Foster Lamb Research Paper

If a lamb looses its mother or is having difficulty performing throughout the day, the lamb is put through a process called fostering. Fostering an essential practice used in different parts of the world; mainly to not only increase the survival rates of these lambs but also to bring in more profit to these sheep productions. Before applying these foster methods on sheep, farmers must carefully observe the ewes’ behaviors, actions, growth, and weight since they all contribute to the success rate of fostering lambs [1]. Though these aspects may matter when it comes to fostering, a farmer’s behavior and actions can influence the way how the ewes behave normally [1]. Lambs used for fostering are approximately the same size and breed as the mother

During the process of cervical stimulation, the farmer sticks his or her hand into the ewe’s vagina and contracts the cervix, stimulating the labor “after they immediately provide a newborn lamb” [1,4]. The ewe is then tricked into thinking that the foster lamb is the newborn lamb. After this process, the ewe licks the foster lamb and begins nursing it. The acceptance of these lambs comes within 10 minutes after the stimulation kicks in [4]. However, this stimulation does not work on all ewes. Reason being that the amount of stress that is put into the stimulation and the confined space that the ewe forced to stay, bringing discomfort [3]. Textile jackets, on the other hand, are the least preferred methods by the farmers [1]. Not only because this method is expensive [1], but is also very time consuming. The process of using textile jackets is by swapping the cloth jackets from the newborn lamb and the foster lamb from time to time every 24 hours for a couple of days until the ewe accepts the foster lamb [5]. Odorants, like textile jackets, utilize jackets that are soaked with natural odorants [6,7]. The farmers would put the jackets simultaneously on both of the lambs, so that they would both share the same odor [6]. After a few hours, after the lambs are placed with the ewe, the jackets would be swapped over and over until the ewe would finally accept the foster

Odorants should be used if the farm is located in an environment where the climates are harsher such as uplands [1]. However, those who have farms lowland should use either cervical stimulation, textile jackets, birth fluid, or restraint since the environment that the sheep are under stable conditions