SURRRRPRISE!! UPDATE--- PICS!

[s6bee]

Oh what a surprise! You'll have to post pictures of her when she's up and running around. I want babies! I can't stand living in the suburbs any more.........

 

[picklespickles]

what a sweet picture to wake up to.

 

[Wildsky]

Wow thats awesome, you didn't even have to pace up and down and worry for weeks!

 

[GloriaH]

We brought him in the house because it was just to cold out for him. He is with Hank our Dobie who is Papa to every animal we have.

 

[mlheran]

SO cute!!

But wait, it's a "he" now -did something happen overnight, LOL?

 

[Wildsky]

Aw - was mom not taking care of him/her?

Don't forget - he or she has a nice woolen coat... might feel cold to you - but go out with a thick wool coat and it won't be HALF bad!

 

[GloriaH]

I looked again this morning and he is a he now LOL.
It got into the teens last night and he was shivering out there this morning. Mom is feeding him. She was even shivering this morning. We wrapped up our chain link dog pen with plastic this afternoon and put it in a horse stall. I also put a heat lamp in there. It should be good now. He is wearing a kid sweater. If it gets really cold again tonight We'll bring him in for the night and give him back to Mom in the morning. She is being really good about him going back and forth. If not we also have kid replacer on hand. He is our first baby and we are taking no chances.

 

[helmstead]

Don't use kid milk replacer, it will give him the runs. Use whole cow's milk or half and half. The heat lamp should solve you needing to bring it in. They really need to stay with mom and get colostrum as much as possible.

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
I agree, he needs to be with momma *unless* you want to milk her out twice a day, every day, and be the replacement momma. It's a real commitment, so be sure you want/are able to do that. Right now is the bonding period, every time you take him away from momma, you risk her rejecting him. Kids are resilent when born to healthy stock (like yours). Once they are dry (especially the ears) they are capable of staying warm-with momma's help.

We raise dairy goats, and b/c of that, we pull *almost* every kid to bottle raise. It makes for a friendlier kid. Once in a while we will let a first freshener raise her own if she has a set of buck (to be wethered) kids. Only if it's a set, and only if they are slated to be castrated. In dairy goats, the udder is important, and a single will often nurse one side more than the other resulting in a lop-sided udder.

I had to use replacer last year (too many dang kids!) and had no issue with it. No runs, no unhealthies, nothing. Of course, I mixed the goats milk I had with the replacer-AND you have to increase the replacer gradually, or you will have such issues. You should never change any animal's diet suddenly. If you feel you have to feed him, try hand milking momma and mix in a little replacer.

 

[texaschickmama]

That is way too cute for words. I want some goats, now!!