Growing kids

We have the unusual situation of bottle feeding three kids at the same time. Which on the bright side means I get to witness their growth and changes up close and personal! Born January 1, 4, and 7, they are now 2-3 weeks old. All have budding horns and I have to wonder if they have that itch and nag feeling similar to when teeth come in. Anyone remember that lovely experience from childhood?

We also have sold three of the kids: two of these bottle babies and one mother-nursed sibling. They will stay here until weaning time of the nursing kid. This is another unusual situation as we've kept in the barn the mother of triplets (one she is nursing and two we are feeding) and the rejected twin of another doe. So this mother nursed kid has become brave and cavalier around me when I'm in there feeding and is accepting my touch, as long as I don't come directly toward her head with my hand. Best deal is when she is scrunching under my knees and I can give her back a good scratching. I'm trying to think ahead to their future life as milk goats. That steers me to be touching them a lot so they are used to being handled.

I am getting better at preparing them for adulthood in another way. Deterring them from jumping into my lap. This is hard to do because they are still in the totally cute baby animal stage! But I know it's not fair to allow some behaviors now then scold them later for the same thing. Their new owner would suffer if she got her kids and they were convinced of their rights to jump up on anybody!

So, today would be a good day to take more pictures of these little darlings. And email an ad to the It's Classifieds for the unsold bottle baby who really could go anytime to an owner who wants to bottle feed the new kid.

Jan 4th -- more new life!

Our agouti doe finally did it. She has looked pregnant for months! I found her with twins around 1:30 just before I headed out for a dentist appointment. All looked well, still wet but in the sun with momma licking them both.

What a surprise when I checked them later and found yet another one! Two white with black and one white with rusty red. At the later evening check I decided the youngest one was too weak and chilled to stay out in the goat house with momma and her sisters. So she is in for the night, for warmth and supplemental feed. We'll see tomorrow if her mother will take her back. We had a doe take back a kid last winter and were extremely grateful for that. But that was a single and this is the smallest of triplets. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

New life in the New Year

We've been waiting a long time for new kids. If you'd asked me, I would have said for sure two would birth in August. Wrong. But today I heard a new sound from the goats -- that little voice of a youngster!

Our youngest Nigerian Dwarf doe had a little lookalike doeling.

I checked in throughout the day and evening to see that her momma was tending to her properly. I'm less than fully confident with this doe as her mother was a bottle baby, and did not pass along the diligent mothering qualities usually evident in this breed. So far so good.






This is her, on the left, with her mother, in the summer months.



Now we're on watch for the other does to kid. Two of them look mighty ready!