# Ewe Head Butting Lamb



## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

My 3 year old ewe just lambed triplets last night. This is her first time raising lambs, as last year she aborted twins. She's doing a pretty decent job, and licked all three of them fairly well last night, but this morning she started butting one of the lambs. Two are natural colored (black) and one is white, and it seems she is only butting the white one. 

Here's the thing though, she doesn't do it all the time...only now and then when the lamb is walking around near her, she'll head but it out of her way. Other times she'll let the lamb nurse and seem interested in it. 

I've got them in a 6'X6' jug, and today I put up a rail caddy cornered so the lambs have a space to get under the heat lamp and away from her if needed. 

I've seen ewes totally reject lambs, but not one who only "sometimes" doesn't like one of her lambs. I'd rather not take him completely away, but I will if I have to. I just started supplementing all three of them with milk replacer because they just seemed a little "hunchy" still. Until I decide if I'll have a full bottle baby, I'll supplement all of them so they smell the same.

Has anyone had this happen before...where a ewe only sometimes doesn't like her lamb? I'm hoping she'll get over it.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

I've seen them do some pretty screwy things. Sometimes that will turn into complete rejection, but she is probably a little confused by the color scheme. If you could make it dark as possible where she is at, it might help. Sometimes a ewe that butts lambs is showing signs of a bigger problem, mainly with the udder. Sometimes it marks the beginning of mastitis, but in your case it could be just an empty udder. In your situation, I would probably pull the lamb so that the other two could thrive, and the odd one would be a bottle lamb. I have had instances that in trying to get a sheep to mother a lamb that she was rejecting, she ended up rejecting all of them. (That ewe never gets to stay around after that.) They have their own reasons, and once they make up their mind, it's hard to change what little mind a sheep has. If you do decide to take a lamb off, always pull the one they are rejecting, and don't try to screw around with them, just go with the flow. Hopefully yours is just getting confused by an odd colored lamb, and she will get over it. I personally wouldn't trust a first timer to raise triplets, at least not until the weather was a little milder.


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## trainv (Apr 30, 2013)

with sheep "always remember- if its their idea, its a good idea" !!!!


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

I pulled the lamb this morning. She acted up set now that her baby is gone...dingbat. Now he's on his own in a large dog crate...thinking of naming him Han Solo.  I know it was a lot to expect her to raise all three, so I got milk replacer yesterday morning, just in case. 

I've got another ewe due to lamb any time...if by chance she has a single, I'll try to foster him on to her...but I'm hoping she has twins. I don't mind a bummer lamb..just hope there aren't more! 

trainv, I like that quote!


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

If that other ewe has a single, if you get in there quick enough, rub your foster lamb in her afterbirth, and squirt a little bit of her colostrum on his head. Just make sure he is fed first so that the new lamb has a chance to get plenty of colostrum.


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

I know it's too late now and you were worried about the milk situation but if it ever happens again you can try putting a lamb blanket on the baby. I have a set of light colored and dark colored ones and if hue baby's color is confusing the ewe then I put one on so it "matches" he rest. Full sized for a day or two until the ewe calms down then I pin it farther and farther up until I can take it off. With all my ewes except one it seems to be a startled reaction rather than outright rejection. The ewe gets kept in her own pen until she is completely comfortable with the odd colored lamb the she get turned out with the flock.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I did have a ewe accept a rejected lamb. Put her with her lamb and the bummer in a jug.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

I thought about putting a coat on the light one, but I figured I'd probably have to bottle feed one anyway (or at least supplement). My other ewe looks very close, but she's big enough to have twins...so we'll see. I may still try a dark coat, but I just don't want to chance her actually hurting the lamb. She's definitely torn though...seems to care for the baby now that he's away from her.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Put jackets on them all. Even if you end up bottling part time, it's easier for the ewe to raise the lamb than for you to do it. One by itself isn't very fun for the lamb either. I love to bottle but found that it's even more fun if I only have to do it a couple times a day and not ever in the middle of the night. I'd just take a bottle out 3-4 times a day and feed anyone that was hungry.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

Callieslamb said:


> Put jackets on them all. Even if you end up bottling part time, it's easier for the ewe to raise the lamb than for you to do it. One by itself isn't very fun for the lamb either. I love to bottle but found that it's even more fun if I only have to do it a couple times a day and not ever in the middle of the night. I'd just take a bottle out 3-4 times a day and feed anyone that was hungry.


