Since the mother was nursing the male, I sprinkled both the lamb's tails with lemon scented oil (my book recommended room freshener). She hasn't been cleaning the male, so I doubt she'll try to lick it off. When I went checked on them, she couldn't tell the difference and she was allowing the female to nurse also.
The female is pretty strong. I can't see any difference between her and the male. She is very aggressive when nursing from her mother, but has no interest in the milk replacer. Right now (at 3:30 am) I'm optimistic. Or, just insane. ; ) -----Original Message----- From: Carol J. Elkins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 7:33 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [blackbelly] Lamb with dropping ear Heather, I don't have any personal experience with this, and I'm just repeating what I've heard other people say. My understanding is that it is very unlikely that a ewe will accept a lamb she's rejected four days earlier. Were it me, if the rejected lamb is still weak, I'd continue to force the ewe to let the lamb nurse as a supplement to the bottle and focus my effort at getting the lamb to take the bottle. Once the lamb is strong and vigorous, she will have no problem being bottle fed. For future reference, Laura Lawson's book "Managing Your Ewe and her Newborn Lambs" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/096339231X/critterhavenesta) ranks first place on my sheep bookshelf. She describes methods to "graft" a lamb onto her mother. One method she suggests is to "hold the ewe's nose and allow her to urinate on the rump and tail section of the rejected lamb. She often accepts the lamb after this. With difficult stubborn ewes it may require forcible restraining of the ewe to allow the lamb to nurse at will. This can be done by tying the ewe or restraining her in a stanchion. We've not had much luck with this approach." Good luck and let us know what happens! Carol At 02:52 PM 2/2/2003 -0800, you wrote: >I've had a lot of trouble getting this lamb to take a bottle. Yesterday I >was so concerned she wasn't getting anything to eat I held down the mother >and forced her to let it suckle. The lamb jumped right in and got what it >needed, so I repeated it again last night and twice today. The mother has >finally started to pay attention to the ram lamb. Is there any chance >she'll come around with the ewe lamb? They were born Thursday night. Carol Elkins Critterhaven Estate Registered Barbados Blackbelly Hair Sheep (no shear, no dock, no fuss) Pueblo, Colorado http://www.critterhaven.biz NEW! T-shirts, mugs, mousepads, and more at the Blackbelly Online Store http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=blackbellysheep =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list. To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list. To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly
