Sheep have no teeth in the upper jaw, but the bars or ridges of the
palate thicken as they approach the forepart of the mouth; there also
the dense, fibrous, elastic matter, of which they are constituted,
becomes condensed, and forms a cushion or bed, which covers the converse
extremity of the upper jaw, and occupies the place of the upper incisor,
or cutting teeth, and partially discharge their functions. The herbage
is firmly held between the front teeth in the lower jaw and this pad,
and thus partly bitten and partly torn asunder. Of this, the rolling
motion of the head is sufficient proof.
The teeth are the same in number as in the mouth of the ox. There are
eight incisors or cutting-teeth in the forepart of the lower jaw, and
six molars in each jaw above and below, and on either side. The incisors
are more admirably formed for grazing than in the ox. The sheep lives
closer, and is destined to follow the ox, and gather nourishment where
that animal would be unable to crop a single blade. This close life not
only loosens the roots of the grass, and disposes them to spread, but by
cutting off the short suckers and sproutings--a wise provision of
nature--causes the plants to throw out fresh, and more numerous, and
stronger ones, and thus is instrumental in improving and increasing the
value of the crop. Nothing will more expeditiously and more effectually
make a thick, permanent pasture than its being occasionally and closely
eaten down by sheep.
In order to enable the sheep to bite this close, the upper lip is deeply
divided, and free from hair about the centre of it. The part of the
tooth above the gum is not only, as in other animals, covered with
enamel, to enable it to bear and to preserve a sharpened edge, but the
enamel on the upper part rises from the bone of the tooth nearly a
quarter of an inch, and presenting a convex surface outward, and a
concave within, forms a little scoop or gorge of wonderful execution.
The mouth of the lamb newly dropped is either without incisor teeth or
it has two. The teeth rapidly succeed to each other, and before the
animal is a month old he has the whole of the eight. They continue to
grow with his growth until he is about fourteen or sixteen months old.
Then, with the same previous process of diminution as in cattle, or
carried to a still greater degree, the two central teeth are shed, and
attain their full growth when the sheep is two years old.
In examining a flock of sheep, however, there will often be very
considerable difference in the teeth of those that have not been
sheared, or those that have been once sheared; in some measure to be
accounted for by a difference in the time of lambing, and likewise by
the general health and vigor of the animal. There will also be a
material difference in different animals, attributable to the good or
bad keep which they have had. Those fed on good land, or otherwise well
kept, will generally take the start of others that have been half
starved, and renew their teeth some months sooner than these. There are
also irregularities in the times of renewing the teeth, not to be
accounted for by either of these circumstances; in fact, not to be
explained by any known circumstance relating to the breed or the keep of
the sheep. The want of improvement in sheep, which is occasionally
observed, and which cannot be accounted for by any deficiency or change
of food, may sometimes be justly attributed to the tenderness of the
mouth when the permanent teeth are protruding through the gums.
Between two and three years old the next two incisors are shed; and when
the sheep is actually three years old, the four central teeth are fully
grown; at four years old, he has six teeth fully grown; and at five
years old--one year before the horse or the ox can be said to be
full-mouthed--all the teeth are perfectly developed. The sheep is a much
shorter-lived animal than the horse, and does not often attain the usual
age of the ox. Their natural age is about ten years, to which age they
will breed and thrive well; though there are recorded instances of their
breeding at the age of fifteen, and of living twenty years.
The careless examiner may be sometimes deceived with regard to the
four-year-old mouth. He will see the teeth perfectly developed, no
diminutive ones at the sides, and the mouth apparently full; and then,
without giving himself the trouble of counting the teeth, he will
conclude that the animal is five years old. A process of displacement,
as well as of diminution, has taken place here; the remaining outside
milk-teeth have not only shrunk to less than a fourth part of their
original size, but the four-year-old teeth have grown before them and
perfectly conceal them, unless the mouth is completely opened.
After the permanent teeth have all appeared and are fully grown,
there is no criterion as to the age of the sheep. In most cases, the
teeth remain sound for one or two years, and then, at uncertain
intervals--either on account of the hard work in which they have been
employed, or from the natural effect of age--they begin to loosen and
fall out; or, by reason of their natural slenderness, they are broken
off. When favorite ewes, that have been kept for breeding, begin to lose
condition, at six or seven years old, their mouths should be carefully
examined. If any of the teeth are loose, they should be extracted, and a
chance given to the animal to show how far, by browsing early and late,
she may be able to make up for the diminished number of her incisors. It
frequently happens that ewes with broken teeth, and some with all the
incisors gone, will keep pace in condition with the best in the flock;
but they must be well taken care of in the winter, and, indeed, nursed
to an extent that would scarcely answer the farmer's purpose to adopt as
a general rule, in order to prevent them from declining to such a degree
as would make it very difficult afterward to fatten them for the
butcher. It may certainly be taken as a general rule, that when sheep
become broken-mouthed they begin to decline.
Causes of which the farmer is utterly ignorant, or over which he has no
control, will sometimes hasten the loss of the teeth. One thing,
however, is certain--that close feeding, causing additional exercise,
does wear them down; and that the sheep of farmers who stock unusually
and unseasonably hard, lose their teeth much sooner than others do.