First Lambing!

[mysunwolf]

About taming the girls in time for lambing/milking: I have taken out a few handfuls of rolled outs and pearled barley to them mid-morning for the past two days.

The first time, yesterday, they both stuck their heads in the bucket to eat. The spotted ewe even let me scratch her behind the ears, along her back. The white ewe would not let me pet her, but did end up eating some from my hand.

Then today, I took the grain out again. The white ewe followed me around, baaing. They both eagerly stuck their heads in the bucket. And they BOTH let me pet them I even felt the spotted ewes belly and touched her teats.

I will keep at it, but looks like they're going to be fine with me touching them as long as their heads are in a grain bucket. This is MUCH better luck than I've had with my too-smart heifers. I don't think sheep are stupid, just more forgiving than most animals. Or, it's a short-term memory problem.

Now when the grain runs out... that's another story!

If you have a Tractor Supply store around, they carry (or should be able to get) pelleted sheep feed that is unmedicated (their Dumor brand).

Funny, our TSC hasn't gotten the non-medicated sheep OR goat feed in stock now for a few months... I'm not saying it's Nebraska, but we are often out of luck finding good supplies around here! There is a place a few hours away that's a "natural" gardening supply that also has livestock feed & supplements that may be able to order me some nice unmedicated sheep feed.

 

[mysunwolf]

Okay, so the white ewe... well, either her udder has shrunk or her dangling belly has eclipsed her udder. I am totally at a loss as she doesn't even really look pregnant anymore. Well, not true, she is still extremely sunken, and her belly is lower than I've ever seen it, and big.

It's just odd as to why the udder would SHRINK. I am pretty sure she's pregnant. She looks pregnant. Sort of? I promise I'll get some photos soon, if I can ever get the sky to stop throwing freezing rain at me and the animals.

 

[luvmypets]

Ive only had one lamb ever. But i read there udders get tight to keep all the milk from getting bacteria and junk so the lambs dont get sick.

 

[mysunwolf]

The white ewe has been named Darla and the spotted adult ewe has been named Drusilla.

Darla's bag has been shrinking for the past few weeks, which is really concerning me. My only thought was that the young lambs at he last home had kept her in milk during her pregnancy, and that once she was separated from them she shrunk in order to save her energy for the upcoming birth.

Today, Darla began holding her tail up, and there is more orangey looking discharge than normal. No other signs, except that she has been looking VERY sunken around the hips, and her belly is dangling very low. Can't seem to figure out the ligament thing.

Dru is getting bigger in the belly, but it will probably be another month or two before any action on her.

The bottle lambs, Spotty and Puff Puff, and growing huge. They're eating hay and frolicking with the big sheep. Now just hoping they don't get kicked by the cattle they're penned with...

 

[mysunwolf]

Ah, and I just noticed today that she is lying down a lot more than usual. Like... just lying in the middle of the pasture. This is strange, as these girls like to stand and graze/eat hay most of the day, and if they do lie down they go into the barn to do so. In two weeks, I'm going away for a few days, so I'm worried she's going to decide to lamb then!

 

[Parsnip]

I'd been waiting to hear an update from this thread!
Lol I was excited to hear about things.

Any way you could post pics?

Haha, my last ewe that lambed, I had a dentist appointment on her due date and she was in early labor when I left for it. Luckily I got back before she lambed

 

[mysunwolf]

Parsnip, your lambing thread has been a HUGE help in this whole process! I've been going there, looking at the photos, trying to figure out the tail and lying around thing, and from what happened to Wendy it looks like Darla could still take a while

Her belly has gotten HUGE over the past week! Not much change on the udder front, which is what makes me think she is not that close.

I'm definitely going to try to get some pictures over the next few days!

 

[Parsnip]

YOU LOOKED AT MY LAMBING THREAD
What an honor.

Wendy wasn't super huge and had small-ish lambs!
SO maybe your ewe will lamb sooner than you think?

YES PICTURES ARE AWESOME

 

[AriesX]

I am new to lambing this year - so certainly no expert but I will say we thought some of our ewes were about to pop weeks before they lambed and some still haven't that I thought we pretty far along. We have 14 ewes of which 11 or 12 were definitely bred. 8 have lambed so far. Some I knew but others totally surprised us.

It's great that you've spent time socializing them before they lamb. We've had the most trouble with the ones that don't trust us. Our most recent ewe really doesn't like us and we were unable to get her lamb to latch. We've been able to help some of the others latch onto the teat to get them off to the right start but this one we've had to bottlefeed for his first day.

 

[mysunwolf]

Aries, I think you're right, I'm beginning to feel like they're going to take quite a bit more time to lamb... or at least constantly try to fool me along the way.

These girls still don't really trust people at all, but we were able to put Dru on her butt for hoof trimming without a fuss, so hoping to do the same with Darla here before she lambs.

The photos ended up being bad...

Here is a general bag shot, and you can also see the tail lifting (this happens all the time, not just when she's trying to lick herself), and the orangey discharge.

Raised tail, low belly, sticking her tongue out