[tricetra]

Hi All,

I have had a first timer lamber which had twins 3 days ago (out in field shelter). All was well, she lambed on her own and after a couple of hours seemed to be coping well so left her to get on with it. the next morning however one of the twins was running around turning to other ewes and mum had completely rejected it. we place the ewe and her babies in our barn and got the lamb to feed. we then placed both lambs in a dog crate at the end of the pen so she could see both her lambs but not injure them. every few hours I have been letting them out and they feed well but after 10 mins or so she turns on the rejected lamb.

I have slowly extended the time she spends with the lambs to a couple of hours but she still has no real bond with the reject. I have even tried smearing some of the bonded lambs faeces onto the reject but its made no difference.

Has anyone got any other advice on how to encourage this ewe to except her lamb. Have I done everything right?
Its now been 3 days in the barn with no improvement, how long do I leave it before we go down the bottle feeding road?

We only have one more ewe to lamb and  I did consider the possibility of fostering it to her but she is demented as this one so dont think this is an option.

Any help and advice would be appreciated!

[ZaktheLad]

First time ewes can be a little difficult and I pen all my ewes after lambing so that they can bond with their youngsters for a couple of days before letting them out in a wider area.  This gives me the opportunity to keep a close eye and check all is well.  I think you may need to enclose the ewe in a smaller space and tie her up so that she can not butt the lambs and they can then feed without risk of getting hurt.  It takes a huge amount of time and patience to get a ewe to accept a lamb after she has rejected it, but it is by no means impossible.   Someone on here suggested smearing a small amount of treacle on to the lambs so the ewe licks it off - I haven't tried this though.   I do not lamb outside, so I expect someone on here who does will be able to advise better on how they manage with their ewes in a similar situation.

[tricetra]

thank you for that advice and I have started tying her up now when the lambs are out.
We have a small paddock out the front of the house and as I am off work at present I am here all day so can keep an eye on them.

 all my other ewes have lambed during the day and once one lambed all the other ewes are let out of the paddock onto our hayfield, just so mum and baby can have 12 hours alone. This has seemed to work well, however,  This particular ewe, who is a complete nutter,  and will probably be gone by the end of the year, lambed at midnight and as all the other ewes were settled and quiet I thought it would be ok to leave her where she was.
Perhaps in hindsight I should have taken to the barn then.
 I will definitely try the treacle trick and see if it helps.

thanks again.

[tizaala]

Has she got enough milk for two? or a sore teet?

[tricetra]

No sore teats and plenty of milk both sides.

[Marches Farmer]

We used to have problems like this with first-timers then we made up adopter sections - a piece of thick ply with holes at the corners which allow it to be tied across the corner of a mothering up pen.  Slot in the middle wide enough to take the ewe's neck, bar at the top of the slot secured with two bolts and wing-nuts once she's in.  Water bucket and pile of hay at the front end.  Have to clean out where she's dunged every day.  Have the board across the front of the pen so you can top up feed and drink but don't have it so the sun(!) shines in her eyes.  Lambs can suckle every time she stands up.  We later improved this by cutting two cat-flap size holes at each side of the slot, so the lambs could go in and lie down under her nose. A week is the maximum time it's taken to work.  Any ewe needing to go in it, though, has been culled after weaning.  Not had to use them for quite a few years so mothering does seem to be a heritable trait.

[tricetra]

thanks for all the advice guys, is a real baptisim of fire doing it for the first time.

we have decided she will be going once weaned. She is such a nutter and handling her is always a fight albeit she can never win being a small Balwen ewe.

[SallyintNorth]

IME, hill breeds are very good at knowing whether they can actually rear two, and brutal about giving one the best chance if they can't.  It's how they've survived so long on the hill.