Finally!!!! We have Merry's little buckling!

JerTheVintner

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Hi, I am new to BYH and have 3 little ND does that are probably all pregnant because they have been running with my little buck Pippin since August and he just loves them all the time. Pippin just had a little visit from the emasculatome which resulted in him walking on tiptoe for a few days and he has definitely calmed down and stopped peeing on his head since then, so I am hoping he doesn't need to go visit the vet for a little surgical solution to the problem.

The ladies are Merry, Sam, and Frodo (yes my boys were big Lord of the Rings fans and they got to name the goats). Frodo is definitely pregnant as I can feel the little buggers squirming around inside her. I have been able to feel what could have been gas or a kick inside Merry. Sam has the digestion of a cement mixer and I couldn't tell if she were pregnant unless she delivers some kids. My guess is they are probably due sometime in late February or early March depending on their cycles. Pippin and Merry are from different lines and breeders, while Sam and Frodo are sisters. Merry and Pippin are very friendly and love to be with me. Frodo and Sam were never handled as kids and they are quite skittish until I catch them and get them on my lap. Then they settle down and enjoy being held. Both Sam and Frodo had very long coarse coats, but now both of them are extremely soft. I don't know if that is a winter coat or a maternal thing.

We are in Northern Cal and the weather is mild here. They share a barn with 9 hens and a rooster. They have an outdoor shelter that has a goat feeder built in and a shelf with fresh hay. In the little barn they have a shelf to sleep on but usually sleep underneath it or under the hens' roosting boxes.

The plan, providing all goes well is to keep Pippin as a wether and keep any news doelings and one buckling, and find new homes for Frodo and Sam once they have weened their kids. We have two enclosed areas for the goats, one for the bucks and one for the does, but all have been living together up until now. All the goats are allowed to free range for an hour or two each morning in the vineyards. I feed them an 80/20 alfalfa/pasture grass mix with around a half of a cup of grain each twice a day. I have been giving them Molly's Immunity Tincture this winter and it has helped with Sam's cough (I think Sam was a heavy smoker at one time).

I will let everyone know how the pregnancies progress. I am of a mind to let nature do its thing as much as possible and only get involved if any of the does lives are endangered. I will try to take some goat booty pics as we get closer kidding. Here are pictures from a month ago of Merry (brown) and Pippin, and another of Frodo by herself.
 

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Goatgirl47

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Welcome to BackYardHerds! :clap I'm glad you joined us!

I love your goat's names! And they are all so pretty. :love

Are Frodo, Merry, or Sam developing an udder yet? That would be a sure sign of pregnancy. How old are they, do you know? And pictures of their behinds would help too. :D
 

Latestarter

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Greetings @JerTheVintner from the front range in Colorado :frow Welcome to BYH! Your goats are very pretty (especially like Frodo), thanks for sharing the pics with us :pop Absolutely love the Lord of the Rings names! Awesome! Sounds like you're having a great time with them and have a plan in mind :thumbsup Hope your kidding goes great and hope you'll share more pics when the time comes. There are quite a few active goaties on here, I'm sure more will be along shortly to greet you, and we all love to ooohhhh and ahhhh over pics, so feel free to post all that you'd like ;) Lots of great info over on the goat threads also. Anyway, Glad to have you with us! Welcome again!
 

JerTheVintner

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Welcome to BackYardHerds! :clap I'm glad you joined us!

I love your goat's names! And they are all so pretty. :love

Are Frodo, Merry, or Sam developing an udder yet? That would be a sure sign of pregnancy. How old are they, do you know? And pictures of their behinds would help too. :D

They are all around a year old. Frodo and Merry are getting a little bit of an udder, Sam not so much. Sam is an odd ball. She is Frodo's little sister and Frodo is quite a bit bigger and more of the herd queen, although Merry is sure she is actually the herd queen because I got her first and I totally favor her because she is so sweet and adorable and loves to be held. Sam has always had a minor cough but has never run a temp and has been treated for every kind of parasite and had a course of antibiotics when I got her. I think she does it just to get her cud up. She is extremely shy with everyone except Pippin, who she pretends to be annoyed by, but lets him have his way with her pretty much whenever he wanted (prior to the day of the emsculatome). If Sam is not pregnant, then she must be sterile because the evidence of Pippin's affections was clearly visible multiple times a day for months.
 

norseofcourse

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Welcome from Ohio! I hope all goes well with the kiddings. Are you going to milk any of your goats?
 

