ewe with 3 lambs

Tomjim

I had a ewe with 3 lambs Friday morning.

All fine so far, I let them out for a couple of hours yesterday and today to let the ewe get a bit of grass to help with milk

3 lambs are even no weak lamb and all seem to be doing ok.

Any other year I have 3 lambs I always end up losing a lamb as the ewe never seems to have enough milk/ there is one weak lamb.

What are my options, am I better off to put one on a bottle.

I only have 30 ewes and this is the first ewe to lamb so no options to foster

Tomjim

Tomjim wrote: »

I had a ewe with 3 lambs Friday morning.

All fine so far, I let them out for a couple of hours yesterday and today to let the ewe get a bit of grass to help with milk

3 lambs are even no weak lamb and all seem to be doing ok.

Any other year I have 3 lambs I always end up losing a lamb as the ewe never seems to have enough milk/ there is one weak lamb.

What are my options, am I better off to put one on a bottle.

I only have 30 ewes and this is the first ewe to lamb so no options to foster

Congratulations!

A few very cold days ahead. Make sure all are warm enough.

JJayoo

Try and get the lambs in on the concentrate as asap, make sure there is plenty of space for the lambs to stick their head in the trough with the ewe.

wrangler

Tomjim wrote: »

I had a ewe with 3 lambs Friday morning.

All fine so far, I let them out for a couple of hours yesterday and today to let the ewe get a bit of grass to help with milk

3 lambs are even no weak lamb and all seem to be doing ok.

Any other year I have 3 lambs I always end up losing a lamb as the ewe never seems to have enough milk/ there is one weak lamb.

What are my options, am I better off to put one on a bottle.

I only have 30 ewes and this is the first ewe to lamb so no options to foster

Very few ewes rear three successfully, she won't be under pressure at the moment but it's at 3weeks old they'll be demanding and that's when the weaknesses show up, the persistant sucking can trigger mastitis at that age

Does anyone else find that when you're trying to supplement lambs on ewes that the lambs can be hungry yet won't take lamlac

wrangler

Tomjim wrote: »

I had a ewe with 3 lambs Friday morning.

All fine so far, I let them out for a couple of hours yesterday and today to let the ewe get a bit of grass to help with milk

3 lambs are even no weak lamb and all seem to be doing ok.

Any other year I have 3 lambs I always end up losing a lamb as the ewe never seems to have enough milk/ there is one weak lamb.

What are my options, am I better off to put one on a bottle.

I only have 30 ewes and this is the first ewe to lamb so no options to foster

Forgot to say that you should be able to foster in a few days, When we see a single lambing we wet a dry lamb with warm salty water, tie his legs with cable ties, Lamb the ewe on top of him fluids and all, take away her own lamb , leave her for 15 mins, cut the cable ties, leave for another 15 mins and then give her back her own lamb and bingo

Tomjim

thanks for the replies at what stage would a lamb survive even though his growth may be stunted ie if I got him to 6 weeks would he be ok?

Kevhog1988

Id take 1 off the ewe. 3 lambs will rattle even the best of ewes and youll have a bag of bones at shearing time. I usually wean off the milk around 8 weeks once I see them eating a good bit of crunch. Have bought and reared a lot of pets here in the past few yrs.

wrangler

Tomjim wrote: »

thanks for the replies at what stage would a lamb survive even though his growth may be stunted ie if I got him to 6 weeks would he be ok?

We wean them here at 6 - 7 weeks when they'd be eating lamb crunch well and then they'd be left on adlib crunch and grass until slaughter

Dickie10

tried it a few times and did work but with constant feeding nearly have to open a creep feeder and let ewe and all in. let only 2 work away last year, one was a cracking big ewe that did it before, but still ended up with a scrappy third lamb, plus constant watching them , now i take one off and let her go with two and thats the end of watching her.

OneMan37

wrangler wrote: »

Forgot to say that you should be able to foster in a few days, When we see a single lambing we wet a dry lamb with warm salty water, tie his legs with cable ties, Lamb the ewe on top of him fluids and all, take away her own lamb , leave her for 15 mins, cut the cable ties, leave for another 15 mins and then give her back her own lamb and bingo

Good advice to anyone.

Alternatively you could sell the smallest lamb, or ram lamb give him a chance with a foster ewe or something.

Sami23

I know it's probably been asked before but if trying to foster a lamb or lambs onto a ewe using a crate is it advisable for the ewe to be able to see the lambs or not for the 1st few days.
Should you keep her own lamb out of sight also