaned it up, held her down and made her 
nurse. Couldn't leave her alone with the lamb, so we took it in the house 
for the night. The next morning, she wanted her lamb back and was oh so 
gentle and became very protective of her (evidently once she got her milk 
in, we were the bad guys for taking her baby). The following year, she 
lambed and cared for him, but was overprotective, i.e., he had to stay at 
her side at all times and wasn't allowed to go play with the other lambs. 
She was mean to other lambs that got too close. I sold her to a small 
farm (with full disclosure of her lambing behavior). They jug their 
mothers for several days (I'm not set up for that) and have had no 
problems with her. We kept that first lamb. She takes good care of her 
lambs, is a little more protective of her space than others, but not the 
real meanie her mother was.

The only other problems we've had with our jacob moms have been with a 
couple of first time "twinners" where they have cleaned up the first lamb 
and didn't realize they had a second one. Just dropped it and walked 
away. Fortunately, I was in the vicinity both times, cleaned up the twin 
a little and presented it to the mother. The twin was accepted both 
times, with some incredulous looks (what do you mean there's another one, 
I have this one over here, but it smells right, so it must be mine). And 
the first born seemed to be the favorite both times.

All in all, I think Jacobs are really good mothers and whatever happens 
the first time, they seem to know what to do next time around.

Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre

>
>Hi all,
>
>Our Corriedale cross ewe lambed yesterday afternoon.  2 ewes this time!
>Everything is fine now, but this was her first time lambing and she didn't
>seem to have the faintest clue about what was going on.  She got the first
>one out, and I cleaned out its mouth.  She didn't turn around to check it
>out, so I put it up  near the mom's head and she tried to butt it away.  She
>showed absolutely no interest in it at all.  I ended up having to dry it off
>myself, and she would have nothing to do with it.  When the second one was
>born, I put it near her head and she briefly licked its head and then lost
>interest.  I dried this one mostly myself as well.  We had to hold her still
>to let the lambs nurse, as otherwise, she kept running away from them and
>butting them occasionally.  Finally after about 3-4 hours she let them nurse
>without being restrained by me and showed some interest in them by sniffing
>them etc.  If I hadn't been there, these little lambs would have died, as
>she
>had no idea of what she was supposed to do.  They made it through the night
>just fine and she is acting more motherly now, but I was wondering if this
>is
>common behavior for first time moms.  Do you think she will do better the
>next time around?  What a shame it would have been if  these pretty little
>things had died.  One of them is coal black with a white toupee, and the
>other is colored almost like a Jacob, but with a solid black body and white
>marking on the head, chest, legs and tail.  (the dad is our Jacob ram).  I
>can't wait to see what the wool will be like.  It looks now to be nicely
>crimped.
>
>It was an exciting afternoon.  It all happened right when I brought the kids
>home from school, so they got to see the whole thing.  They were impressed,
>especially my daughter.  One of the lambs kept climbing up in her lap.  She
>was enchanted.  This was my first time to witness the birth of lambs, so it
>was pretty special for me too.
>
>Sharon