[Jacob-list] rejecting lambs

[gotothewhip at aol.com]

Brenda,

I think you have some very vald points, especially with the nervous type momma!  We let the ewe clean off the lambs throughly. I did swap them to get her to focus on the #2 lamb and she took right to it.. was very relaxed.  She was caring and concerned for BOTH lambs for the first 36 hours... Thn Yesterday morning, she decided she just wanted no part of the ewe lamb.....

Another thing.. i dont know if I mentioned it to the list.. The lamb she rejected last year.. a lilac ram (her first ever lilac)  this year.. the lilac ewe was rejected.  Could diffrences in color bother her?






-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda <brenda at brenalanfarm.com>
To: Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Sent: Wed, Mar 3, 2010 10:25 am
Subject: [Jacob-list] rejecting lambs


This may not be pertinent to anyone's particular situation, but I think I've put together some things I've seen, especially in pasture or group pen lambings. (No, I CAN'T always tell when one of the stealth bombers is REALLY about to lamb after 3 weeks of false labor and a week of her hind end looking like the red spot on Jupiter!) The first time I saw this was at a neighbor's, but we have done variants on the theme... 
 
First off, I think some first time mothers get confused by lamb #2. (Many of our first timers have singled, and not had a problem claiming their lamb.) Lamb #1 is responding to clean up services and starting to move and make noise, so reinforces mama for paying attention. There is a real risk that lamb #2 will be neglected, and in fact the unequal attention might be getting worse. If it is cold or lamb #2 is small or weak or tired... it might stop trying. 
 
Now the shepherd is getting nervous! But I also think interfering increases mama's stress and further distracts her when she should be claiming BOTH lambs. Ah ha! Let's move everyone to a jug. Let's pick up that slimey mess with a towel. Now everyone is jugged, mama is circling around and trying to reorient. And lamb #2 is not only still looking weaker and quieter, now it smells like laundry detergent and fabric softener. Lamb #1 at least still smells like a lamb. Mama is more actively ignoring or rejecting lamb #2. 
 
The last time we strolled down parts of this path, I figured out we may have made the lamb smell wrong. Not being able to decontaminate lamb #2, we rubbed lamb #1 with the same towel, and snuck in an hour later and rubbed up both lambs again trying to balance out their smells. Eventually mama did claim lamb #2, but a couple of the earlier lambings here and elsewhere did result in bottle babies. Now we try hard to have first timers jugged if there is any reason to think they will be nervous wrecks with twins. And if we feel we absolutely must intervene, we try to barely slide lamb #2 between mama and lamb #1, and do so with minimal contact, no scented products on skin (or use gloves), and a fast retreat. It seemed dipping both navels in iodine also helped make both lambs smell the same. So- I hope thinking about scents will be helpful to someone in a similar situation. 
 
Brenda 
 
_______________________________________________ 
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/20100303/a1468fed/attachment.html>