[fifixx]

I (well, the goats) am expecting kidding to be hopefully around the 20th.  I have got:  bottle, disinfectant for me, iodine, paper towel, bucket, marker stuff.  Do I need:  tube for feeding, heat lamp, calcium in case goats needs it, anything else?

I know that the more I have, the less I'll need it - but don't want to find I under-stocked at 2 in the morning!

I have got them together in a pen and plan to have an individual pen within it in case I need to keep one separate, or is it better to do as with ewes and pen them all up?

I was brought up on a farm and have returned to farming after 20 years - surprising how it all comes back automatically!

 

[ballingall]

We split ours all up for kidding, but you can leave them together, especially if they have plenty to room to get a bit of space from the others. The reason we split ours up is so that we can moniter what mum is eating, both before and after kidding. Want to make sure she is getting food, and we like to give them more fibre, veg and stuff. And that means the other don't steal it. But either way works.

I would have calcium on standby, just as in case. Remember that goats show signs of calcium deficiency by NOT sitting down, the opposite to a cow which will go down and not be able to get up. They seem to know if they are calcium deficient that if they lie down they may not be able to get back up, so just stand up. I'd also keep a syringe and needle, in case you need to give them some calcium.

A bottle and a teat- you never know if mum will have enough milk, if the kid will be strong enough to stand and suck. A kid might not be weak enough to need to be tubed, but might need the benefit of a wee drop in a bottle.

We have "goat towels", ie towels which are no longer good enough for the house but get used for the animals. Might be handy to wipe your hands on, and also to help dry up kids although straw is very effective as well.

We give mum a gruel of porridge oats, hot water and treacle or molasses straight after kidding to help them replace fluids and to give them a sugar boost, so you might want to think about having some of that handy.

Might be an idea to have a heat lamp handy- we tend to just take them into the house if they get too chilled, but we hand rear our kids.

A collar and lead- don't know if you'll have anyone else with you, but if you need to help her kid and she doesn't want you to, and you have no-one with you to help, you might want to tie her up.

I can't think of anything else right now, but if I do, I'll add it here!

Interestingly, I associate the smell of dettol with newborn kids. It's because my mum is a vet, so whenever she would go out to kid the goats with a bucket of hot soapy water with dettol in, kids would be along not long afterwards! So as a child, that's really what I associated the smell with.

Beth

[Roxy]

A supply of clean straw is nice to put down for the new family , as the bed can get a bit messy after the birth- and I had an old bucket ready to put the afterbirth into, before Jasmine ate it!!  All my nannies appreciated a nice fresh drink of water, and were eager for their hay too.  If its all nearby, its much easier ......you don't want to be going off to find water and hay in the middle of the night, do you!!

I don't have lights in my barn, so had two head torches hung up - head torches are ideal, as they leave your hands free if you have no one to hold a torch!!

The phone number of a vet, or indeed another experienced goat keeper, or shepherd, somewhere handy,  may be an idea.  You will probably not need it, but its comforting to have it, all the same.

Oh, and  you are going to have to sit in a goat stable for a while, perhaps a flask of coffee or something?

I have been fortunate, and all three of the goats this time kidded late afternoon!!

[Anke]

Beth, is the Calcium you give a goat for hypocalcaemia the same as for sheep? I have Calcium Borogluconate, 20% solution, which is injected under the skin just over the ribs? About 50ml in two/three places?

I have just had to use it on one of my ewes, and she has still got three weeks to go....

Anke

Oh and one of the other things that I think is necessary maybe is sterile gloves, the long ones. I use them for the sheep, in case I need to go in and help. Just reduces the possibility of metritis afterwards. and lubricant.

[ballingall]

Yes, its much the same Anke, and what you have sounds fine. There should be a guide for dosage on the back, by weight. The average weight for a adult female goat is about 60- 70kg.

Fifi, it is quite rare that they kid in the middle of the night. We have a "kidding book" which records all the kiddings we have had, and out of 400 kiddings over the last 40 years, only 8 have been in the middle of the night. That said, their have been a lot more which we have got up to check in the middle of the night and were fine.

Beth

[Roxy]

Teatime seems a firm favourite with  my goats for kidding.  I had one some years ago, when I lived 8 miles away, due for kidding.  I was certain she was going to kid pretty late one night.  I did eventually go home, but persuaded my OH to go back with me at midnight, as I could not settle!!

