| Gypsy and Dottie Belle at 5 weeks old. |
For over a year now, I have been surfing the internet and reading about raising and breeding goats.
I've been watching youtube videos like crazy of goats giving birth or kidding.
Monday night I finally decided to place that order to Hoegger Supply that I had been making since January. Mother had sent the money back in January to buy a milking pail for my birthday present and I had put a birthing kit and first aid kit in my shopping cart at the Hoegger site. Monday night, I also went to this website and printed up the Kidding Handbook. http://www.goatworld.com/articles/kidding/KiddingHandbook.pdf I even put a copy of the Kidding Handbook in my husband's backpack for him to take to work with him Tuesday and read if he found time.
For about the past 3 weeks Dottie Belle's udder has been steadily enlarging, but I didn't know how far along that meant that she was.
| Billy Shakespeare at about 7 weeks old. |
She never seemed interested in him. So I was guessing delivery would be late August or September.
Tuesday morning, July 17th, I went out to feed everyone and looked at Dottie Belle with the freshly attained knowledge from the Kidding Handbook. Sure enough there was a little discharge on her vulva. (I have a picture, but I'm not going to include it in this post.) I had been checking her ligaments around the base of her tail for a couple of weeks, but that area felt just like the other 2 does'. But Tuesday morning, I could feel what was meant by "ligaments around base of tail will loosen." Dottie Belle's were finally different from the other does' ligaments. So my next step, of course, was to call my husband and make sure he had read the Kidding Handbook. When I told him today was the day we would be using it, he didn't believe me. I quickly put fresh straw in the goat shack and put Dottie Belle in there. I then ran into the house and got the camera, surgical gloves, disinfectant soap, towels, a gallon of distilled water, and hydrogen peroxide as a substitute for iodine to put on the umbilical cord. As soon asI got back to Dottie Belle, she jumped over the little privacy board I had put up for her and ran to a briar patch and laid down. She had a contraction, let out loud bellow and I saw "the bubble" I had read about. My friend and fellow school board member, Jasmine, called about that time and I told her Dottie Belle was having her babies. She said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes." Now Jasmine doesn't know anything about goats, but she did not want to miss seeing the big event that I had been talking about for months. I then called my husband back and told him I was right that she is kidding RIGHT NOW. I wanted Dottie Belle to go back to the comfy bed of straw I had made like it said in the Kidding Handbook, so I got some goat pellets to persuade her to return. She followed me back to the shack and as soon as she got there out popped a beautiful kid. I do have a video. Jasmine showed up just 5 minutes too late to see the birth and my husband came home to check things out just minutes afterwards. His question was, "How did you know she was going to have the kids today?" I replied, "Because I read the Kidding Handbook last night." Anyway, kid number one and only was born at 12:35 p.m. My husband returned to work, since it looked like everything was under control. Jasmine and I sat and waited until 3:45 for another one to be born. Jasmine so badly wanted to see a birth. But we were having a board meeting at 4:30 and she rushed home to get ready and go to the meeting. I gave up going to the meeting and sat with Dottie Belle and her kid until 6:00 and then decided there were not going to be any more kids. Dottie Belle did everything exactly by the handbook, except that little run for the briar patch. I was at first going to name the new buckling Donald, because this was also my husband Don's Birthday. But Don didn't really care if he had a goat named after him, so I've named him Jazzman in honor of Jasmine. It was her idea. He weighted 5 lbs. The average weight for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf goat is 2-3 lbs. So he is a big fine fellow and looks very much like his daddy, Billy Shakespeare.
| As soon as he was cleaned, he wanted to nurse. |
| Jasmine and Jazzman |
| Dottie Belle took a quick nap. |
| The grands came to love on him. |
| Chase and Jazzman. Jazzman even has his dad's blue eyes. |