Spring Growth

Our three little bottle lambs are growing.

We worried so much at the beginning we'd loose one or two. Taking newborns from their environment can be dangerous. And there were some close calls there a couple times. But thankfully, they all pulled through and are eating their hay and grain and gaining lots of weight. The ram has a superb scrotum on him and will make an excellent breeding ram in the future.  He's already practicing on his sisters.

The first born lamb is also getting huge. She's about the same age as the triplets and you can see the difference being a single makes.

Since the black ewes birth, we had our second lambing.

These two were a surprise. I had pointed mama ewe out to Farm Girl and said, "She looks pregnant." But a quick check at her non-existent udder and we determined she was just fat. But the very next morning as I was in feeding the ewes, I heard a distinct lamb cry and found these sitting among the flock. I instinctively thought they belonged to this ewe:

Who we knew was expecting and had the udder and belly to prove it. (She has since lambed since composing this blog entry. Two ram lambs, yay!)

So were surprised when she rejected them and the first mama claimed them. Farm Girl caught her and checked her udder and sure enough, her milk had not come in and the babies were deteriorating fast without their much needed colostrum. Plus, the one little lamb must have had a difficult birth as his jaw was all swollen and his eye was bloodshot. So off to the FS store we went and bought colostrum and a feeding tube. Farm Girl impressed me lots when she began tube feeding the little guy who was too sore in the jaw to nurse.

But everything worked out. Babies began to gain strength and mama's milk came in by the end of the day. Within a week they were in and testing the creep feeder out. 

And gobbling up grain.

In other spring development, Pixie has developed an udder! Yay! We bred her back in June and crossed our fingers it was a successful union.

She's due end of the month beginning of next but we already separated her from the other horses mainly because the pasture in this lot had come in and the horses had ate all the grass down to their roots in the one they were over winter. Though they had hay, grass is always better. Especially for expectant mama. So here she will stay until she gives birth. And probably after to give her and baby privacy.

Now look who's photo I was able to capture.

This was the cat that was labeled "feral". But turns out to be the friendliest of the four. Though you'd never know it by the evil look she gives me and my camera every time she sees us.