Optimising the welfare of twin and triplet lambs — a key challenge determining flock productivity and animal wellbeing.
Twin and triplet lamb welfare in the first 48 hours of life is the critical window for intervention. Lambs born into multiples compete for colostrum access from a ewe who may initially focus attention on only one lamb. The smallest lamb — often the third triplet — may be displaced from the udder and fail to receive adequate colostrum, leading to hypothermia, hypoglycaemia, and immunological failure within hours of birth.
Mismothering — where ewes reject one or more lambs from a multiple birth — causes acute welfare distress. Rejected lambs are butted, ignored, and excluded from the udder. The distress of a lamb calling for its mother and being repeatedly rejected is both audibly and behaviourally evident. Without intervention, rejected lambs deteriorate rapidly.
Active management transforms twin and triplet welfare outcomes. Ensuring colostrum intake for all lambs (supplementing via stomach tube if necessary), providing shelter and warming for hypothermic lambs, and facilitating bonding through penning ewes with their lambs individually are high-impact welfare interventions. For triplets where the ewe cannot rear three, fostering or artificial rearing provides welfare support.