[CL]

We were delighted when one of our GFD delivered twins around 8am this morning!!! Unfortunately they are very wobbly and seem tiny! Mum is very keen on licking them and is attempting to be very motherly… however she is just very rough!! Neither is able to feed from her as she just can't stand still for more than 10 seconds. Its almost as though she is totally over excited by them!! She is pawing at them and they are SO fragile, I'm worried she is just too rough!! She started licking one and was so keen that it was on its back with its legs kicking in the air and honestly it looked terrified!! We are tube feeding them as there is no chance they would survive without!! Has anyone experienced this before? 

[jaykay]

It's quite common, and lambs survive it. I've just watched one of my Shetlands do it. The pawing is hard to watch but....

I wouldn't tube feed, I'd go and make a cup of tea, and then watch from a distance - sometimes us being there makes them a bit frantic to protect their lambs, and also get them onto their feet and ready to run.

It will sort out - she'll slow down and they'll get stronger and feed.

[Helen Wiltshire Horn]

One of my Wiltshire Horn ewes was doing this with her single.  I thought she was going to squash or trample on him and didn't see him feed for 48 hours.  I asked an experienced sheep keeper what she thought and we worked out that the ewe was agitated by my presence and calmed down when I wasn't around.  I don't think that there was any doubt that he was being fed as he seemed to have a full belly and I expect she was letting him feed when I wasn't poking my nose into the pen. I found it such a difficult balance between checking that they are all ok and interfering with the natural bonding process. 
Helen

[Bionic]

I found my new mums last year were the same. They seemed so pleased with their new lambs that every time the lambs tried to feed mum turned around to lick them again. I was worried they weren't getting fed but I needen't have worried. Eventually they all had full tums.


Perhaps you could give mum a feed bucket to give her something else to concentrate on for a few mins and then you can lift the lamb to the teat while she is still.


I am sure once you have seen the lamb feed properly you will feel happier.

[Slimjim]

A problem with my Jacobs last year was their enthusiasm for licking resulted in the end of the lambs' tails become a bloody mess - one developed a nasty abscess as a result.  Kept spraying with iodine and every antiseptic known to the western world, but nothing deterred them.

[steve_pr]

In our limited experience this generally works itself out.  I am inclined to agree with the opinion that being too intrusive simply makes them more frantic, especially with the first time mums. The biggest problem with the Greyfaces is simply the amount of wool.  The lambs are preprogrammed to go in there and suck, but can be less than selective about what they suck on - and a good lump of wool as a good as a teat as far as they are concerned!!. We have just finished lambing our flock of 30+ greyfaces and we routinely leave them for a couple of hours to lick and bond and then turn mum over and give her a good trim around the tum so that the teats are more accessible.  Sometimes a quick bit of guidance is required to get the lamb on the teat (or to remind them that they actually have to suck for a meal!) but most of them get the technique fairly quickly. 


We have one yearling who simply will not stay still and have to physically hold her (against the wall) to allow the lamb to feed (at which point it will suck her dry!!). That is such hard work that we are also bottle feeding the lamb to top her up.  Would prefer not to have to, but would also like to make sure we don't lose a lamb so it becomes the lesser of two evils.


Those that get it (the majority) are fine - we are hitting 15kg now for our earliest lambs who are now 4-5 weeks old (singles, twins are understandably smaller).  We had one ewe who simply gave birth and walked away and wanted nothing to do with the lamb so we have had to bottle feed him since then, but even he is doing fine.


They may be a rare breed, but they have survived without us intervening on the past so you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Most of our lamb without any interference from us - we just go in and clean up afterwards and put them in a lambing pen for peace and quite (and no distractions or escape) for a few days before they go into the nursery to learn how to socialise.

[Marches Farmer]

This happens occasionally to one of our first-timers and we put the ewe in a home-made adopter - long vertical slot with bar at the top for her neck, spaces at the side so the lambs can get round in front of her nose, bucket on one side, pile of hay on the other, fits across the corner of the pen.  In a day or so she'll calm down and in the meantime the lambs can suckle and don't get kicked.  Yes, the breed has survived for many centuries but you don't know how many over-enthusiastic first-timers pawed their lambs and damaged their ribs, or worse, in the past.