It’s that time of year again.
BABY GOATS! WE HAZ THEM!
Five so far – two sets of twins and one little preemie who was our first arrival. We are bottle feeding them all this year in order to socialize them and for CAE/CL prevention. Last year, I wasn’t feeling well enough to bottle feed the babies, and I am still working to socialize them a year later. It’s important to have goats who are not afraid of you, because goats who you can’t get near can’t be bred and can’t be milked. Lesson learned.
All five babies spent their first week here in the house, but the two sets of twins are now out in a heated kid structure right outside of my bedroom window so that I can hear them at night in case of any distress or danger to them. So far, they are safe, warm, happy, and well fed. Keeping them in the house any longer was just not practical, because we were going through a roll of extra-large paper towels each day, along with a dozen or more puppy pads for their crates. I had to bathe them because they’d get soaked in urine overnight. So this is a much better arrangement for us all.
Our little preemie girl Gabby (short for Gabrielle) is still here in the house with us because she is still quite small – she’s healthy, spry, and doing wonderfully. In fact, I’ve been devising ways to diaper her in order to keep her here in the house longer. She’s a little cuddly sweetheart. Her mother, Sassyfras, and father, Fanty or possibly Tiny Elvis, are both Nigerian Dwarves. Sassy snuck a pregnancy by us again this year – she must have gotten bred through the fence. She didn’t look pregnant until two days prior to giving birth. Sneaky girl! She is a little darling, too, so we are unsurprised that her daughter is such a love.
Next to come were Donna’s twins, Xena and Joxer. They are a mix of LaMancha, with some Saanen, Alpine and Toggenberg. We are quite excited because they have the genetics of our original two goats – Gidget (Donna’s mother) and Heidi (her son Ron was the sire) and we hope that will result in the high milk volume from Gidget’s line and Heidi’s easy milking udder. The milk practically falls out of her. We will breed Xena when she is ready, and have Joxer for breeding other does.
Molly, the Nigerian Dwarf who is Sassyfras’ mother, also gave us twins this year, dear little girls Callisto and Tara. You may have guessed, I chose a Xena themed naming convention this year. I will be doing that going forward so that it is easy to identify which generation each goat is from, based on birth year theme.
River, another Nigerian Dwarf, is very pregnant, and she should be giving birth any day now. By her size, I am guessing she has at least twins. Frankly, I hope that’s all she has – triplets and quads are very hard births for a little goat like her. I am hoping that we get a girl from River this year, because she has always had boys in the past. It would be nice to have one of each, in fact, but I will gladly take whatever healthy babies she gives us, along with a healthy mama.
Life with baby goats is busy and tiring. Thankfully, we are down to three scheduled feedings a day and they are doing quite well at latching and eating.
Soon, we will need to disbud them, but that’s another post for another day. Meantime, enjoy some baby goat videos. SQUEEEEEE!
Related Images:
Leave a Reply