The effects of age of lamb and parity of dam and sex and birth type of lamb on suckling behaviours of Karayaka lambs

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of age of lamb, parity of dam, sex, and birth type of lamb on suckling behaviours and to find out at which week the lambs tend to be weaned considering suckling behaviours. This study was conducted on Karayaka sheep, an indigenous sheep breed, raised in Turkey. In this study, 24 sheep including 1st parity sheep (n = 8), 2nd parity sheep (n = 9) and 3rd parity sheep (n = 7) and 32 lambs of these sheep (n = 16 single, n = 16 twin; n = 14 male, n = 18 female; lambs born from primiparous ewes n = 10, lambs born from secondiparous ewes n = 13, lambs born from trimiparous ewes n = 9) were used. Behaviours such as suckling duration per bout, suckling duration per hour, frequency of sucklings and frequency of rejections were observed for 9 weeks (two days per week and between the hours 15:00 and 18:00). Age of lamb and birth type had a significant effect on suckling duration per bout, suckling duration per hour, frequency of sucklings and frequency of rejections (P < 0.001). Summed duration per hour, frequency of sucklings (P < 0.01) and frequency of rejections (P < 0.001) of lambs born from primiparous ewes were higher than the values of lambs born from multiparous ewes. The effect of sex on suckling duration per bout was significant (P < 0.05) while the other suckling behaviours were not significant (P > 0.05). Summed duration per hour and frequency of rejections of twin lambs were higher than in single ones (P < 0.001). This study shows that Karayaka lambs tend to be at weanable age nearly the 7th week after birth, considering the data about suckling behaviours.