[Jacob-list] FW: Rejected lamb

[ARTHUR PARTRIDGE]

On May 12, 2011, at 10:38 AM, Joshua Bourget wrote:
 > So my question is this...Will this ewe be a better mother next time 

> around? and actually care for her lamb? or should i consider 

> removing her from my flock. Has anybody had experience with bad 

> first time moms that turned out to be great moms once they were 

> older??

=========
I had a ewe that was a bad first time mother and then turned out to be a
great mom after that.  My mistake was picking up the newborn lamb and
carrying it to the barn.  It was raining hard and I was concerned about
leaving the lamb out.  The mother freaked out, didn't follow me to the barn
like the other ewes always did.  After crying for her baby for awhile, she
finally came in the barn and then tried to ram the lamb.  I really thought
this was odd, it never happened before.  This ewe was really confused.  I
ended up bottle-feeding the lamb.  So the next year I left the lamb alone
after it was born, except to check it out, and the ewe did a great job and
was a good mother for several years after that.

I think a ewe deserves a second chance after being a bad, first time
mother.  Some ewes seem a bit immature at times.  I think my ewe was a
little dingy in the head because once she was bawling her head off and
couldn't find her lamb and it was laying peacefully right behind her.  The
ewe didn't bother to look.

I wait until the ewes are an age of a year and a half before I get them
bred.  I bought a ewe that was pregnant, the previous owner had her bred at
7 months old. The ewe had no trouble giving birth but she didn't have
Colosseum/milk for the lamb until a few days after his birth, another
problem that occurs when sheep are bred too young.   

Cathy
Moscow, Idaho