The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Hugo on March 25, 2014, 12:45:51 pm
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Hello,
but is was just wondering if any body know what i should do as i have white faced welsh mountain sheep and one has had a triplet but i don't know if to leave the triplet with her or not as there is one weaker looking one. They all seem well at the moment. Does anybody have any idea if i should leave all three with her or take one away?
thank you
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It depends on the ewe and feeding. If she is in good condition, not thin, and has plenty of milk then she may be able to manage three. You'll need to feed her extra to help her make the extra milk. Keep a close eye on the lambs and if you think any of them doesn't have a full tummy and/or is blaring, you may need to top that one up from a bottle or even take it off and bottle-rear it.
If you aren't sure she has enough condition, and/or you won't be able to cake her, then it is probably best to bottle-rear one lamb. As the lambs grow they demand more milk, and if their need oustrips her supply then you can end up with her losing too much condition and even getting mastitis, and one or more lambs foundering. They're harder to get onto a bottle later on, so if you don't think she'll manage, take one off earlier rather than later.
Leave them all on for 48 hours to make sure they get some of mum's colostrum - but if you think there's any chance they haven't all had a good bellyful of colostrum then get a colostrum replacement feed into them as well. Then if you are going to take one off, take it off after that.
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If you take one off, try to leave an evenly matched pair with her. Even if that means taking the strongest away. That way one won't out-compete the other for milk.
I think it's often better to take off the strongest anyway as they will do better raised artificially than a weak one.
An alternative is to leave them all on her and top-up the weakest with bottled milk, once or twice a day.
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Any more with a single expecting soon that you could foster on to? A ewe does the best job!
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Thank you for you advice i have put a lamb revivarug i have on them all to help keep them warm as it cold where i live. I will keep an eye on them but how often due you think that i should check them? i will be keeping them in for a week to let them bond and keep them warm. Do you think i should get and infra red lamp? So far they have all suckled and the ewe is managing but this may not last much longer. Hopefully i will not have to inter fear by taking one away but hopefully i have got a ewe that is due one which i will try and adopted the weak one onto.
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I wouldn't have thought they should need a lamp - although if you give them a warm creep area away from mum it may save them getting squished!
If you get an opportunity to adopt one onto another ewe, I wouldn't choose the weakest one. Sometimes a foster lamb needs to be quite pushy ;). If adding it to a ewe which has a single, choose the one most similar in size to the lamb she has. And if fostering onto a bereaved ewe, a lamb similar in size to the one she lost. And ideally, the two who remain with the birth mother should be similar in size and strength. Such a lot to think about!
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Thank you very much for all your help.