. Productive sheep husbandry . Sheep. 260 THE LAMBING PERIOD cases have come to notice in which a ewe has taken one of a pair of twins and has refused the other, an action which is scarcely trace- able to lack of mother instinct. Again, a ewe may be very good to her lamb for the first two or three days of its life and then turn against it. It is not an uncommon occurrence for young ewes to fail to claim their lambs, this being particularly noticeable in ewes that axe only a year old when the lambs are born. Such ewes are not sufSciently mature to have the maternal instinct well developed. « Th
. Productive sheep husbandry . Sheep. 260 THE LAMBING PERIOD cases have come to notice in which a ewe has taken one of a pair of twins and has refused the other, an action which is scarcely trace- able to lack of mother instinct. Again, a ewe may be very good to her lamb for the first two or three days of its life and then turn against it. It is not an uncommon occurrence for young ewes to fail to claim their lambs, this being particularly noticeable in ewes that axe only a year old when the lambs are born. Such ewes are not sufSciently mature to have the maternal instinct well developed. « The first duty of the shepherd toward the disowned lamb is to try to make the mother claim it. As soon as the lamb is bom it is a. Fia. 174.—A lamb blanket used in the West to avoid chilling. A young lamb thus blanketed can withstand rough weather. good practice to take some of the mucus from its mouth and nose and smear it over the nose of the ewe as a case of disowning may be avoided in this way. For the first few days the ewe seems to recog- nize her lamb solely by means of the sense of smell, and smearing her nose with the mucus from the lamb seems to aid her in recog- nizing it. If she refuses to own her lamb after it is dry she may be induced to take it after some of her milk has been rubbed on the lamh's rump and also on her nose. She turns her head to smell of the lamb when it is placed to the teat, and the odor of the milk being both on her nose and on the lamb frequently serves to estab- lish recognition of her offspring. In case the ewe seems undecided whether or not to claim her lamb, another means for forcing her to take it is to tie a strange dog in a pen next to the one in which. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Coffey, Walter Castella, 1877-. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsheep, bookyear1918
