2006-03-04 16:18:42
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Cream went into labor today while I was at the grocery store, somewhere between 11 and noon. I got back around a quarter after noon, and 3 kids had been born! While I dried them, sexed them, weighed them, and swabbed their belly buttons with iodine, she had a fourth!
Andrew tells me it's really unusual for a dairy goat to have quadruplets, but Cream has done it for the second year in a row!
Here are the weights, and then the pictures.
Doe: 6 lb 12 oz Buck: 8 lb 8 oz Buck: 6 lb 10 oz Buck: 10 lb 10 oz(!)
I weighed that second buck again, and got the same weight. He's a little chunk!
They have all taken at least some colostrum. Three of them really latched on and got quite a bit, but one of them hasn't quite figured it out yet, and only could manage a couple sips. The bottle was cooling down, so I will feed them some more during the evening chores.
They are under a heat lamp within sight of Cream, and she is staring at them and talking to them. She has not passed the afterbirth yet, but I went ahead and milked her. I got 1 lb 8 oz of colostrum in the first milking.
Edit to add: Cream has passed the afterbirth. I've fed the kids again, and they almost finished the entire bottle! The 10lb buck was the last one born and seems a little slower to catch on than the others. They have already been sucking my fingers like crazy, but he's not too interested yet. He got a few more swallows and that's it.
For more pics go to the gallery.
Karen on 2006-03-07 22:44:11
Glad to see that the kids and Cream are doing well. I can't believe the weight of that one buck! Cream must feel so much better without all that extra weight, haha.
-Karen
andrew on 2006-03-08 01:16:46
Hey Karen, can you imagin dropping from probably 220lbs to 180lbs over night??
Dawn on 2006-03-09 12:51:59
They are too cute!
I love the buck-in-the-box.
andrew on 2006-03-10 14:10:23
awww, I think so too Dawn! Misty's is so sweet bringing him inside to try and warm him up.
Scott’s blog » Kids are here !! on 2006-03-05 04:32:55
[...] Well after a long wait I see three-elms (0) had there baby goat kids. [...]