New Babies!

On Friday night as I was closing the chicken coops, I could hear Noobi making a repetitive goat call in a quite voice, which I've never heard before.  Sure enough, she was delivering kidding! We have two new babies!  

They are both girls, and have the sweetest little faces.  Noobi is a good mom too, and is fascinated by her babies.  She keeps calling to them in that little voice, which I never heard Peaches do. 

Brandon and I sat peeking through the little window to the goat stall with our headlamps on and and watched Noobi deliver the second kid.  It was real gross, but Noobi didn't seem to be in any distress.  She walked around with a hoof poking out for a few minutes, then had an expression of deep concentration before a slippery wet baby fell to the ground.  The baby started to grunt and sneeze and Noobi licked all the slime away so it could move and breath well.  

The babies looked like they were all legs and ears, and Noobi couldn't decide which one to focus on so she went back and forth between them calling and licking.  

The next morning I made sure to see them nurse, and by the end of the day they were wobbling around on their little legs with some energy, and I started to feel confident that were strong enough to survive.  

The joke is that if it works, it's called line-breeding, and if it doesn't work, it's called in-breeding.  You might be able to see in the photo above, but one of the babies has a noticeable under bite.  We pried her mouth open and examined how her upper and lower jaw line up, and we think that her mouth will work to eat grass and chew.  She doesn't have any trouble nursing.  The other baby has a slight over-bite, but it's not noticeable unless you look in her mouth.   

I was curious to try line-breeding to help me decide the fate of Little Buck.  I don't like the idea of making goats that might have trouble eating though, so I don't think I will risk it again.  As Brandon and I watched the new mother with her little babies, we laughed because all of a sudden, we have nine goats.  Nine!  

Peaches and her two kids have been very respectful of the new mother and her space.  Peaches keeps her kids out on the pasture during the day, and at night she takes one corner of the stall and snuggles with her babies, and Noobi takes another corner.  Its very peaceful to see the mothers slowly chewing their cud while their little ones snuggle close.