[Jacob-list] Need help!!! New Mom rejecting lamb

[Betty Berlenbach]

I wonder if some mothers just don't teach their daughters that breasts are for feeding.  Mine certainly didn't, and I was absolutely stunned when I found out: turned me against breast feeding entirely.  Perhaps if I had had a shepherd to encourage me, I would have come around, but as it was, it was Evenflow all the way.  Maybe sheep mothers in some way, need to teach their daughters...as, for example, the sheep get less primitive and more standardized.  REjecting lambs seems much more common in standardized breeds.  I wonder if rejection isn't a sign that their are some instincts being slowly bred out of our once primitive sheep...I think I'd consider very carefully whether to cull such sheep or not.  All the beauty in the world is worth nothing to me if they aren't as primitive as possible, in terms of instincts and mothering and lambing.  I have no interest in ewes who reject their lambs...though I know that part of the instinct is that often they know more than we know, and they reject their lambs because there's something wrong with the lamb...so I am careful in assessing the situation.  I once had a 13 or older year old ewe who would only feed one lamb.  The other she actually brought to me in her own way for feeding: come to find out she only had one operating teat left, and that one not a full fountain of nourishment. I  think she realized on some level that she could only raise one strong lamb, and in the open, weak lambs would be a threat to mother and lambs, so she opted to feed just one.  The other one though stayed with her and she loved it: she just couldn't feed it.  They are smart, these guys!

I also wonder if again, because of some standardization creeping in, some lines now produce too much milk too quickly (or maybe it's because we feed them much better than they'd be fed in the wilds) and they engorge and are very painful until that first milking out.  And so they want no one, lamb or anyone else near them.  But once milked out once, then they are fine with milking.  So, the fault may be ours in feeding too rich a diet for primitives?  Okay, end of my "ruminations" for the morning.  Need to go out and see if there's any more lambs: checked at five and found pair of twins born maybe 3?  So, I now have three sets of twins, five girls and one boy, plus one single shetland ram lamb from a first timer who looked like she was going to either have triplets or explode or float up into the sky and disappear in the wind, she was so huge.  Speaking of overfeeding...  

Good luck, those with moms rejecting...and may this be the last time it happens!
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda 
  To: Marguerite Van Beek ; jacob-list 
  Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 9:07 PM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Need help!!! New Mom rejecting lamb


  I saw that behavior twice here this year - first time ever.  I posted to the list re the first one.  As I herded her into a pen, she had to choose to run or protect her lamb.  She chose to protect the lamb and they were instantly bonded.  The second ewe kept licking her lamb and then actually tossing the lamb in the air when the lamb approached to nurse. Both ewes lambed outside during the day.  The second one I had to drag up the hill (we will be lambing in a flatter area next year!) while carrying the lamb.  Once I held the ewe so the lamb could nurse, she turned into the world's greatest mother with no further attention from me.  I don't know why these two ewes were initially confused.  Both were first time mothers at two years, both are daughters of fantastic mothers, they are paternal 1/2 sisters, they both have leg markings,  they both have long fleeces, one is four horned and one is two horned, they both were born here ---- looking for a common thread to understand the behavior, but haven't found it.

  Hope your girl decides to take her lamb!

  Linda


  Visit our new babies!
  http://www.patchworkfibers.com/2005lambs.html


  On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 07:52:20 -0400, Marguerite Van Beek wrote:
  > My huntsberger ewe just had a ram lamb last night.  Everything seem
  > to be fine, she talked to him, licked him but when he tries to
  > nurse she rams him.  I stayed up all night, put him in a box next
  > to her, and every two hours took him out and let him nurse while I
  > held the ewe.  But if I leave him in there with the box protection
  > and he nurses on his own she rams him good.  If I remove him she
  > screams for him and him for her.  I looked at the udder and it
  > isn't sore or large (since he is nursing).  Any suggestions PLEASE.
  > I was going to try to get TaWee her friend to take him since she
  > also had her's last night but he screams for his own mom and she
  > for him.  Dear god!!!  I did give her a 1/2cc of Banamine just now,
  > maybe she was just too sore from lambing.  I want to try
  > tranquilizers
  > but have no idea what kind. 
  >
  > Peggy
  > NJ




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Jacob-list mailing list, sponsored by Swallow Lane Farm & Fiberworks
  Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
  http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/jacob-list
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20050404/681a6f5a/attachment-0001.html