SheepGirl's 2012 Lambing Thread

[autumnprairie]

I have found all three litters now and have no idea who belongs to who since my new grey Momma feeds ALL of them
I love your pics and your kittens are prettier than mine I have black with mits and grey with strips and mits and grey and black ones with no mits

 

[Southdown]

I wish I had more colorful kittens like yours. All of mine are black and white.

 

[SheepGirl]

I have found all three litters now and have no idea who belongs to who since my new grey Momma feeds ALL of them
I love your pics and your kittens are prettier than mine I have black with mits and grey with strips and mits and grey and black ones with no mits

I wish I had more colorful kittens like yours. All of mine are black and white.

Haha, autumnprairie, sounds like a great momma!

Autumnprairie and Southdown -
I would actually prefer kittens more like you describe! For the longest time, a red tabby tom cat, lovingly called 'Frank,' was the daddy of all the litters. He was around for at least four years being the dominant male. Because of this, all cats two years old and older are all red tabbies (except for one, she was a red point)...he bred his daughters, and his granddaughters...

But in January 2011, Frank didn't show up for his evening meal. Instead, a large gray and white splashed tom cat showed up. In April and May, there was so much color in the kittens! We brought the red point female mentioned above in the house when her kittens were two weeks old. She had a gray tabby, a calico, a tortoiseshell, and two red white splashed tabbies. We kept one of the red/white tabbies and named him Clarence (he was seriously the best cat ever...he had these quirks about him, like greeting you when you came home, sitting on the newspaper while you were reading it, and running out into the garage (which ended up killing him because he was exposed to the barn cats)). Unfortunately we lost him in November because he developed FIP and we had him put down. The tortoiseshell, however, moved in with my grandparents and she is huge, just like her father. And she has long hair too and she is beautiful. They will all be one year old on 5/14...and they're all doing great from what we hear

But this year, the gray/white tabby's son took over the dominant male's spot. He's the nasty gray tabby I was talking about in an earlier post. He hasn't produced much color...primarily red and dark colored kittens (he did produce some solid blacks, which we haven't had yet, and some tortoiseshells, but they came out of a longhair tortoiseshell mother)...nothing really to get excited about So unfortunately the color we saw last year didn't appear again this year.

Cat color genetics fascinate me, can't you tell? lol (That's part of the reason why I want Katahdin sheep--the colors look like fun!!)

 

[autumnprairie]

Can't wait to see color in your sheep too.

 

[SheepGirl]

Today, I noticed that my ewe was walking a bit funny (it wasn't terribly noticeable, but her gait was definitely different) on her rear legs, like she was walking on the insides of them. Well all the sheep were in the barn, so I easily herded them into one of the pens and shut the gate. First I caught all of mine and checked their general health...their teeth, their eyes, their eyelids, their body condition, and their ears. They all looked pretty good, and their eyelids were either bright pink or red

Since Ali was my last sheep to check over, I touched up her hooves first. She was a trooper. Until she decided she couldn't stand up with her foot behind her and she laid down. Easy fix--I made her stand up and I pulled her foot out in front of her The hoof shears were dull so trimming the hooves was a tad bit difficult.

So then it was Ciqala's turn (she's the bred ewe). I drove her into the corner of the pen and I was able to trim her left front hoof. I wasn't able to trim her right front hoof because she wouldn't let me move her into a position that allowed me to (She outweighs me by at least 35 lbs and she's much stronger than me). So next I wedged her between a gate and the side of the pen and I had to push up against her body, hold the gate in place with my foot and pull out one of her back legs trying to control it while she was kicking. It was one of the best workouts I've ever had! But anyway, I figured out why she was walking the she was! You should've seen her back feet. (I didn't finish trimming them because the hoof shears were dull, and I'm gonna finish the trimming job tomorrow with pruning shears unless I can get the hoof trimmers sharpened after school, so I will take a picture.) The outside toe of each hoof was terribly overgrown, going all the way to the center of her hoof. The inside toe, however, had like no growth on it...I barely had to trim it at all. But the overgrown toes on both back feet I was only able to trim about halfway or so. I couldn't trim anymore with the dull shears.

So that was my day...

 

[Southdown]

I'm tired just listening to you talk about trimming hooves. It makes me want to get a sheep chair and try that out for hoof trimming.
As for colorful animals, Kassidy, my 1/2 suffolk x 1/2 babydoll lamb is three colors. She is white, brown, and black. Her legs have all three colors. It is unique and I've never had that.

 

[autumnprairie]

I'm tired just listening to you talk about trimming hooves. It makes me want to get a sheep chair and try that out for hoof trimming.
As for colorful animals, Kassidy, my 1/2 suffolk x 1/2 babydoll lamb is three colors. She is white, brown, and black. Her legs have all three colors. It is unique and I've never had that.
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/5960_100_0658.jpg

she is a cutie

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I've always wanted to get one of those sheep chairs! They look so cool!


Three weeks left! That's hardly anything!

 

[autumnprairie]

 

[SheepGirl]

Southdown, your lamb is so cute! I love all the half Babydoll crosses!

And yes, it's almost two weeks now! I'm so excited I think she is pregnant because she is getting bigger (width wise), but she still hasn't bagged up...normally she would've by now. So we'll wait and see if she starts bagging up here soon.