Feeder for scale - aren't they a scream? They sound like squeaky toys!
And thanks for everyone's will wishes - Nibbles and the Too Cutes (from the baby daddy "Too Short" aka "Just Tall Enough" aka "Too Pimp") are doing great. They drank Nibbles dry tho so I sprang to action, worked the phone lines, sealed the deals, and delivered two of the bucklings to their new home on Monday nite. We thank D for taking the babies and know that she will do a great job with them. We think we have homes for a few of the others so hopefully Nibs will have a more manageable number of Too Cutes to feed in the next couple days.
Like me to a tequila bottle.. this Too Cute latched on and had a couple of shots
My pal the Big Onion asked me how I handled all of this - with two shots of tequila before I went to bed, my friend, with two big shots of tequila.
Aren't they splashy? Such beautiful coloring!
Five kids is pretty unusual - I figured three was plenty but five is a "wow!" for sure. There was no way Nibs could nurse them all - or even remotely produce enough milk. And you know I'm not great at being an udder, so we had to think fast. The best choices were to either "pull" some of the babies (take them away from the momma) and make them full time bottle babies, or supplement all of them a little with milk replacer or just milk from the store in addition to being on Nibbles, or rehome them.
This little love would have had plenty of milk if I had planned better.
Normally, if we had our act together, Debbie would have kidded first and we would have had plenty of milk for everyone's babies. But we were so excited to get Too Short here and installed at the Pimp Daddy - that it didn't work out how we thought. So we chose Option #3 and found some folks experienced with bottle babies - and one is a vet tech to boot. A perfect fit.
Look at that little face! Ooops! And a little poo also shhh...it happens.
Managing goat babies is a troublesome topic. Everyone has "their" way of doing it - some people like bottle babies, some people don't, some people do thus or such. Honestly there is no "right" answer so do what works for you. We believe in "letting momma do it" but we realize that folks around here want bottle kids. We'd normally let the babies be with Nibs for a while, transition them to bottles, then find new homes for them. But today proved that desperate times call for desperate measures.
We had a lot of the ol' switch-o-change-o going on today. We could not keep Dahlia contained in the stall in the goat house - and she really wanted to be with Nibs and the Too Cutes - which was not an option. Since we think that Debbie might be making an udder (hope hope hope) we didnt want to put Dahlia in with her as Dahlia's still milk-stealin'.... so once again the turkeys got the short end of the stick. We moved my little ducks in with the creepy meats, the turkeys over to where the ducks were, and Dahlia in where the turkey's were. Got that?
The ducks were mad, the turkeys were confused, and honestly I don't know what Dahlia thinks - that gal is crazy.
Tomorrow after I deliver the last of the bucklings to his new digs I'll have a better idea how Nibbles is doing. The Good Neighbors came over and declared Nibs "fit for active duty" and she looks pretty good. All of the babies got big drinks of her first milk, the colostrum, which is so important for their development. So we are tip top for now.
Next, I need to milk Nibs out, evaluate how she is doing, and make sure the remaining babies are getting plenty of eat. We may end up feeding the remaining babies with bottles to make sure everyone gets plenty of eat. Of course the weather is working against us and we have an extremely cold nite - but we have the babies and Nibs in a great snuggle spot with heat lamps, fresh straw, and a draft-free spot.
The best line of the day was from my friend L who summed it up mightily... she said "only on your farm" could this happen. Yep. We couldnt make this up if we tried.
Happy Tuesday everyone - and oh gosh, don't forget to vote if you're part of SuperTuesday!
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