The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: katie on February 16, 2012, 09:25:03 pm
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My two Togs are due to kid in 2 weeks and I'm busy sorting out housing etc for them. Do you keep the goats in for a few days before they are due?
We have no electricity on the holding and I'm worried about babies getting chilled. If I leave the new kids with their mother for a few days and it's not freezing will they be ok without extra heating? I would have rugs and if really cold, would take them in front of the gas fire in our mobile home. I was thinking about pheasant brooders but am concerned about fire risk. (Sorry to sound like a worry-wart. These will be my first kids. Lambing was never this worrying! :-\)
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I move my goats into their kidding pen about 2 weeks prior to due date. The risk to kids from chilling will be miminsied if they are dried off properly after birth, also prevent drafts - straw bales around the outside of the pens work well - also a you can make little kid coats using big socks - or so I understand! Make sure there is plenty of clean, dry straw bedding.
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Thanks Cuckoo. I'd better get mine moved in, then - the first one's due on the 1st of March. Gulp!
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I leave mine to go outside as long as they want, my BT last spring was out in the morning of her due date and then about noon time (I was checking every half hour) was desperate to go inside - kids were born within the hour after that. So they will tell you when they want to go inside (or may be kidding outside if the weather is nice).
If the weather is not too great but dry I also take mine for wee walks just to keep them moving.
Other than that you will need more or less the same as for lambing - something to treat the navel (iodine or Bactakil), arm length gloves in case you need to go in and help the kid(s) out, towels to rub kid dry if nanny is quite tired, and depending on your planned rearing system a lamb bottle for feeding the first feed of colostrum. Also telephone number for vet on your mobile, have a headtorch charged up it will keep your hands free, but start to get the nannies used to them now on late night checks. Keep an eye on the girls eating, if they start to get picky and/or stop eating altogether you need to do the same as for ewes havng pregnancy toxaemia.
I take it the adults had a clostridial booster a couple of weeks ago?
Kids love to sleep in a side-ways open box, a bit like a cave and easily keeps them out of drafts. People used to use tea-chests for that, but I guess not too many of those about any more...I am sure you will find something.
If these are nannies that have kidded before they will probably present you one morning with two litte bundles of joy proudly at their side....
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They both had triplets last time..... :-[
Thanks, Anke. I think mine would freak at being inside for ages.
I've got some packing cases upstairs - perhaps they'll do for kid boxes?
Exciting - and scarey!
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Both triplets last time?! oooooooooh!!
well, their breeder keeps hers outside till the last minute and even lets them kid outside if the weather and condition suits. And you Know what F's goats are like - they are very hardy and live out all winter (as you can tell by Reggie's addiction to snow spotting!) I was with F a couple of days ago as one of her girls was labouring and I wanted to see what to expect, she did bring her in as it was cold and evening time. Have you got a heat lamp?
Give me a call if you need an extra pair of hands (not that I'm expert having never done it either! but will be with you like a shot for moral support and to help)
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We have got a heat lamp but...no electricity! However, in a dire emergency, I could always bring kids into the mobile home in front of the gas fire. Apart from that, it will have to be woolly jumpers and lots of straw.
Thanks for the offer of help, Plums. I'll save you any tricky presentations! Moral support would be great.
I started night patrols last night - it's always funny how amazed the animals look. 'What on earth are you doing here at this time of night?' expressions!
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haha, I know its funny - mine lurve my pyjama's or at least they always seem to be laughing when they see me in them!!
F's just delivered a baby boy!! yay!! see - there's good news too :) phew.
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That's good - though a girl would have been better. I know someone who had two Golden Guernsey's which had 3 boys each!
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:o oooh. am sooooo hoping we get just a girl - milli happy, me happy, puffin happy. meat man less happy but he'll cope. coward? moi? yep.
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Bit late in posting but my girls stay out till the last min. too, saying that I do pen them separately at night so they get peace and quite and their fair share of food - good luck with the kidding
PS mine don't see pyjama's as I put waterproofs on top for our lovely Aberdeenshire wind!!
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That's good - though a girl would have been better. I know someone who had two Golden Guernsey's which had 3 boys each!
You talking about me.... :o, I had both of my GG's kidding last year and had four boys from them, although one was stillborn... The year before a single male out of the older GG... I am still waiting to register my first GG!!!!!
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I can really see my eldest keeping a castrate this year at this rate ;)
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Oh dear, Anke! Best of luck next time.
I'll probably have 6 males. Imagine...as one after another came out. You wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry!
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you'd have to laugh, really, you would!! hope you like curry ;) ahhh well you'll know in just a couple of weeks now won';t you :) exciting really.
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Oh dear, Anke! Best of luck next time.
I'll probably have 6 males. Imagine...as one after another came out. You wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry!
Actually after the fourth one arrived I did cry... I was just so frustrated - but here's hoping for this year.
We do like curry and I sold last year's boys as pets actually in the end... Not planned by me, but someone wanted them and I priced them accordingly. Maybe should find out if they are doing ok... but maybe not.
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Do you know what Anke, I look at Reggie and feel really bad he could have been curry because he's like a cuddly big dog but the thought of keeping more boys now just isn't right for US. I can see it is for others but financially it isn't an option to have more boys (goat sanctuary springs to mind!!)
I've found a man (colleague of hubby) who takes them at 3 days old and rears them to eating age - nice man, happy home but still feel sad about it all the same!
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Maybe should find out if they are doing ok... but maybe not.
this is why I'd rather they went for curry. They have a nice life and then it's over. No concerns about safety or how they're going to be treated, or passed from pillar to post, for the rest of their potentially long lives. My two wether kids went last week, at 9 months. It was sad, of course but I think it's ok.
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The stud goat I took Pom to fathered nearly all girls last year. The only boys were one of a twin or triplets where the rest were girls. There was only one single boy out of about fifteen kids - mine!!! Not happy.
Will be when I'm eating him though. ;D
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Maybe should find out if they are doing ok... but maybe not.
this is why I'd rather they went for curry. They have a nice life and then it's over. No concerns about safety or how they're going to be treated, or passed from pillar to post, for the rest of their potentially long lives. My two wether kids went last week, at 9 months. It was sad, of course but I think it's ok.
Well it made more financial sense to re-coup the disbudding costs (for one of them) and the vet costs for an upset tummy etc for the other... I had checked the place they went to, so where I do not keep pet goats these people were.
But I do miss goat curry - it really is one of the best meats ever. So this year we will eat ours again! (and I am sure they will be some...)
But there is also the worry about the famles you sell to others - again you cannot keep them all (or so my OH tells me >:(), but again I feel you have to learn to dissociate yourself from them somewhat... very difficult though.
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We have our 3 boys from last year in the freezer and yes it was hard at the time but I don't regret it one bit. Just one point tho...roast goat is amazing...don't curry it all ;)