# nose rings for weaning lambs



## shmurciakova (Jun 18, 2017)

Hi, I just purchased some Easy Wean nose rings. Have any of you used them and can you tell me, do I still need to reduce the ewes feed to prevent mastitis? My lambs are 9 weeks old and I have a buyer who wants the ram lamb in a few weeks. Also, Mom is looking kind of poor. She had to have an episiotomy with these lambs and lost a lot of weight. Thanks!


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## secuono (Jun 18, 2017)

I ended up simply pulling the lambs the day the new owner came to get it, lambs that were over 10wks old. 
Others I pull into a small weaning pen for a few days to let them cry it out. Then move them next to the house to be gentled. Most people buy my lambs to be pets, so it's a step they usually don't want to do much work on themselves. 
After 4wks, if they're still not picked up, I toss them back in with the ewes. I noticed on ones put back before 4wks, they tried to nurse off any and all the ewes.

The nose rings are not made for my tiny breed of sheep and the rapid growth that happens at 7-9wks when people want to pickup the lambs, so the design didn't work out. The ends of the ring should be made wider. The rings needed daily tinkering or they would be too small and the nose grew to cause the ends to go through the septum. Not really a huge issue, as it heals very fast, but it is annoying to have an open wound if they were put on during fly season. And the constant tinkering was stupid, labor intensive and it was easy to make them too loose and the lamb would pop it off. They otherwise worked great to stop the ewes from allowing the lamb to nurse. Putting a sheep bra on would probably be far easier.


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## shmurciakova (Jun 18, 2017)

Really? That is a bummer because I am very excited to try them out. The end does look narrow, so much so that I wondered if it would be tight enough w/o screwing it down. The literature says that you only have to keep them on for two weeks.....did you find that not to be true? I wasn't even going to put them on until the lambs are 10 weeks old. I have one buyer who wants her lamb at 12 weeks. I have Icelandic sheep......


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