The First Batch of Spring Kids Arrive!

We have been expecting Oreo, our La Mancha goat, to go into labor and deliver her first kids.  On Tuesday, things started happening.  But it was slow.  Too Slow.  Tricia was worried that she was in trouble, so she called our veterinarian.  He was in surgery but told Tricia to bring Oreo in.  She and Benjamin loaded Oreo up and made the one mile trip to the vet.  Tricia left Oreo there.

A little while later, the office called Tricia and told her she could go pick "them" up.  Oreo had delivered two little doelings.  It was a good thing that Tricia brought her in as she had trouble delivering the second one.  The second doeling had her head turned backwards and Dr. Jody had to turn her head around in order for her to be able to kid.

They mentioned that there was a little problem.  Since Oreo was a little early, they theorized, her hormones weren't quite right and she had no interest in her little kids.  Uh oh!  Tricia had the appropriate shirt on for the occasion!:

You've Goat to be Kidding Me is right!  Oreo is not being motherly to her twins.  So now WE are tasked with being the twins' mother!  We put Oreo in the stanchion and got the twins to begin nursing.  It is so important that the little ones get colostrum.  It took some work.  They would suck for a little while and then lose it.

Here they are.  One is light tan and white.  The other is black with white patches.  The tan colored one is strange in that neither the mom, Oreo, or the Dad, Buckwheat has any tan coloration.  I guess there is a recessive gene somewhere.

Tricia wanted to weigh them, so we brought the kitchen scale out to the barn.  The black one weighed 3 pounds 15 ounces, and the tan-colored one weighed 3 pounds 7 ounces.

The kids' father is a Nubian goat.  They have long, floppy ears.  The mother, of course, is Oreo, and she is a La Mancha.  La Manchas have strange little "elf ears."  The kids have traits from each one.  The little doeling has long Nubian ears like Buckwheat.

While the little tan doeling inherited the trait of having little La Mancha "elf ears" from Oreo, the momma.

We are several days into this adventure and Oreo hasn't shown much motherly instinct.  She will let them nurse, but she's not really interested in them at all.  Tricia noticed that Oreo must not be making a whole lot of milk since they nurse and nurse and when finished, they still cry like they are still hungry.

Fortunately, we have plenty of cow milk, so Tricia has been making up two baby bottles full of cow's milk that she supplements Oreo's milk with 3 times a day.

We're hoping this will end pretty soon.  Especially because we have more baby goats on the way.  Annie, our Nubian goat, is very pregnant.  She is as wide as the barn door and should kid any day.  As big as she is, we're thinking triplets...