Puny Mahlon

This is Cedar Pond's Mahlon just prior to being sheared, so- named because this line of my Jacob Sheep are all named from the Book of Ruth in the Bible...and because the name that fit her is the name of Ruth's first husband ~ Mahlon, which means 'puny'. I will call her Mally for short , no pun intended!

Does anyone else have a Jacob Sheep this tiny? Mally is a yearling ewe lamb and she is no more than 25 pounds...maybe even less. The newborn lambs stand as tall as her. She also has 6 horns, 3 on each side of her head. They are fusing to look like 2 very short fat horns, but for most of last year they were 6 very distinct horns. ( Hey, maybe all her growth went into producing horns!)

We had Mally sheared last weekend and she is not underweight for her size. Definitely not malnourished. She has been wormed and had her shots. She does not lack for all the alfalfa she can eat, which is plenty.She is perfectly healthy and active in every way. In other words, she is not stunted for lack of proper care. She is just very tiny. Her mother is small, but nowhere near this tiny. Her Grandmother, Cedar Pond's Naomi is pictured elsewhere on this blog and is one of my larger ewes...never , ever tiny. Mally's father is Cedar Pond's Goth, and he is not small either. So I ask again, are there any Jacob Sheep owners out there who have a teeny tiny sheep every so often?

More About Mally~

This is Cedar Pond's Mahlon, or Mally, pictured shortly after her birth last spring 2009. As you can see, she is a normal sized lamb. Her mother, Cedar Pond's Ruth is short and stocky and probably does not weigh over 50 pounds. Mally's mother has 4 horns, but her horns have fused so it looks like she has 2 fat horns .

Here is a side shot of Ruth and her daughter Mally.

Mally' pretty cute, I think.

Mother and daughter are still attached to each other, even though at this writing Ruth is due to lamb any day now.

So you can see from the pictures that Mally started her life as a normal little Jacob sheep lamb who at this writing just hasn't grown much. Are there any of you Jacob Sheep owners with a normal, healthy, but very small sheep? Please let me know, I am interested!