Polly Pops!
Polly is at the end of a peaceful easy twin delivery tonight. We suspect she may yet drop one more lamb, so we’re checking on her every half hour or so. But she seems very perky and comfortable with her two beautiful, clean ewe babies I’ve decided are Pretty and Precious. When she delivers the long, ropey placenta, we’ll know she’s done. Pictures in the morning!
Mary Jo, Five Green Acres said,
February 9, 2010 @ 10:23 am
Do sheep eat their placenta? (or are they allowed/encouraged to?) I’d read that many animals do in the wild, to help regain some of the lost iron. Do sheep? Eagerly awaiting a response, so that I can file the tidbit away in my “party conversation topics” mental folder… hee hee.
kriss marion said,
February 9, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
Yes, some do and some don’t. As you know, sheep are vegetarians, but the placenta eating is the one time they’ll go for meat. Some of my ewes lick off their babies, nibble off the umbilical cord and continue on to obsessively gobble up the placenta. Others are sort of lazy about even getting the babies totally clean. It could be personality, or it could be nutrition. In the wild, it’s obviously a necessary survival instinct to clean everything up before predators smell the blood and come for the little ones. But obviously the sheep we keep are pretty far from that at this point. Still, those traits certainly do surface.