The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Festus on April 26, 2023, 08:28:28 am
-
For the first time since I began keeping sheep 5 years ago, one of my Shetland ewes has had triplets. All three are strong and lively. The mother is extremely protective. Should I take one lamb away from her and bottle feed or wait and see how she copes with three lambs. Her udders are very large. TIA
-
If it would work for you, my preference, with a mother who seems to be in good condition and loving all three lambs, is to top up all three - or as many as will take some - in the field, plus give mum some cake to augment her nutrition.
Major advantages : you don't have to feed more than twice a day, all lambs have other lambs' company and mum's antibodies and protection, reintegration into the flock is a non-issue, lambs reared on mum with a top-up do as well as any other lamb reared on a ewe.
But crucially, two benefits over not topping up at all : 1, you have at least one lamb in the family established on a bottle, so you can always augment what the mother has and the lambs never become so demanding she gets tipped into mastitis, which can happen all too easily a few weeks in with a ewe who's doing it all on her own, and 2, all lambs are satisfied with what they're getting and so you don't get one lamb starting to pinch off other ewes because it's always hungry.
To get topping up established, you may have to bring the family into a pen twice a day and distract Mum with food (and it's good to get a bit of cake into her anyway) while you try each lamb with a bottle. I like to work on the basis that if I can get one lamb's ration into the family, then mum only needs to produce a twins' ration, so all should be well, and I've found it works well.
Over a few days, the lambs who like the bottle (which may be one, two or all three) learn to run to you for their bottle. And the ewe usually accepts the arrangement because she learns that you aren't stealing any of her lambs, just helping.
Over time, my experience is it usually evolves into one lamb never takes any bottle, one always takes a bit and gradually one needs most of a full ration, may even stop taking any milk off mum at around 3 weeks / one month, when the other lambs are taking all she can produce.
-
If you don't like the topping-up-in-the-field arrangement or can't get it to work, then personally I would take one lamb off and bottle-rear. (Find it a friend, though, or it can be very difficult to get it reintegrated into the flock.)
I've lost too many ewes over the years when I've let her rear 3 without helping, and she's ended up with mastitis at a month in, or managed her three this time but then doesn't cope with her next crop in one way or another. (And giving a year off after triplets doesn't always help, you can get problems subsequently because she became over-conditioned in her year off and had triplets again, and/or a difficult lambing because she was too fat...)
-
Thank you very much for your advice. I have them in at the moment given the weather. I will start bottle feeding tomorrow and feel intuitively what you've advised as to keeping them together is the way forward. Thank you