[little blue]

Ours and Geraldine's first born... arrived today at 4:20pm
Mum and baby "Cravendale" (cos he's black and white like a cow!) both doing well after abit of confusion as to where to suckle.
think he's a boy
A "Bagonburg" or "Toggot" - Mum is pure Toggenburg, Dad a registered pedigree Bagot !

[ellisr]

Well done mum and human mum

[little blue]

..I'm so proud!! 

[HappyHippy]

Definately a Bagonburg  he's so sweet !
Congratulations and well done 

[Anke]

What interesting colouring, definitely Bagonburg as said before. Congrats - and now MILKING! Have fun! Anke

[Roxy]

Well done Geraldine on the arrival of your lovely kid!!  The kittens will enjoy a drop of goats milk, Little Blue .....

[ballingall]

Oh at last! Well done to both of you. He is beautifully marked. Your first baby goat is something special.  Funny isn't it- our BT gave birth as well today! She is 3 1/2, and has been pregnant 4 times- but this is the only time we have got as far actually producing kids.

Bethx

[Rosemary]

He's lovely - congratulations!

[jameslindsay]

Well done Ruth, love the pictures.

[little blue]

thanks all, Cesar's "mum" (ie previous owner!) is coming round soon, asked if Geraldine would prefer fruit or flowers! made me smile (and she prefers fruit, bananas mostly!)

congrats to you too then Beth, is yours as cute as ours??!! 

[ballingall]

Ours was really pale in colour, but his mum did not like him, and managed to squish him. So he is not with us any longer, and mum became much happier when he stopped moving  He was cross BT/AN in any case, so no real use for breeding for us, but it was my partner's first kid, so he is disappointed.

Little blue, I noticed you asked about disbudding on the other forum- I didn't like to register there as I am not in the area! Nor am I living off the land really. Anyway, it is illegal for anyone other than a vet to disbud. We do our own, but of course mum is a qualified vet. I don't know that I could bring myself to do the disbudding when she is no longer capable, despite the fact that I am more experienced at disbudding then most vets. Your vet will want to disbud very young- if you do not thing he is big enough, then lie to the bet about how old he is. The last thing you want is to lose your kid by having him disbudded when he is too wee to cope with it.

If you have a local showing goatkeeper, you could ask them where or who they get to disbud their kids. Let us know how it goes.

Beth

[Roxy]

Oh dear, Beth, sorry about your kid being squashed......maybe mother goat wanted a female kid?  I know you did not really want him etc. but I am sure you did not want him squashing.  I have a cat that does that with some of her kittens.

I wonder why farmers can do disbudding of calves?  I know one man who goes round the farms doing their calves.  They are not done as early as goat kids, because he was very surprised at how quickly goats horns came through in comparison to calves.  He said he would not be happy doiing a goat kid due to the tiny size of its head and the risk involved.

[Samantha]

OMG thats too cute!!! congratulations!

[little blue]

thanks for advice on disbudding - books are always abit vague and of course I prefer the vet to do it - its just the journey that concerns me...
the receptionist asked if we had lamb rings to castrate  - I told her I want the vet to do it, she looked abit gone out. but I'm not a farmer! ;~)

[Roxy]

Ruth, its quick and easy to do, and the vet will have it done in a jiffy.  I am sure he will have lamb rings. If he hasn't, go to the nearest sheep farmer, knock on the door, and ask him to do it.  They get big boxes of rings, and he can surely spare one out of his box, and do the job for you. Can you not have the vet out to do the disbudding.  My concern would be transporting a little goat kid, and bringing him back after its done.  What about Geraldine, presume she will stay at home?  Some years ago, one of my kids got ill and I had to take her and her brother to the vets, as he thought the other kid would catch the bug, so needed jabbing.  Poor mum was beside herself when we got back, thinking we had stolen her little kids.