On the way, along the country lane by our house, we could see something lay in the road, well rolling about,  in the car headlights.  We stopped, and rushed over and it was a new born calf.  We realised the cow had calved right by the fence, the calf had been born, and somehow rolled under the fence, down the bank and into the lane.  Had we not come that way so late, its unlikely anyone would have found it until morning.  Between us, we lifted the calf back up the bank and into the field.  We then realised that mum was a first calver, and had obviously butted the calf under the fence, because when we put the calf to her, she did it again.  I sat with the calf by the lane in the pitch dark while Rick went to the farmers house. Farmer came back, and we left him to sort his cow out.  We saw him a few days later, and all had ended well, and cow taken to calf!!

Anyway, we rushed down to the goat, and no kids, and she did not kid until after lunch the following day.  But I am glad we were able to help the calf.

[ballingall]

It's just as well you were passing Roxy! Lucky calf. I know what you mean, sometimes they keep you guessing for days (and nights!)

Beth

[Anke]

Thanks Beth re Ca Borogluconate. I had to use it this weekend on one of my ewes, she seems ok now, but will probably need "topping up" with it before lambing starts, its still over two weeks... she also has been given Shepherdess, as i think she is also coming possibly down with twin lamb disease.... Fortunatley the goats are eating for Scotland so far....

Goats have been mucked out this weekend, first time since October - what a job.... but now clean ed of straw, ready for kidding... (first one due on March 23rd)

[ballingall]

Well I thought our goats shed was all finished being cleaned out, and then I looked at the run through milker's pen and realised it will need done soon! It seem's a never ending cycle.

Goats are the same as sheep, in the latter stages of pregnancy they need their food intake (or at least the protein content of the food) increased to help them develope the kids. Soya bean meal is a good addition to their food as it is small granules but very high protein, so only a wee bit added will increase the protein content.

Also, not sure what you do Roxy, but in the few days following kidding, we don't give the new mum a lot of concentrated food. Instead she get's veg 2-3 times a day, and higher fibre things like Alfafa,Dengie, beetpulp, hay etc. Then we start to increase it back in gradually, the other you need to watch for is that if they suddenly start producing really high volumes of milk too quickly it can really sap their calcium, and make the weight drop off them. Our 1st kidder that milked really heavy last year did it really well, she didn't start giving a lot of milk until May- about 6-8 weeks after kidding. But then she was able to sustain that amount of milk (7 litres a day) for months because she gradully increased. She's still giving nearly 5 litres a day now.

Beth

[Roxy]

Its getting the balance right - I am pleased with the way my in kid nannies looked, and how they look now. Its tempting for people to want to feed them more before kidding, thinking it will help the kids, but having them too fat is not good. Having said that, once they kid, the kids can soon pull the weight off the nanny, and she can end up looking like a hat rack!!!

After kidding, they are really hungry at every meal time, but like you, I do  not give them buckets of concentrates.  We give ours  soaked sugar beet, and the Greengold alfalfa, or Hi Fi, plus any veg and the horses carrots too, plus a couple of handfulls of goat mix, gradually increasing it.  Plenty of hay too, although Jasmine does like haylage, so give her a little bit of that to keep her happy.  Goat kids are just starting to nibble hay now - and jump around in it too!!!

It will be good when the grass comes through, and the leaves on the trees, as that all helps to supplement the feed.

[fifixx]

Thanks for all the really helpful replies - the thing that worries me the most is that they are not really happy to see me as they only arrived here a couple of weeks ago!  So I am going to spend a bit of time in with them so they will get used to me being there as I don't want to scare them if I am trying to help them out.

I am feeding them 500g concentrate (Organic mix of wheat, maize, soya etc) each morning and evening with hay on demand - should I increase the concentrate or get supplements into it at all?  I was looking at Ascott supplies and of course there are loads of "extras" they recommend.

[Anke]

Mine (one GG and one BT type) are due to kid any time now, and both are getting about 600g of Smallholder All round goat in two portions and a lunchtime snack of 300g soaked sugar beet shreds with some veg/fruit/rye grass. The only supplement I add is a sprinkling of seaweed powder and a bit of garlic powder.
I grow rye grass as a green manure over winter in my polytunnel.

But until the last 6 weeks they did get hardly any concentrate, and only a wee bit of sugarbeet in winter.. Loads of hay though, absolutely loads of the stuff....

I think you are ok but watch them closely for any signs of loosing appetite (pregnancy toxaemia) or hypocalcaemia.

[langdon]

what is the marker for if you dont mind me asking
is it for marking billys and nannies?
we are new to goat keeping

[fifixx]

I got three different colours so each goat and her kids will get a splodge so I know who goes with who!

[langdon]

ah silly me after watching lambing live i should have known that!!!!