If you are leaving all three on mum, here are my tips:
- if mum is less than condition score 2.5, do not consider doing this without topping up one or more of the lambs using bottled milk - and do this from the beginning, it's hard to get them on the bottle later unless you take them off the mother completely
- if mum is less than condition score 2, do not consider doing this fullstop
- give all three additional colostrum if you can and definitely if there is any concern about all three getting sufficient
- in our case, triplets always get OraJet or Spectam - a preventative dose of an antibiotic - to reduce the risk of watery mouth, scouring, etc
- give mum extra feed until weaning, or at the very least until the lambs are eating quantities of cake themselves
- get a ewe-and-lamb cake so that the lambs learn to eat cake as early as possible, copying mum and sharing hers (you can give them higher quality stuff in a lamb-only creep area later, once they've learned to eat it, and switch mum back onto a standard ewe ration then if you want and she's doing well)
- make sure mum always has plenty of clean water available - she'll need it to produce all that milk!
- keep the family on your best grass, make sure there's always plenty for them
- be vigilant for signs of orf and / or early mastitis ( * ), particularly if you have a dry spell and/or the grass is other than thick, clean and succulent
I have and do rear three on their mum but the fear is always that, as the demand increases as the lambs grow, the ewe is pulled down by the workload, resulting in mastitis and more often than not, a broken-uddered ewe, or, even if she manages, she struggles to regain sufficient condition for next year's tupping.
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* ) one precursor sign is lambs bothering mum and her kicking them away - it's usual in the early days while the lambs learn the rules, but in older lambs it can indicate a supply problem brewing, and if not addressed, mastitis can often follow, which may be accompanied by orf on the ewe's teats and the lambs' mouths