A two-year old Southdown ewe in New Zealand has given birth to healthy quadruplet lambs – a rarity in the breed – Janet Gray of the farm said.
The sheep’s owner, Wattie Gray, who is 86 years old said that he’s never had a ewe with four live lambs before.
His daughter Janet said that out of the four lambs, the sheep had three ram lambs and one ewe lamb.
“So the three ram lambs we will keep for breeding or to sell and the ewe lamb we will keep to breed later on.
“The ram that they’re by is one we bought last year from down south so it comes from good stock,” she told Stuff New Zealand.
She told the website that these were the ewes first lambs and the ewe was heavily pregnant which Janet thought was perhaps big twins.
However when she came out to the shed there were four lambs. Two lambs were slightly bigger, but they were a pretty even size. All were born alive, stood up and were in good condition, she said.
“Just recently in the last two days I’ve put the biggest two onto two other ewes just to ease the pressure off the mum for the two young ones.
“All four are healthy, quite lively and doing quite well esp the little two, fingers crossed they all keep going,” she said.
Janet also said that the lambs had been given small fleeces to help keep them warm. They’re made out of wool and while they aren’t waterproof they keep the lambs warm against the cool wind.
