I Have Proof! ;)

Lorelai · #1 05/21/13, 12:51 AM

These sweet babies have stolen my heart! The birth went very well, and they have both taken a bottle (though okay, after struggling with the lamb/kid nipple that fits onto a soda bottle for awhile with dismal success, I went to Rite Aid and picked up two 8 oz glass bottles with regular nipples, and this so far has worked much better for all involved). Yes, I'm in charge of the midnight feeding tonight, but you all will get to wake up to cute pictures because of this.

Zanadu is doing well, though she is looking for the babies.

Next time we'll be able to be more prepared and pull them off right away so long as we're there for the birth. Shane milked a quart of colostrum this morning, and I milked a quart plus a pint this evening before she stopped wanting to let down. And her udder is still huge, but she doesn't seem uncomfortable or anything. We'll continue to milk and monitor.

Without further ado, the babies! The doeling is on the left, and the buckling is on the right. Somehow the doeling has a black spot on her rump (not sure how that happened, though Zanadu's granddam was a La Mancha, so...), but the buckling is perfectly white. I think we'll call the girl Dottie... and maybe the boy will be Dinner? This is me trying to talk myself into it.

They are stinking cute, aren't they?

Need I say more?

And here they look eerily similar...

Quill · #2 05/21/13, 05:32 AM

First off, these two are totally adorable.
Secondly, I know next to nothing about goats and I seek to learn. Was there something wrong with the pregnancy or do you always have to pull kids from their mothers after they're born?

Minelson · #3 05/21/13, 06:27 AM

They are so very very really very the cutest!!!!!!

That last picture is amazing on how they look exactly the same! Luckily Dottie has a dot lol or you would never be able to tell them a part!

Congratulations......just beautiful!

Backfourty,MI. · #4 05/21/13, 07:22 AM

They really are stinking cute, Congratulations! Your really hooked now!

Rockytopsis · #5 05/21/13, 07:48 AM

Yup adorable suits them just fine.
Nancy

mahnah · #6 05/21/13, 08:11 AM

too stinking cute!!!!!! adorable overload even

Alice In TX/MO · #7 05/21/13, 08:13 AM

I'm in love! Cute little white kids!

To answer the question, there are several reasons to pull kids at birth.

1. The dam is a show goat, and you don't want the possibility of an uneven udder from kids sucking one side.
2. You have a dairy herd from which you sell milk, and the kids are sold as bottle babies immediately.
3. The milk is more important to your lifestyle than the kids, and you dispose of kids immediately in whatever means available.
4. You sell kids that are guaranteed disease free, so you heat treat the colostrum and milk to reduce the chance of communicable disease.
5. You have a CAE Positive doe from which you want to keep kids, so she can't touch them, lick them, or provide milk for them (unless heat treated). This allows you to keep the doe AND the kids.

Lorelai · #8 05/21/13, 12:14 PM

They are still doing very well this morning! Feeding is a lot better now that they've really got the bottles figured out. I would really love a bottle feeding sticky, because I struggled all day yesterday with the lamb/kid nipple and a plastic bottle before saying screw that around 3 pm and going to Rite Aid for two of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Classi...s+baby+bottles

I didn't know if that was technically "okay," or even the right thing to do, but I tell you, I haven't regretted it. $2.99 for a "fully loaded" glass bottle, nipple, etc. Heck yes! (For those of you who only feed a few bottle babies at a time, what do you use?)

I'm currently following this chart as a feeding guideline, which has been very helpful, and the babies are good, so I'm assuming it's a good resource:

http://goatspots.com/articles/bottle-feeding/

My only question is when to stop feeding the really yellow colostrum. I'm thinking we'll do one more feeding from that, and then freeze the rest for later use. Zanadu's milk looks much more normal this morning, though I assume it still has similar benefits.

As for why we pulled the babies for bottle feeding. Shane is really opposed to dam raised babies, because they can be so wild. He wanted tame goats. With a herd as small as ours, I think our kids could have been quite tame just by handling them every day, but he couldn't be convinced of this, so we are bottle feeding. It's a worthwhile experience, anyway.

And who knows, we may sell or trade the boy before he is weaned... it makes more sense to raise a lamb with land like ours (mainly pasture), but I don't know if that will happen.

Taylor R. · #9 05/21/13, 12:49 PM

Bottlefeeding is an incredible experience. Our babies were always the sweetest, most loveable little goats ever. There are pictures of me when I was probably about 12, asleep in my bed with a sweet little Nubian baby that almost didn't make it.

maxbetta · #10 05/21/13, 01:45 PM

Aww, they're adorable. Thanks for sharing!

**mygoat** · #11 05/21/13, 03:15 PM

6. You HATE chasing dam raised kids because they're wild and crazy. Nothing worse than breaking a wild dam raised dairy doeling to the milkstand as a FF'er. I'd rather them come when I call, please.

Clovers_Clan · #12 05/21/13, 10:26 PM

Cute babes! All of ours are dam raised but still really tame. The secret is having a nine year-old goat whisperer that follows the babies around for hours, cuddling them, giving them treats, frolicking... The goats don't think they are people but they DO think she's a goat!