June Kidded!

Yesterday morning, I woke up and saw that June was in labor. It was a good thing I had taken the day off.  Usually, June takes a while to really go into hard labor, so I figured I'd run a few errands in town. 


















I got back home and checked on June, and I had MISSED it! Darn it. The kids were still wet, so I'd missed it by minutes. She had two doe kids! June has CAE (a goat arthritis virus), which is passed through milk, so I took the kids away so they couldn't nurse. 

My sister, Becky, is getting ready to sell her house to buy a farm, so I told her if June had two doe kids they were hers.  Luckily June obliged and gave her two gorgeous girls.  The first one is Elphaba (Elphie).  She's very pretty and has a white dot on her head. 

The second kid, facing away from the camera, is Nessarose (Nessa).  The two names are from the wicked witches in the musical Wicked, which is one of Jon's (my brother in law) favorite musicals.

















June and Ida were pretty worried because I had taken the girls.  I feel bad taking them away, but it is better to prevent the kids from getting the CAE virus, so it's necessary.  June usually forgets about her kids pretty quickly.
















Because I bottle fed Ida when she was born (she's June's daughter from 2 years ago), she is CAE negative, so she can feed her babies.  I saved some of her colostrum and fed it to June's girls.
















It was really warm out yesterday, so the girls stayed in a big tote so they could dry in the sun.

Since Ida only has one kid, and he's already spoken for and will be going to his new home next weekend, I had the idea to foster June's kids onto Ida so she could raise them.  Ida was very interested in the babies, so I tied her up so the kids could nurse.  She acted pretty confused at first, but she quickly settles down and lets them nurse.  After a few minutes, she starts to chew her cud.  If the doe kids nurse for a few days, they'll soon smell just like her own baby, so she should accept them as her own. 
















The doe kids don't need any encouragement, they love the idea!

After a few times of me tying her up, I let her go and she stood for them to nurse. We're definitely making progress!  You can't always graft other babies onto a foster mom like this, but Ida is a new mom and that probably makes a difference. 

I think the buck kid is happy to have some buddies to play with.  He's laying on the right, and Elphie is on the left.

 

Goat kids are so cute!

Here's the buck kid, trying to chew on a piece of hay.

Elpha and Nessa liked Devin.
















I was hoping they'd all lay in a little pile so I could get a picture, but Elpha and Nessa didn't want to lay down.
































So, it looks like Ida will be raising the two doe kids, if all goes according to plan! I'll start supplementing the buck kid with a bottle, so he'll be used to it since he's going to be bottle fed by his new owners.  I won't have to milk Ida until the goats are weaned, so that means way less work for me!  *knock on wood*!