Carla D
True BYH Addict
my husband and his dad have been raising pigs for about 1.5 years. I just love them. But four weeks ago I went and bought 9 newborn bucklings ranging from 12 hours old to 3 days old. Now I know why they were so cheap. They are a lot of work if they are not raised by their nanny. I fell in love with them instantly. They have probably double or tripled in size since I brought them home.i absolutely love bottle feeding them with my four year old daughter. She has even claimed one for herself, Jack aka Jack Frost.all of my babies were alpine except there was one Saanen and one Nubian in the mix. I fell I’m love with the Nubian. But he had struggled from the moment I brought him home. He passed away a week ago. I had no idea the baby goats could be so loving, gentle, and snuggly. Fonzy, would just melt in my lap he would also tuck his head into my neck. I feel so horrible that he didn’t survive. I even slept with him in my arms under my electric blanket for two nights. He was that cold.
I have a few tough diagnoses that take a lot of work to maintain. Primarily major depression, fibromyalgia, and high blood pressure. Every doctor I’ve been to has told me the best way to manage these is to stay very active, get a hobby, and stay busily distracted. I’ve discovered that my baby goat have significantly improved the really high pain levels I have daily and when I’m stressed there is no better fix that holding a baby goat and pet him or feed him a bottle. I’m out at the farm 3-5 times a day just to find some relief. My husband and I have built a special pen/room for the babies. They are housed in an old metal polished. So we have build a 10’x12’ enclosed area for them with solid 6’ walls to help keep the draft out of their area. They have a good size wooden crate that has been sealed up and covered with a heat lamp in the roof. It’s a pretty sweet setup. The only problem was I had initially had the heat lamp inside the taller crate. A few of the babies would get right in front of the heat lamp and they had singed away a few patches of fur. That problem was fixed pretty quickly. Now the can’t touch the build anymore. We got really lucky.
Anyways, as for feeling so far behind with my goats. They have yet to be castrated or dehorned. They are four week old and we can’t quite afford to get them dishorned yet. Disbudding is probably the only act of maintenance that neither of us feel comfortable doing ourselves. I’m about to attempt hoof trimming in a day or two. YouTube and the internet have become lifesavers for me. They also need to have a couple of vaccines really soon. That won’t be a problem for either of us. As I’m a disabled nurse and my husband has 20+ years in the military. He’s not afraid to attempt anything, except disbudding.
We have a philosophy about the animals on our farm. Once they get to our little hobby farm they will be living the good life. They all get a whole lot of love, care, pampering, and treats. Even our 400# boar. He’s a pussycat. Not many of our animals leave the farm. So far the only animals that have left are 17 young 100-200# piglets. They went to someone who is starting their own farm. I’ll be really curious about how long I’ll be able to sit in a lawn chair and hold each goat to feed them, snuggle them, and groom them from my lap. I’m hoping I can be able to do it at least until spring gets here and when it will be warm enough to house and pasture them outsid.
One quick question. Do you think I should be able to trim their hoofs while being held in either my lap or my husbands? I guess I have a second one to ask. How old is tooold to band/castrate these little guys?
I have a few tough diagnoses that take a lot of work to maintain. Primarily major depression, fibromyalgia, and high blood pressure. Every doctor I’ve been to has told me the best way to manage these is to stay very active, get a hobby, and stay busily distracted. I’ve discovered that my baby goat have significantly improved the really high pain levels I have daily and when I’m stressed there is no better fix that holding a baby goat and pet him or feed him a bottle. I’m out at the farm 3-5 times a day just to find some relief. My husband and I have built a special pen/room for the babies. They are housed in an old metal polished. So we have build a 10’x12’ enclosed area for them with solid 6’ walls to help keep the draft out of their area. They have a good size wooden crate that has been sealed up and covered with a heat lamp in the roof. It’s a pretty sweet setup. The only problem was I had initially had the heat lamp inside the taller crate. A few of the babies would get right in front of the heat lamp and they had singed away a few patches of fur. That problem was fixed pretty quickly. Now the can’t touch the build anymore. We got really lucky.
Anyways, as for feeling so far behind with my goats. They have yet to be castrated or dehorned. They are four week old and we can’t quite afford to get them dishorned yet. Disbudding is probably the only act of maintenance that neither of us feel comfortable doing ourselves. I’m about to attempt hoof trimming in a day or two. YouTube and the internet have become lifesavers for me. They also need to have a couple of vaccines really soon. That won’t be a problem for either of us. As I’m a disabled nurse and my husband has 20+ years in the military. He’s not afraid to attempt anything, except disbudding.
We have a philosophy about the animals on our farm. Once they get to our little hobby farm they will be living the good life. They all get a whole lot of love, care, pampering, and treats. Even our 400# boar. He’s a pussycat. Not many of our animals leave the farm. So far the only animals that have left are 17 young 100-200# piglets. They went to someone who is starting their own farm. I’ll be really curious about how long I’ll be able to sit in a lawn chair and hold each goat to feed them, snuggle them, and groom them from my lap. I’m hoping I can be able to do it at least until spring gets here and when it will be warm enough to house and pasture them outsid.
One quick question. Do you think I should be able to trim their hoofs while being held in either my lap or my husbands? I guess I have a second one to ask. How old is tooold to band/castrate these little guys?