Well seeing as this is a goat thread I thought I'd better eventually pop my head in lol
Glad to hear you are enjoying them beefy. Boer goats are such intensely curious creatures they do tend to follow you round like a bad smell. If she keeps sticking her head through the fence, you can take a piece of poly pipe and duct tape it horizontally between her horns - looks stupid but she wont be able to fit her head through the fence. One of mine wears it permanently because otherwise I've gotta get her unstuck 3 - 4 times a day. Not a bright goat that one.
I've just started kidding down for this year ... the nurse doe and home milker (Saanen) was the first to go, I joined her a bit early so I'd have colostrum in the freezer for emergencies. She had a really nice Boer cross doe, brilliant kid tho I was peeved at her, she kept me up till 3am kidding and then only had a single. She's lucky it was a doe, I would NOT have been impressed if it was a buck.
Then yesterday ugh, I had a demonstration of how NOT to kid. A maiden (goat equivalent of a heifer ie. first timer) kidded down. She wasnt wide at all so I figured only once. Checked her in the morning and no signs of anything happening. Got home 2 hrs later and there's one kid screaming its head of, and her standing about 10 feet away from it, totally disinterested. Well I was in the process of penning her up when I realised about 30 feet away was a second kid just sitting there. I was surprised she'd had two not being very big, but I put them both together and was setting up the mothering pen when I realised about 30 feet away from the second kid - was a third! I thought this is crazy - 3rd kid was tiny and looked dead - but when I went over to grab it I realised it was breathing. So that one is still inside in front of the fire, I had to tube feed her first but now she's sucking. She had two doe kids and a buck kid - so at least thats good news. I had all bucks last year and thats not good. She has mothered up to the buck kid and he's walking round and suckling beautifully. The tiny is still inside, and the other doe kid I had to bring in last night and bottle feed because it cant stand so of course cant feed itself - and the doe isnt interested in a kid that cant walk.
Mum and the buck kid
The larger doe kid
Tiny doe kid - my herd birthweight is 3.5kg average. The buck kid is 2.8kg, the other doe kid is 2.6kg so small but pretty normal. This tiny kid was 1.3kg.
Thats a 600ml coke bottle next to her for size comparison
Also got a few on the bottle from neighbouring herds and the work goats - they kidded a month or two earlier than me, and they dont like bottle feeding.
Tinkerbelle - Alpine x Boer doe, stunning little kid this one. Out of the neighbours nurse doe/home milker. The mother unfortunately died and we havent yet figured out why.
A little gremlin kid - the oddest thing I've ever seen. He was everything that could possibly be wrong with a goat, all stuck together in the one package. He came from work. He had a parrot mouth, twisted ear, he was knock kneed and bowlegged, cow hocked and had this huge great big belly with tiny fine boned legs. He was a weirdo. Mum is fullblood, dad should have been fullblood, and both show animals, but I'm wondering if one of the crossbred bucks got to her through the fence. Anyway I had him on the bottle and he was about 2 mths old, and I found him dead this morning. No signs of illness, just up and died. But he was always a bit weird, seemed like maybe one day he might just keel over. He just didnt seem RIGHT if you know what I mean.
So ugly he was cute
This girl is due on August 11th - but I doubt she'll hold on that long. I'm scared how many she's got in there. If my maiden didnt look pregnant at all but had triplets ... well this doe is a lot wider, a lot longer and a lot deeper. I think she's got her own herd in there. And I have a feeling I'll have more on the bottle :frowns: Poor girl is really struggling with ketosis. Need to get those kids out of her sooner rather than later.