Nigerian Dwarf Babies Born!

Yesterday afternoon Carolyn went out to the barn to muck her pony pen.  It was not even a few moments of her going out and she came running back in excitedly yelling that Bounty was having babies.  So I went out to the barn. 

I always try to be there when my goats kid.  There has been many times they have needed me to help.  Also several times that babies would have died had I not been there to get the sac off their little faces so they could take their first breath.  The moms were just not paying attention. 

 Well, I went out there and Bounty had just passed her after birth. 

 Bounty did great! 

 There in the stall were the two cutest little bucklings.  She had them just about cleaned off all by herself.

One was white with brown and black spots all over it and it had blue eyes like Bounty!  This tells me that Joseph, the sire (who has brown eyes) carries the gene for blue eyes!  So that was interesting. 

The second little buckling is mostly white with a few black spots and has brown eyes. 

These are the first Pure bred Nigerians born on the farm.  So this was quite an experience.  They seem so very small compared to the full sized goats I have bred and raised all these years.

Last year I did by all four of my pure bred Nigerian Dwarf does as kids.  So I did have an idea as to how small they are when young.

All of those four goats should kid with in the next few days.  As I bred them all  at the same time.  Bounty was first to kid yesterday 6-17-13.   Her udder is very nice and symmetrical and her teat orifices have a very nice sized stream that comes out.  But her body frame is very dainty (I like big bodied goats) and her teat size is not what I am breeding for.  So I am not keeping her and have already posted her on Craigslist last night.

I did go ahead and deworm Bounty as I always do that the day they kid.  Often times the stress of labor and delivery will raise the worm load and can cause weakness and troubles.  And since I dewormed them a week before I bred them, they have not been dewormed all thru their pregnancy of five months.  So I always deworm the day they kid.  If I were to milk her and drink the milk, we don't start to drink it for one whole week as it takes that long for the colstrum to work its way out of the milk.  And by that time the wormer is out of her system as well.  So I usually don't have to worm them during their lactation because I dewormed them the day they kidded.  I hope that makes sense. 

Looking at the rest of the girls.....Milky Whey's udder and teat size looks great.  Plenty's udder is  huge and teat size is very good.  Abundance's udder is a bit smallish and teat size not as good as the other two.  So she might be culled as well.  But we shall see.  I am going to let them keep there babies this year to lengthen teats and I will be milking them a bit as well to get them used to the whole milking routine.  Any does born out of Plenty I will most likely keep and any buck or doe out of Milky Whey I will most likely retain.

I pray your day is filled with blessings.  Happy Farming!
susan