A couple years ago one of our sheep had five babies. They all survived but one had to be fostered to another mom and a second had to be bottle fed. The mom was temporarily paralyzed in her back end. We took care of her, moved her around on a tarp and made sure she stayed in the shade and had food and water and a few days later she was able to get up again and eventually was back to normal. Obviously, we won't let her mate anymore, on the off chance she would have too many again and be hurt.
But how can we make sure this doesn't happen again? The year that happened many of the Ewes had more than two. Is it possible that it's because they had too much nutrition and were overweight? The Ewes in general were VERY large that year. The babies from the other Ewes also seemed to be pretty big. We want to make sure our sheep stay healthy and not overweight so that their pregnancies are dangerous. How can I prevent this scenario from happening again?
