Friday, February 8, 2013

A Monster

Yesterday one of our Alpine does gave birth to a monster.


A 10.5 lb buck kid. I think he looks like a stuffed animal. Surprisingly he is white and looks Saanen, even though both of his registered Alpine parents are very colorful. Kind of strange. He does have a few black spots on him. He's a gentle giant though.



She also gave birth to an alien. Just kidding. But she had a DOA doeling, which was sad. It was our first kid loss of the year, which isn't bad considering we've had 34 kids born. The doeling was small, about 4 lbs, and had solid blue eyes. Very very strange. I'm hearing that it could mean that she was blind, which can be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. Last year I gave all of our pregnant does vitamin A&D shots because of the drought and feed being low in vitamin A. This year I did not. Maybe that was a bad idea to not... still thinking through all of it.

The doe is going great, although she seems a little sore but that is to be expected after having a 10.5 lb kid and not being a very big doe. The buckling is doing great and is a piglet.


This morning was busy busy. Between loading hay, helping birth triplets (another one of the Alpines had 2 bucklings and a doeling), disbudding kids and sending kids off to their new homes, it was a little bit hectic. But... that's part of farm life, right?


We sent LaWanda, one of our older MiniNubian does who has had some trouble this year, off to a retirement home with a few of our kids to a couple ladies we know who spoil their goats. I'm sure she'll be just fine.


We shall see what the rest of the day holds...

Peace out,
Suriyah

1 comments:

Kris said...

That buck is big and so handsome. I am thinking about an Alpine or 2 if I can find some. Not very many around here. And a nice goat retirement for Abby, my oldest doe. I'm so glad you found a place for yours to go.