[kelly58]

So much for Boreray only having singles ! One of my girls had twins this afternoon.
She doesnt seem to have much milk so they have had 70ml of colostrum. Will giv them 70ml again at 9pm.
How often do l need to feed them colostrum through the night ? They are tiny little tots. Farmer friend said keep giving them colostrum is this right. Hoping mum will get more milk, she has feed and hay. Any thoughts folks ?
First timer here

[mab]

I'm new too so I hope an expert can answer soon,  but I was told recently the mum produces colostrum in the 1st 6 hours after birth; if that true, I would have supposed you move onto milk after that time?


not much help to you sorry.

[kelly58]

Thanks mab

[kelly58]

Have asked a farmer friend to come over and see if they need tubing, l cant do it too scared Gonna be a long night !

[Pedwardine]

I think we've kept with the colostrum for the first 24 hours when we've needed to, then onto milk replacer. There are drugs you can inject to 'encourage' the milk to come but can't remember offhand what they are (have only had need once). Is she a novice mum? Sometimes that natural instinct to drop the milk isn't as forthcoming on first timers. Have you tried imitating the bashing of the udder and a squeeze of the teat that the lambs do to get a flow coming? Worth a try?

[kelly58]

Hi Pedwardine, not first timer, tryed squeezing teats and helping lambs on but udder doesnt seem to have much in ??

[SallyintNorth]

Sometimes an udder doesn't have much milk in because the lambs have drunk it all.   And sometimes we humans can't get milk out of the udder, but it's there - she just won't drop it for us. 

However, if the udder seems small, the teats floppy rather than full, and the lambs hungry, then she doesn't have enough for them.

If you have any grass you can put her on, that will help her milk supply more than anything else you can do.  And a high protein feed - but I'm not sure how much you should give a wee Boreray, even one with twins. 

The jag that helps them drop the milk is oxytocin, but generally the hormones at birth and the feeling of the lambs suckling are all the stimulus a ewe needs.  Some first timers do take 24 hours or so to really get the milk supply going, in which case yes, give colostrum to the lambs as they must have this with the first 6 hours really.

[jaykay]

I'm increasingly of the view that this 'not much milk' thing is much less often the case than we think. And that we get stressed about it and intervene more often than we need to - if we're filling them up with artificial, or someone else's colostrum or milk, they're not drinking their mother's. And creating the demand in her for more.

If the lambs are hunched up, thin-bellied and maybe crying, then yes.

But not because we can't get much milk from them. That's because:

1. they aren't letting it down for us - as Sally says (if you've ever tried to milk someone else's goats, or your own when something has spooked them, you know all about this!
2. the amounts of colostrum produced in the first instance are relatively modest - milk increases in due course. But then the requirements of the lambs are relatively modest in the first instance, they feed little and often. So the ewe doesn't need a huge bagful - some have, some don't.

[kelly58]

Thanks all, will put her out in the new small paddock we have done for them , good clean grass ,and put some bales for shelter for the lambs as they are very wee. Ewe has had a good feed herself, maybe being cofined in a pen in their shed is making a difference ? Boreray are skitty like the Soay. Worth a try many thanks. Gotta get it right for the next arrivals !