If I recall, Sheep have two "horns" to the uterus. And like many animals with such an arrangement, one can maintain a pregnancy in one horn while 'expelling' a pregnancy in another. Nature's redundancy can be helpfull this way. Many rabbit breeders I communicate with indicate that the need to remove the doe immediate after breeding to a buck is to help prevent two pregnancies from occurring within such a short period of time, that the labor from the first pregnancy causes a premature birth of the later pregnancy! Animals that 'litter' are especially prone to multiple age birthings- youmay be able to find dog breeders that can tell you tales of such litters-- where part of the litter was definitely 'older' than the rest. Stimulation ovulators also have the ability to develop pregnancies that are of differing ages when exposed to males with strong drives. Also, sometimes, in mammals with one "room" in the uterus, a "twin" will be born prematurely/aborted due to some injury or defect, while the healthier one is retained. My younger brother was a retained twin--
Terry W --- Mary Swindell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anyone know if there is a chance that a ewe can lamb twice? Is > it possible that she could have maintained a pregnancy with other > lambs after birthing one fully developed lamb early? The first lamb > was born March 13, so this is almost a month later. Honestly I would > call the vet, but there is nothing here to make me think this ewe is > unhealthy. I am completely stumped. > > Mary Swindell > > > > _______________________________________________ > This message is from the blackbelly mailing list > Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