JerTheVintner

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I am checking back ends and ligs daily, but I am not getting sucked in by the Doe code, yeah right! I have a question. Pippin, my little buck had the emasculatome treatment a couple weeks ago but is still exhibiting some bucky tendencies like mounting everyone, but has not really had any completions, he always tosses his head back when he does that. Should I be scheduling a vet appointment to get him surgically wethered? It is beginning to look like he is having some shrinkage in the beans department, but I can't be certain. Also Merry has been exhibiting bucky behavior too, she mounted Pippin, LOL! Is that just the hormones? I have a separate fenced area for Pippin if needed, but I hate to separate him from his girls if I don't have to. He is such a loving little fellow and hates to be alone for any time at all.

Also I have a couple of different spots setup for kidding, but should I have totally separate areas where the other goats and chickens can't get to for the kidding? We have a very peaceful setup with very little jockeying for position. I would be shocked if any of my animals ever hurt any of the others (except for the puppies who would eat anything they can get their mouths on, so they are excluded from the goat/chicken areas).

Feeling the babies inside of Frodo is fun, but they seem so little, I am thinking that we have weeks if not months. Im just getting very faint movement inside Merry. Sam just has loud rumen noises and stinky belches. I still have no idea if she has anything in the oven, except for exploding biscuits!
 

animalmom

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It seems to me it might take a while for all of Pippin's manliness to work itself out of his wee body, and since the girls either are or aren't expecting I don't think it matters one way or the other if he's in with the ladies. If putting your young man in his own pen would mean that he is by himself, then I wouldn't do it. He would be most unhappy.

Merry's unladylike behavior is probably hormonal and she'll get over it. My girls will lavish affection on other does in heat and right now Merry apparently thinks Pippin is a doe in heat. Who knows what foolishness goes on in a goatie head.

My kidding pens are set up so the girls can see and touch noses with the other girls, should they desire, but there is a fence between them and at night the mom and her kids get locked up in a stall. I keep mine separated from the herd, seeable and nose-able but not touchable, for as long as I can -- but this is really more for me so that I can play with the babies. Not much sweeter in the world than a bouncing baby sashaying itself over for hugs and lap time. I have my extra roosters in the goat pens so the goaties are used to the roosters but I don't allow the roosters into the birthing pen. I think the moms have enough on their minds with birthing and babies that they don't need some pesky rooster telling her everything she's doing is not the way he was raised. Roosters are so opinionated, and tactless.

Good luck with your expanding goat world, and please keep us posted with your informative and humorous updates!
 

JerTheVintner

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In order to ignore the Doe Code, I decided that Frodo is probably not due until the end of February or the beginning of March. Merry and Sam are not due until mid March at the earliest. This is totally based on my gut and nothing more. Frodo has about a small handful of udder and Sam and Merry are showing almost no signs of udder at all. I will continue to check backs, bags, and ligs daily, but I am now assuming I have nothing to worry about for at least 2-4 weeks. Yeah right!

I will setup a couple of kidding pens in the barn that are adjacent to each other but would be inaccessible to the hens and the rooster and the other goats. Right now, the goat shelves are a little over 1 foot off the ground and have solid plywood floors. I am going to switch them out with heavy 1/2" wire mesh floors so pellets and pee can drop through. In addition I will put up 2' plywood walls around the kidding stalls It will make it much easier to keep clean too. It will require setting up a new roosting area for the chickens, but in the long run I think it will be worth it. I will try to post some before and after pictures if anyone is interested.

Pippin is looking more and more like a wether every day. He is looking thinner and acting less like a buck. His beans are shrinking and he is no longer peeing on himself, so I will hold off on making him an appointment with the vet. He has so many personality traits that I adore that losing him as a buck is going to be very difficult. Hopefully we get a buck or two from the ladies to pass on his wonderful personality.

Today I decided to redo the wiring on the trailer and the back of the truck where the puppies had chewed them up. Pippin, during the daily goat free range hours, when the little goaties have free run of the entire vineyard, decided that I needed his help. Ignoring the acres of weeds and shrubs, he decided he would help me by closely examining my work. He walked up to where I was lying on my back and put his nose right into where I was cutting and splicing wires. Then he decided he needed a better look so he climbed under the truck so he could get right up in my face. He had to kind of angle his body and twist his head, but he was able to get right under the truck and into where I was working. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to splice wires with a little goat nose 1" from your face. I finally lost it and just started laughing. He is the cutest, yet least helpful helper I have ever had, but he is certainly the most entertaining. I got the trailer and truck both rewired despite all Pippin's help and coated both with hot pepper oil, and hopefully that will prevent all the potential future puppy damage.

I have noticed that Frodo's coat which has always been kind of thick and coarse, if now soft and fine like a baby chick's down. Is this normal for a pregnant goat? She also is very fond of having her neck and head rubbed and scratched. She closes her eyes and seems so content. This is a huge change from how she acted before getting pregnant, when she would always act like she was about to be gutted and eaten. I really hope her personality stays how it is now and doesn't go back to how she was before after she kids.
 
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