I took my triple registered Nigerian buck and bred him to my
very good back yard milker Twinkie. She
is a Lamancha/Nubian mix. Many people
are doing this with full blooded Lamanchas and Nubians to make the newer breeds
of Mini Nubians and Mini Lamanchas. Good
milkers but in a smaller bodies for smaller farms.
Since I was changing over my dairy herd from full sized
milkers to the Nigerians I thought I would see what would happen to do the same
type breeding with my two favorite full sized milkers that I kept out of my old full
sized herd.
So here is
Twinkie. She freshened on January 26th. Eleven days early. She had a very difficult delivery that went
on far to long. I hate going in if I don’t
have to and finally went in and pulled out a stuck buck that was not in the “dive”
position. He had both his front legs
facing backwards and so his shoulders were to big to pass. After pushing him back a bit and getting both
front legs forward he came out easily and then he was followed by a doe. Twinkie was tired and so were we. It was after midnight. She was still pawing the ground once an hour but
not pushing so I thought she was done and ready to pass the after birth
soon. I worked on the preemie babies who
had no suck reflex. I tube fed them some
colostrum and we all went to bed. Early the
next morning I went out and Twinkie was still exhausted and pawing the ground
twice an hour. I hate to go in if I don’t
have to. But did, just to be sure and there
was still another baby in there. :( I felt so badly to make her stay in that state
all night. I truly thought she was thru.
William helped me pull the last baby and we thought for sure it would be
dead. It was as floppy as cooked
pasta. But after a moment of coming out
it did give a little twitch and William and I went to work on clearing the
lungs (swinging it upside down by its feet) and drying it off and yes we prayed hard. An hour later it was on its wobbly little
feet and I had tube fed it some warm colostruml. This one was a doe as well! After the second day their suck reflex kicked
in slowly and they began to nurse on their bottle better. I dehorned them a little later to give them a
chance to get sturdier. I had no need
for the buck so gave him to the neighbor.
He was orange and was born with Lamancha elf ears. (Looked like a little mini Lamancah for sure) The Lamancha gene must be a very dominant gene. As these kids only have 1/4 Lamancha in them at all. The first doe born is brown and white patches
with Nigerian ears and the little black and white doe born last had Lamancha
elf ears.
It took some coddling to get Twinkie feeling well again. William and I had to cut privet and browse for days to keep her eating. But after two weeks she is all well. I am not a vet at all and don’t give vet advice but this is what I did. Gave her oxytosin to make sure her after birth all cleared because of her weak contractions. And I gave her antibiotics because I had to go in with my hands and introduced germs in there. I am surely going to start to give my does BoSe shots again as we are so selenium deficient in this area. And that is often a cause of weak contractions.
Twinkie is giving her usual gallon a day. It feeds the two does we kept and is giving
us enough milk too. Once the babies are
weaned I will have enough milk to make cheese again and have extra milk. I am very pleased with these two does so far
out of the Nigerian buck (Major Coco) and Twinkie (Lamancha/Nigerian) doe. Twinkies full sister Bluebell is bred to
Major Coco as well and is due to kid in April.
Can’t wait to see what God gives me out of that breeding.
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