They’re here! The baby goats are here!
That’s what I said two nights ago as I ran into the house to prepare a mash for my beloved dairy goat, Penny, who had just delivered twins.
I had been keeping an eye on her all day because I was pretty sure she was in labor, but she was being quiet about it. Penny isn’t much of a people-goat, she’s trying to get better about it but it’s hard. So she was keeping her labor as secret as possible but I still saw a couple little things that made me think she was likely going to have them.
So I kept checking on her every couple hours through the day, partly because I was hoping maybe I would get to watch but mostly because it was bitter cold and we were having a snow storm and I was concerned about her delivering and having the kids freeze. We have a little shed for the goats but to have them trapped in there all day is something I try to avoid and I didn’t want to trap the other two goats in there with her and have her get annoyed with them or have them trample babies so I left the door open so they could all move around – Penny was able to get huddled in the back of the shed where it is protected from the wind and she made herself a nice nest out of the hay and it was really pretty warm and cozy.
Well I checked her before I went to pick Linus up from school and then the afternoon got busy with making dinner and getting children off to bed and I told them I needed to run out and feed the animals and then I would be in to tuck them in for bed so get jammies on, brush teeth, bla bla bla…I’ll be right back.
I grabbed hay and grain out of the garage and headed down to feed everyone and collect eggs for the night and when I peered around the corner there was two tiny baby goats!
Aahhh! This is our first time having dairy goats and first time have babies so I sort of panicked a little, trying to decide what needed to be done first.
Well my two ‘teenage’ goats made that apparent when they saw the food I had and just about trampled the babies in their excitement over the grain. So I removed them from the premises to keep things calm and safe.
The babies were already dried off (Penny is an excellent mother – this is not her first kidding so she knows more than I do – thank goodness!) so I knew my biggest concerns were making sure they were warm enough, that they nursed soon and that mom was ok and had something to eat and drink.
Penny looked frazzled and annoyed with me so I figured trying to touch her new babes wouldn’t go over well unless I fed her. Since it was only about 15˚ I decided something warm and special was in order so I ran to the house to whip up a bran mash with plenty of molasses in it for iron in case she needed it, plus it tastes good.
So I bolted into the house with a bucket of bran, turned the faucet on warm and hollered to the kids, “The baby goats are here! Bundle up!” Linus was so excited and seems to have that typical male ability to ignore freezing cold conditions so he just threw on a sweater and boots and ran out there and I was yelling, “Don’t try to touch them!” and Juliette was getting her snow pants and coat on as fast as she could.
I dumped molasses all over the bran and started stirring water into it. Once that was ready I ran back out. Penny attacked the bowl like she was starving – I always feel the same way after giving birth so I totally understand. Maybe that’s why I thought food would be the right thing.
While she was eating and distracted I started trying to get one of the babies nursing. He was definitely interested and definitely a boy. So I got up there and Penny was already FULL of milk. He couldn’t get his mouth on the teat so I squirted a tiny bit on his mouth and he got all excited and latched on. He sucked for a minute and then Penny had to lay down. I was happy he had at least gotten something.
I tried to get the other one to nurse but it was at the back of the shed on the other side of Penny, who started biting me anytime I came near one of the kids. I knew the people I had gotten her from practiced pretty hands off goat keeping so I was guessing she would nurse it when she was ready and she seemed to be getting pretty agitated having us hanging around so we closed the divider door so the ‘teenagers’ could come in out of the cold but couldn’t bother mom and babies. Gave Penny a drink of water and all seemed well so we closed everyone in for the night.
I don’t know what I was thinking, I should have gone back out there before I went to bed, but I didn’t. Penny was probably glad I didn’t but I still think I should have.
My husband, Jeremiah decided to go peek at them before he left for work the next morning and came running back to the house…
He says, “So…I just looked in at the goats. There’s good and bad news.”
“Oh no, did we loose a baby?” I asked.
“Yes.” He says, “But she had two more.”
“Wait. What?”
“She had quadruplets and one died.”
Holy cow! Apparently the one that died was either stillborn or died soon after birth, Penny didn’t lick it clean or anything and it was apparently very tiny. Thankfully for me, Jeremiah found it and took care of it for me. I can handle things like that, but prefer not too.
So in the advent of having 3 little babies to care for and it being so completely freezing cold, I really wanted to have a heat lamp going for the babies for a few days so we opted to move them into the garage. We are right smack in the middle of building a new shed for the goats because we bought 4 ducks and 10 more chickens so we need more animal housing, but unfortunately the new shed is not quite done yet – close though! So the goats should only be in the garage for another day or two. But we made a nice ‘nest’ for the goats out of hay bales, which normally Penny would just jump over and start eating but since she’s recovering from delivering 4 kids she isn’t going anywhere. So we got them moved and cozy and comfortable and since Jeremiah was moving them he went ahead checked sexes. Yup, all bucks. Even the one that died was a buck.
Stink! I was really hoping for a little doeling. Oh well. They’re still pretty much the cutest things I have ever seen.
Yesterday I spend the day helping them learn to nurse, Penny is now tolerating me handling the kids, barely. She still nips at me once in a while but she seems to know I’m not going to hurt them. But she still doesn’t like it.
2 of the kids are latching on by themselves and nursing well but the third seems to still be having trouble so I have been bottle feeding him a little. Hopefully he’ll catch on today.
Can I just say, I am SO excited! Plus it’s going to be nice to be milking again soon 🙂
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