Grafting a Week Old Orphan Lamb – Will it Work?

If you saw my March farmstead update, you know I currently have an orphan lamb, often referred to as a “bum” lamb. She was bummed because she was a tiny triplet born on a very cold day, and her momma didn’t really want her.

So she has been living in our basement, getting fed a bottle every two hours during the day and four to five hours at night. My kids are enjoying having a bum lamb to care for. As fun as it is, it is also a lot of work and I know that a ewe can do a MUCH better job at raising a lamb than I can.

I have been waiting for a chance to graft this lamb onto another ewe, preferably one that only had a single lamb. I finally got my chance yesterday, when one of my ewes gave birth to a single lamb. The easiest, or most ideal way to get a ewe to take an orphan lamb is to do it right away after birth. That way you can rub the birth fluids or placenta on the bum so she smells like the ewes own lamb. She can also be “tricked” into thinking the bum is her own lamb. There are many ways to do this, lots of people have come up with their own methods.

My dilemma, is that by time I found this ewe that had a singleton, her lamb was already dried off and my bum is a week old! Could it work? I figured I didn’t have much to lose, so I grabbed my bum out of the basement and headed for the barn. Here is what I did:

First, I put the ewe and her lamb in a jug. A jug is a small pen that sheep are often put in after birth for a few days with their lambs.

Second, I gave the ewe a small handful of grain to distract her while I placed my bum in the jug with her and her lamb. At this point it was a waiting game just to watch and see what the ewe would do with the bum. For a good five minutes she just talked to her lamb and the bum. She constantly went back and forth sniffing her lamb and sniffing the bum trying to figure out where this new lamb came from!

Unfortunately, after about 5-10 minutes she decided that the bum lamb was in fact, not hers and she started to bunt her away. At this point I decided to try tying her up. This method is called restraint grafting. The basic premise is that you restrain the ewe by haltering her and giving her enough lead that she can eat, drink, and lay down, but not so much that she can hurt the orphan lamb.

Finally, I made sure the bum found the teat and got something to eat. I repeated this every two hours. YES even all through the night!

Additionally, I made little coats for the lambs. Jayce (hubby) picked me up a fleece coat at the thrift store for a dollar (I love the thrift store!) I made the coats by cutting off each sleeve. I put the smallest end of the sleeve around the lambs necks and then cut little holes for the legs.

Other than being cute and helping them stay warm during this cold snap, these little coats do have a specific purpose. I am *hoping* the coats will help in the grafting process. I will leave the coats on the lambs for about 24 hours so they become impregnated with the lambs unique smell. After 24 hours I will remove the lambs from the ewe for about 3 hours so that they get good and hungry. My plan is to put them back in the basement so they are out of sight and sound of the ewe. After being separated for about three hours, I will switch the coats on the lambs and then take them back to the jug with the ewe.

Hopefully the coats will give the lambs each others scent and the ewe will accept them both. However, it could have the opposite effect and she could reject them both. Grafting is an art!

As of right now, I am about 12 hours into this process. I got up every two hours through the night and trudged out to the barn to make sure the lambs were staying warm enough, the bum was sucking the ewe, and the ewe was comfortable and not tangled up while being tied.

The next step in the process like I mentioned above, is separating the lambs from the ewe for three hours and then switching the jackets and putting the lambs back in with the ewe. I brought the two lambs in and put them in a jug in my basement. I really thought there would be a lot more squawking from the lambs and the ewe but so far everyone has been pretty quiet. One hour down, two to go!

Putting them back together… did it work?

Kind of? I know, I know, not the answer you want to hear and not the outcome I wanted either. The reunion did not quite go as planned. In fact, it almost seemed that the separation made it worse. The ewe did not seem interested in the bum at all.

With few other options, I pressed on. It had only been two days and in my research it mentioned that the restraint method can take four days to work. So I continued to leave the ewe tied up for two more days, going out often to make sure the bum was getting something to eat. For awhile she really started to fight me, and I was pretty sure that I was completely unsuccessful.

After four days of being tied up, I figured I better let the poor ewe go. But then, I had a thought. One more thing I could try. I decided since her single lamb was so large, I would pull that lamb and the bum, and separate them from the ewe overnight, just like I do with my milking ewes. I thought what could it hurt? So I tried it.

And you know what? It worked. The ewe was so happy to have her baby back that she willingly let the bum suck right along with her own.

Next steps:

I decided to turn the ewe and two lambs out with the rest of the ewes and lambs during the day. For awhile, I decided to supplement the bum with other ewes. I’d let one of my other willing ewes get on my milking stand, give her a little treat, and let the bum have a snack.

My day now looked like this: At evening chore time I’d separate the two lambs from the ewe.

I’d go out to the barn at 1-2am to check my other expecting ewes and let the lambs in with the ewe to get something to eat. After they finished eating I’d separate them again.

At morning chores I’d put the lambs back in with the ewe and let them eat again. After they were finished I would turn them all out together during the day.

Around 1pm or so I’d go back out to the barn and put one of my other ewes up on the stand and let the bum suck.

I’d repeat that with a different ewe (or sometimes even the ewe I was trying to graft her on – it just depended on who was handy at the moment) at evening chore time, then separate the lambs and the whole process would start over.

I continued to repeat this until I started noticing that when I went out to the barn the bum would be happily sucking away on her surrogate mom without any interference from me. After I noticed this was happening consistently, I stopped separating the lambs from the ewe at night and stopped suckling the bum on the other ewes.

I have kept a close eye on my little bum and she is doing great – after all is said and done, I’d say my first lamb graft was a success!

Have you ever successfully grafted a bum lamb onto a ewe? How did you do it? I know there are so many different ways, I’d love to hear your method!

Thanks friends,

Sari