I04 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



be given for ewes not owning their lambs. Prominent 

 among these are the following: (i) When a ewe produces 

 twins and one lamb wanders away from her she may 

 soon come to disown it; (2) she may be so devoid of ma- 

 ternal instinct as to refuse to give attention to any lamb ; 



(3) the maternal instinct may be so developed that the 

 ewe will injure her lamb by her frenzied attentions and 

 later will disown it ; (4) the ewe may make a mistake in 

 identity and may persist in owning the wrong lamb. 

 Timely intervention on the part of the shepherd may pre- 

 vent the disowning of the lamb in the first instance. 



Ewes that act as indicated in the second and third 

 instances should not longer be retained for breeding. The 

 instances are not numerous in which the identity of the 

 offspring is mistaken. 



Among the methods that have been adopted to cause 

 refractory ewes to own their lambs are the following: 

 (i) Milk is drawn from the ewe and rubbed over the back 

 and hips of the lamb, or what is even better, milked on to 

 the parts named, as then the odor from the hands is less 

 pronounced than when the milk is rubbed on with the 

 hands. In some instances the method will succeed, but 

 not in all or even in a large proportion of these. (2) The 

 tail of the lamb is cut, and blood from the wound is 

 smeared on the back and hips of the lamb and on the nose 

 of the ewe. This method fails in many instances. (3) 

 The ewe and her lamb are confined in a pen and a dog 

 is brought up to it. In rare instances, and more espe- 

 cially in the case of young ewes, this method will rouse 

 within them the instinct to own and defend their young. 



(4) The dam and her lamb are confined in a small in- 

 closure and the ewe is held many times a day while the 

 lamb takes its food from her. In time she will become 

 so reconciled to the lamb as to allow it to take food. But 

 it may take two or three weeks to accomplish this end. 

 When the ewe has produced twins and owns one of the 

 lambs, the difficulty in overcoming her aversion to the other is 



