Raising Goats is Not All Easy

While gone to Ohio we had 3 baby kids born. We knew one of the mothers would be having kids but had no clue about the other.  All were healthy and are growing quite well.  Two bucklings and one doeling.  One of the bucks, (Charming, we call him) is getting quite frisky.  He runs and jumps in the air and just yesterday I saw him butting his head with the Boer doeling that was  born in May.

This is Charming our 100% Nubian buckling.

Charming has a twin which we named Bernard.  Bernard is strong but Charming is the bigger one of the two.  If you’re wondering if all our goats are named, they’re not. Not normally anyways.  I guess I just felt like them having names on that day.  No particular reason except that when you’re talking about them to the family it’s a lot easier for everyone to know just which kid you’re referring to if they have a name.

A few days after Charming and Bernard were born, we had another doe give birth.  It was a girl!  Hooray!  We named her Starlight.  She’s doing well.

Those 3 kids were born with no problems and we were quite happy to add them to the herd.  We arrived home Tuesday night from Ohio – late.  Wednesday I went to the goat pen and found that there had been 5 more kids born and 3 were dead.  Two does had given birth.  One we thought might be having babies and the other one we had no idea.  I know.  Same story as the other 2 mommas that gave birth above.

Out of the 2 kids that were alive one looked stronger than the other.  I helped get the weaker one onto her momma and he started nursing.  I thought the other one seemed strong and would be fine.  Well the situation has reversed in the course of the last week.  The one I thought was strong, which we named Jimmie, is smaller and has had a time of it.  I thought it was going to die because it was just laying there.  It got so bad that he would fall when standing up.  The mother’s udder was getting overly full on one side and that was also a concern of mine.  Jimmie just could not seem to find his momma’s teat on his own – I would have to put it in his mouth and then he would suck a little but not a lot.

Over the next day or two I kept putting Jimmie on his momma but he seemed to get weaker and weaker.  In the meantime, Duncan (the twin) was doing fine, gaining strength each day.

I tried to milk Arrow (the momma) and was able to get some milk to give to Jimmie.  I had no bottle so I put the milk in a pie plate to see if Jimmie would drink from that.  He wouldn’t so I dipped my finger in the milk and then placed it in his mouth.  He definitely knew how to suck.  I was happy to know that.  I also was able to put the lip of the pie plate in his mouth and he took to that, drinking the remaining milk.

I needed to get more milk from Arrow but she would let me get near her.  She was very adamant in her feelings!  I finally gave up.  I went and asked Zachary to come and help me.  If I had not been there I wouldn’t have believed it.  Whereas I had had a difficult time getting a cup of milk from Arrow, for Zachary it was like turning on a faucet.  He had both hands working alternately and that bucket filled up quick.  It was incredible.  I have a lot to learn. (sigh)

I brought Jimmie home at that point and used a bottle that Audrey had found (how had she found it, when I had not??) to feed Jimmie.  He loved it and very eagerly drank a small portion.

The next day Jimmie was stronger and after giving him a morning feeding, I returned him to his momma to try and get her to nurse him and that’s where he’s been ever since.  He’s nursing now on his own.  I am so happy when I go and see he’s doing well.  I’m thinking Arrow, our doe, had either 3 or 4 kids.  There were two that were dead that were pretty small.  Could these kids have been premature and that’s why they seemed to struggle more or was it something else like multiple births?

I don’t know but I am learning that just because they receive daily care it does not mean they are going to be without problems.  The learning curve can be rough.

Here is Jimmie as of this morning.  I still wonder if she’s completely out of the woods because when I go over there in the mornings she doesn’t get up but in the afternoons she’s up and walking around.  It perplexes me.

I hope this post does not offend someone that has been raising goats for years.  I have leaned so much about our goats by watching them interact with each other and seeing their different personalities as well as goat instincts.  I have read and do reference my books on goats but to really get it in my head it comes down to actually being in the pen with them, watching them and touching them as well as talking with someone that knows goats.  All of this has been invaluable.

In the meantime, we are milking the other doe that lost her kid.  Well, let me clarify, my boys are milking her.  I don’t trust myself yet. 🙂

If you have advice to offer, please feel free to do so.