# Considering buying small ewe lamb



## Trish44 (Mar 30, 2014)

I'm going to be buying my first two lambs soon & have chosen one ewe lamb already, they're Katahdins. I'm looking at another lamb that is a twin ewe lamb that was born weighing only 3.5 lbs, the other ram twin weighed 5.5 pounds. The breeder says she is doing very well & going out to the pasture with the mom & all. So far she looks to be doing well despite her small size. My question is do small twin lambs that are born small like that usually catch up in size & do OK? I really like the coloring of this little ewe & if she is healthy despite her size I would really like to get her. I won't be getting either lamb until they're weaned, so this one does have time to do some growing & filling out. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated since I'm new to sheep.


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## SheepGirl (Apr 1, 2014)

For one, that is really tiny birth weights for twins born to a Katahdin. Twins should be in the 7-9 lb range each (not total litter weight) for a ewe that is 140-150 lbs or more. I had a ewe who weighed 104.2 lbs in mid November give birth to twins in mid March weighing 5.0 lbs and 7.6 lbs. Yes they were small in comparison to the rest of my lambs, but they were still active and strong and growing well. The reason for this ewe's small birth weights? Could be the ram she was bred to, could be a lack of proper nutrition, etc.

Either way, I don't see this ewe becoming very big, due to the lack of proper nutrition her dam received in the last month of gestation or her sire throwing small babies.

If I were you, I would choose another ewe lamb that has a high pre-weaning average daily gain (birth weight subtracted from weaning weight; divide that total by the days of age at weaning). Try not to choose based on color... yes it makes them prettier to look at but you don't eat color nor does color raise lots of big healthy babies. It could potentially be different if you were using the wool, but Katahdins are a hair sheep, so really no use for color except for aesthetics. JMO.


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