Effects of parity and litter size on maternal behaviour in Kivircik ewes

Abstract

Aim was to investigate effects of parity and litter size on grooming lambs, responses to sucking attempts of lambs, maternal behaviour score, and survival of their lambs in Kivircik ewes. Proportion of time spent grooming lambs was 0.34, 0.42, 0.41 and 0.45 in first, second, third and fourth parity ewes (P>0.05). Multiparous ewes stood and allowed lambs to suck for a greater proportion of sucking attempts compared with primiparous ewes. When the lamb attempted to suck, circling was the behaviour most often observed among ewe movement behaviours, whereas backing and moving forward behaviours were observed very rarely. Mean maternal behaviour score given to single and twin-lambed ewes were 2.87 and 3.36, respectively (P<0.05). The effect of ewe parity on survival of their lambs was not significant. However, mortality rate of twin lambs (19.2%) was significantly higher than that of single lambs (5.7%). Kivircik ewes did not increase the total maternal care to their lambs when they lambed twins, and time that the lamb received grooming attention in twin born lambs was about half of the time received grooming in single born lambs. Furthermore, survival rate of the twin born lambs was lower than that of single born ones.