[graham-j]

Hi, I have a ewe she is a good mum in every way except she wont let the lambs feed.
She is obsessively cleaning them , keeping them close to her ,they sleep all cuddled up .
But when the go near her udders she freaks out and spins round. Her udders are very large and both teats produce plenty of milk. This is her second lambing and she done exactly the same last year and I took the lambs away.I would understand it if she was rejecting them in other ways but she is not.

Any advice please.

[Buttermilk]

Hold her still while the lambs drink, she will soon get the idea.

[twizzel]

As above but if this is the 2nd time she's done this then cull her... not worth the hassle. She's not a good mum if she won't let them feed

[mowhaugh]

Agree with both bits of advice given above. Not all that unusual in a sheep having its first lamb, but I wouldn't be impressed with something doing it for a second time. Although I suppose if you lifted the lambs last year, she maybe never got a chance to get used to it. Hold her or halter her so lambs can suck. She should soon get used to it,

[graham-j]

Putting a halter on her now. Its annoying I had another ewe that down right rejected her lambs a right nasty thing she was. Got rid of her straight away. But this one wants to mother just not feed.

This is my 3rd season of lambing and I have 26 ewes.

[mowhaugh]

Putting a halter on her now. Its annoying I had another ewe that down right rejected her lambs a right nasty thing she was. Got rid of her straight away. But this one wants to mother just not feed.

This is my 3rd season of lambing and I have 26 ewes.

I think it can be one of two things, either they just don't like the feeling of it, in which case they'll get used to it, or they are just so besotted with their new babies they don't want to let them too faar away from their noses! If she loves them, it shouldn't take much sorting by tying her up once she catches on.

[SuffolkK]

I would tie her up or hold her and latch the lambs on. As previous comments, she will get used to it. I had a first timer this year that it took nearly 10 days before she would let her lamb feed. She just kept kicking it off the teat. With patience and holding the ewe she eventually did get used to it and the lamb is now thriving

[harmony]

If her bag is very full she will be glad to take some pressure off. I guess you have tried both teats and checked her bag isn't hard as you say both teats have plenty of milk. You don't say what sort of sheep and I am also assuming they are in? Often all you need to do is put the ewe against the pen side and and put your leg against her in front of the shoulder. Sometimes they are happier with that than being tied up.

[graham-j]

I spent most of last night holding her ,whitest the wife was trying to latch the lambs on. Its a Texl cross Suffolk and yes both teats are working . Her udder is very full but not hard.

[farmershort]

As above, maybe you took them off a little soon last year, so she still needs to learn that it's ok.

As someone said above, the relief from being milked is said to be thing that finally convinced the ewe to stand still.

If they're really bad then we'll tip the ewe upside down to begin with, and hold the lambs on until all parties understand... Then switch to standing position whilst holding.

Beware too of what scientists would call 'observation bias '. If you're stood close, the ewe will be in fight or flight mode all the time, and won't let the lambs suck because of the nearby danger.

[Marches Farmer]

We've made wooden adopters that have worked quite well in the past.  They run across a hurdle pen corner with a long U-shaped lot in the middle for the ewe's head to go through.  There are strong uprights each side of this but the rest of the sides are open, which allows the lambs to be in front of her nose some of the time.  There's a couple of holes in one upright which allow a water bucket to be tethered to one side of the opening.  Hay is piled up in front of her nose.  We leave the ewe in for a couple of days, then let her out during the day when we can keep an eye on her.  If she butts the lambs away she goes straight back in but they've generally calmed down from the raging birth hormone phase by then and are fine.  We've always culled out any that aren't and the adopters mostly gather dust these days.

[Anke]

I spent most of last night holding her ,whitest the wife was trying to latch the lambs on. Its a Texl cross Suffolk and yes both teats are working . Her udder is very full but not hard.

My one and only ever Txl/suffolk did exactly the same. Was ok for third time.... Just held her against the side of the pen while her lambs suckled. Took a few days...

[graham-j]

Just been up there tonight ,to give the lambs a bottle feed. The situation still apeared the same ,but one of the lambs would barely feed from the bottle,so I figure at least one of them has started to get a feed off the ewe.