Four woolly bundles of joy for Milly

An Albany family has bred an instant mini-flock of sheep, with their pet ewe Milly giving birth to four lambs at once.

While twins and even triplets are considered common in some breeds, quadruplet lambs are a rare occurrence. Adele and Larry Kingdon have owned their beloved Dorper Milly for 10 years.

Mrs Kingdon said Milly had never had a single birth but this was her first set of quadruplets.

The crossbred quads were fathered by a Wiltshire ram.

“She has had three sets of triplets, two sets of twins and now very much to our surprise she gave birth to these quads,” she said.

“She is feeding them all at the moment with a little help from us. She is a brilliant mother.”

WAFarmers Livestock Council’s Steve McGuire said while he had heard of quadruplets, it was rare.

“In some breeds it is more common than others,” he said.

“There is a genetic make-up that normally limits the number of lambs they can have.”

Giving birth to the multiple lambs is one thing, but keeping them alive was a different battle for the ewe and her owners, Mr McGuire said.

“(Multiple lambs) does have an effect on the size of the lambs because of the ability of the sheep to get enough milk to them,” he said. “She needs good quality feed to be able to supply enough milk to the lambs.”