Goats kids are doing well

Biscuit’s kids are doing well and love to snuggle up together.   They are suckling milk from their mother but when they are not feeding they spend most of their time asleep.  At this stage, only days old, they have a lot of growing to do and while they can easily stand and follow mum around, they soon get tired and down they go for another siesta.    Biscuit is very careful with them, at first there was a mix-up over who was nursing from which teat – they both wanted the same one!   But now that’s all sorted out and they both go for their milk together.   When a goat is newly kidded she will need careful attention until her udder has ‘settled down’.   The act of giving birth makes her produce lots of milk and it’s sometimes too much for the kids to handle when they are so small.   The danger is that her udder will become swollen and tender if they are not taking enough milk.   Then it will hurt and she won’t want them to suckle.   Mastitis is the ever present danger and must be avoided at all costs.

As the kids grow they will take more and more milk and she will stop them feeding by walking on when she thinks they have had enough or she feels uncomfortable.   If the goat is an exceptionally heavy milker you might have to milk some of the milk off in the early days.   It will be rich and creamy and the cats will love it!   Most present day goats have been selectively bred for milk production for many years, they will often give a gallon or more a day.   Mountain or wild goats will give nothing like this amount.   They’ll just produce enough to rear their kids.

Did I really have two kids? Biscuit still looks quite surprised – she loves them both though and is a devoted mum.   This is her first time outside today, most new mothers don’t want to leave their kids at first.    I’ve left the door open and she can see the kids and dart back to them if she feels worried.    They don’t seem to mind she has left them for a while though.

Newborn kids always lie close together, touching each other all the while.   They’ve been entwined for five months already, so it’s not surprising.    As soon as the kids were born we sprayed their cords with Gentian Violet spray to prevent infection.   It’s the open end of the cord you need to spray, not their navel.   Within a day  or so the cord will have shrivelled up and nearly disappeared.    Mum needs to have a quiet time to get over this marvellous achievement.   We don’t shake bedding up or create any disturbance until she is back to normal and ready to go a walk out.   Fresh clean water is appreciated and she will want to drink more than usual now that she has kids to feed.

We gave Biscuit bulky high fibre food after she’d kidded, something to fill her up but not high in protein or anything that would create too much milk.   She enjoyed a nice bran mash, also some alfafa, lots of apples and carrots and just a sprinkle of oats.   We’ll introduce her proper goat rations as she makes more milk.    There is always a rack of clean, sweet hay for her to nibble when she feels hungry.  The best food for her is natural browsing and just outside her shed there is a patch of rough ground full of docks, thistle, nettles, small bushes and coarse grass – goat heaven!

We don’t leave Biscuit out for very long, she likes a quick burst of munching leaves and then she wants to go back to her babies.   It’s best to keep a careful watch over newly kidded goats and their kids.   The scent of a newborn animal is attractive to foxes and dogs and the new family should not be left unattended.    The same applies to sheep and lambs, calves and foals too – it’s a natural thing – a hungry predator will see the baby animal as lunch!    Biscuit goes out only while we are with her and then it’s back to the nursery and giving her kids lots of fuss.