IO6 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



profitable to rear pedigreed lambs thus when occasion 

 calls for it, providing they are well reared. 



In some instances the choice must be made between 

 rearing lambs thus and allowing them to perish. These 

 include the following: (i) When the dam dies at the 

 time of parturition and no ewe is available for suckling 

 the orphan lamb or lambs. (2) When dams have triplets 

 and one of the number is so weakly that it cannot fight its 

 battle alone in the struggle for existence. (3) When a 

 ewe has produced twins and persistently disowns one of 

 them. In some instances lambs produced at the stock- 

 yards by ewes intended for or on their way to slaughter, 

 and these can only be saved by those who have cow's milk 

 for rearing them. 



The only real trouble in rearing such lambs consists 

 in starting them properly. A little sugar should be added to 

 the cow's milk when first given to make it more like ewe's 

 milk in its constituents. One of two methods of feeding 

 may be adopted. By the first, the lamb is made to take 

 its food from a bottle with the nipple similar to that used 

 in feeding children. By the second the lamb is taught to 

 drink. The first method is the easier one at the outset, 

 and it enables the lamb to take its milk more slowly, and 

 therefore more naturally, than when it drinks from a ves- 

 sel. The second method is the more troublesome until 

 the lamb begins to drink, after which it is less trouble- 

 some than the former, since there is no cleansing of bot- 

 tles and nipples as when these are used. It also makes 

 it possible to add such food as flaxseed gruel or jelly to 

 the milk so as to cheapen the cost of production. Lambs 

 may frequently be taught to drink milk from a dipper by 

 allowing them at first to take the rim in the mouth and 

 raising the further edge to bring the milk to them. 



The young lambs should be fed quite frequently, as 

 often at first as every second hour. The food should be 

 given warm, and preferably from cows newly calved. The 

 times of feeding may gradually become fewer until the 



