Meet Snow White (She's the big goat white goat. The little goat was a loaner because goats don't like to be alone so we borrowed a goat so she'd have a friend.)
She was really sweet! She loved Lilly and Lilly loved her!
She was pregnant. Very pregnant. We got her on November 17th, 2015. We were told she would have the babies any day! They said she was a Nubian bred to a Boer. After getting her home and looking her over. I wish we hadn't gotten her. Pretty sure she was a Nubian Boer mix. The worst part: she had a lump that we didn't see when we agree to purchase her and clearly the seller wasn't upfront about it. We now know what to do and what not to do when buying a goat.
She was huge! You could see the babies moving around when she would lay down.
We learn that goats like to eat their house. Nellie...what a trouble maker.
We waited...
and waited...but no babies...
And then on Christmas Night I looked out and thought something didn't look right in the goat house! Magically we found a baby goat and then 3 more popped out! We knew we were in over our heads with 4 babies! So I called in back up and my good friend Julie came to the goat rescue! We spent a couple hours warming up and drying off the babies.
Meet the runt. He came out first and took didn't get cleaned off fast. It was a really cold night and we didn't think he would make it. So we brought him inside to sleep on a heating pad. We thought he was going to die. I thought he should die in comfort at least.
In the middle of the night I heard him stir so I got up and tried to feed him. He wouldn't/couldn't suck. I prayed to figure out what to do. And clearly the answer came to put molasses on the roof of his mouth. Within seconds he perked up, went from limp and couldn't stand or suck to sucking like crazy on everything he could find and standing strong! It was a Christmas miracle! So at 3 am I was snuggling a brand new baby goat (and getting peed on by said baby goat) and feeding him with a syringe while he sucked on my finger. It was great!
The next morning he was standing and crying for food so I took him out to mom and he latched right on and ate a good breakfast!
Ummm...goats in sweaters! Is there anything cuter?!
They were born during a cold snap. We had several nights of below freezing. So perhaps they didn't need sweaters but we decided to play it safe. We didn't want our first baby goat experience to end in tragedy with a dead goat.
Yes, they came inside sometimes. Mostly to have their sweaters put on each night and get their vitamins.
They are so CUTE!!
During the daytime we took the sweaters off
One day it rained. They played in the puddles and got all wet. When night came they were still wet and shivering and it was supposed to be below freezing. So into the tub they went to sleep for the night. Surprisingly none of them figured out how to jump out! Haha!
They quickly grew.
Oh and meet Maleficent! (the evil queen from Snow White. Once Snow White had babies she turned mean trying to bite and headbutt everyone who came near. She got a few of us good.
We loved watching the babies play and building structures for them to play on
Then they grew bigger and got into more mischief. And they started eating SO MUCH FOOD!!
When they were about 3 months old we decided it was time to sell them. And Maleficent too. We wanted her for a milk goat but she was hard to milk and her milk tasted terrible. If we kept the babies we knew we would be eating them and we decided we weren't ready for that adventure yet.
So good bye little goats. It's been so fun watching you grow! Good bye Maleficent, ahem Snow White, thank you for the memories and the lessons we learned.
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