Banding

Hello all! been busy these last few weeks. All the sheep are friends again, yay! Sparkles tried to usurp Wilda's place, but didn't quite manage as her Sparkle's mom, Ariel, still follows Wilda. So Sparkles begrudingly listens to Wilda again, and everyone is happy.

 You remember those long tails the lambs were all born with, right? Well, thats a by-product of domestication that doesn't usually happen in nature (sorta like curly tails on dogs). It becomes problematic in the summer because sheep may get poop on their tails and flys will lay eggs in it, not a problem until the maggots come out and start eating the sheeps tails. That is pretty horrible from what i hear, so we have to remove the extra long tails. Animals rights activists are trying to get tail docking banned, but it is necessary. One of out lambs was already getting poop on her tail, and I can't wipe her butt everytime she poops! We opted for banding: using an industrial strength rubberband to cut off circulation and eventually have the tail fall off. My mother, a doctor, noted that its the same method doctors use on kids who are born with extra fingers.

The first day

Week and a half later: almost gone!

 The one problem with banding (okay, besides the first half-hour where the lambs are in pain as the circulation is cut off, but after the first half hour they were playing again) is it increases chance of tetinus. I have never given shots before so it was a learning experience. Since I was the one to band and give the lambs their shots, they don't quite trust me, but no one is sick, no one died, so we're good.

 All in all the lambs are growing incredibly fast and healthy. Ross-anna finally has her horns coming out--looks like she will have the pretty slender horns her mom has. The two ram-lambs horns are growing so quickly! Hopefully theirs are as nice as dad's. Still waiting for Cleopatra's to show through: I'm hoping the dot on the side indicates she will have 4..though it seems doubtful :( Still I am very happy with my first crop of lambs.

Dad is still hitting on the llama

Milk is still flowing

 Beautiful little babies.

Cleopatra and Khoresh

Bademjan

Cleopatra