Well, I'm not sure this first time mom can raise all 3 by herself. I don't feed bummers in the middle of the night...usually just 3-4 times a day (depending on the lamb) and not through the night. I'm waiting to see what my other ewe does, and if I can foster or not. I think it'll be easier for me to have this one separated instead of trying to bottle feed it part time...and he is right next to the pens of other sheep, so I'm not worried about him being to lonely at the moment. When he gets a little bigger/stronger he'll likely be able to go out with the rest of the sheep. If not, he can hang with my goats, since I bottle the kids too.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Bottle feedings in the middle of the night is why they invented lamb-bars! He has already had some colostrum from his mom, that is about as long as you need to fool around with a first time mother and triplets. I kind of go by a two strike rule for pulling lambs off. Triplets is a strike, first time mom is a strike, bad/cold weather is a strike, and lamb getting butted is a strike. He has four against him. Other strikes in my mind would be, old/weak sheep, difficult birthing, and anything else that might jeopardize a lambs health. That is not to say that I always follow my own rules, I have had triplets become milk pirates, and make it off of a suck here and a suck there, and I have lost even single lambs that I took for granted were getting enough from mom. If in doubt, pull them out, a lamb will survive on a bottle, and a dead lamb won't come back to life no matter how much you second guess the situation. I lamb a fair number of ewes and do it on range conditions, (they do have sheds they can go in )and I've spent the last twenty years breeding for sheep that can handle that. It takes a lamb that gets on it's feet quick, and a good mother. 90% of what makes a good mother is milking ability, if her udder is full, she will look for something to relieve it. I have ewes that will raise triplets with no intervention, I also have ewes that I don't trust to raise triplets. It's nice to foster one when you can, but I do that as much for the ewe to have a lamb on each half of the udder as I do it to get out of raising bottle lambs. If you keep sheep, you had better be willing to raise bottle lambs, but it is usually pretty easy to have people lined up on a waiting list for bottle lambs. I started out with bottle lambs, probably why I had so many screw-ups to start with. A ewe that kicks out a triplet is not something I would cull for. Completely natural. A lot of times they don't butt them, they simply leave them somewhere and don't come back to get them. A ewe that kicks out a twin, and then decides to butt both of them when you try to get her to take the one she kicked out, and then dries herself off in protest of being locked up, yes, she needs to leave. High strung sheep don't make good mothers and sheep that don't milk don't make good mothers, and that is hereditary.


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 3, 2013)

We had a ewe years ago that had one black lamb her first lambing. Second lambing she had one black and one white. She wouldn't take the white one so we put dark coats on both (covered their heads too - they looked like little race horses). After that she was fine. Olivia was never very bright. ound:


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

Tried a dark coat just to see if that would work, and it definitely did not work. Brought the little guy in the house just for a bit and he ended up napping in my lap for an hour and a half. :happy2: He's back out in the barn now though.


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## houndlover (Feb 20, 2009)

I had a ewe this week in labor with a breech for hours, she went out in the morning, with the rest of the herd, didn't look like she was near, so I didn't jug her, she laid down back in the farthest corner of the pasture and I didn't look for her until she didn't come back at feeding in the afternoon. Pulled the lamb, the other one came fast, got everyone up and cleaned up, she let both lambs nurse. The breech was definitely weak and looked to have sore hips, so I carried him back to the jug and she followed with number 2. Almost immediately she started butting the breech, but then she'd let him nurse. I think she held a grudge. I ended up supplementing him twice over the first 36 hours when I found him hungry and she wouldn't nurse him, but as soon as I showed up then she'd be all motherly. I watched on the barn cam and if I left, she'd go back to butting him away. I pulled him yesterday as a bummer and gave him to a friend who has a single bummer. They'll do better together and the ewe doesn't miss him. He might have made it, or he might have starved. Sometimes it takes a ewe 2 or 3 days to figure out the lambs are hers, hence the jugging. She's always been a good mother so I think the breech had something to do with it. Both lambs were huge. I might have held a grudge too.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

Yep, that's how she was with this one. When I was there she was an angel. 

My little orphan boy is doing great. Today is his first day with me back at work, and I can hear him on my little camera calling to be fed. Poor guy, he's got a few more hours to go. I tried tapering back the mid-day feeding the past 2 days to get him adjusted. I'm calling him Piglet since he has a stuffed tiger for a companion at the moment. My other ewe is due any second now, and I'm almost hoping she has trips so I can bottle feed one as a buddy to Piglet.

And I think I'd hold a grudge too. :grin:


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