Lalabugs - Kidding done

[NH homesteader]

I've never taped a goat. I only tape pigs because I can't pick them up!

What a sweet little doeling, I want to cuddle her lol! I love white goats

 

[lalabugs]

Looking at those weights, is saddening for marshmallow. She's tiny for her age. Do you think she will be stunted because of it? Her weight is actual scale weight. We pick them up & weigh them until we can't lift them anymore. We can't lift Honey or Willow anymore to get an actual weight on them. Livestock scale is on my birthday/anniversary list.
Here are a couple pics of dam & marshmallow before she came home to us.
She looked bigger in the pictures than in person. Not sure exactly how big her dam is. We were told dam is 100% LaMancha Sire being Nigerian.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

She might be smaller than ours- but you have a good chance of her growing into a decent size mini. Sounds like you are doing good with getting her to eat.

Do you have her on feed? If so, how much?
I like having free choice feed for the first several months of life.

Her dam looks extremely small too Skinny too. Of course I don't know that farm but it looks like a management issue at this point.

Back to your girl…
Keep offering the minerals
Will she take milk from a bottle? If you have goats milk that she will take that could greatly help. If she was only dam raised that probably won't happen though
Are you monitoring her fecals?
Continue to treat her external parasites and just go from there. I discovered our kids love beet pulp, so I would leave beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, and Bartlett goat pellets out free choice. My kids were raised on this so I had no issues. Your girl would need to be transitioned very slowly. I also kept them UTD on their CDT too. I don't know your doeling's status, but if you haven't vaccinated her, I would go ahead and give it now. The breeder may have vaccinated her but in this case you don't know for certain.

I love her name and she is stinkin adorable

I think once you "clean her up" she will be okay

I should also say, regarding the weight- we sold a mini kid to a friend back in spring 2015. The doe was recently here to be bred (close, tested herd with our goats and is a close friend) and was approximately 70 lbs. She is just a smaller, lighter boned doe.

For your girl, in her condition that she is in, I would shoot for hopefully at least 50lbs gained in the next 12 months. More would be better but that might be a good "goal" to set. If she doesn't reach that, but doesn't feel skinny that's okay- just wait a little longer before breeding her.

Keep us updated on her

 

[Latestarter]

Even though she's a mini, isn't it possible that genetically she got the Nigie size vice a meld or more toward the standard goat size? Could that be a contributing factor to her smaller size? Couple that with the smaller size of her dam, and might that have some bearing?

 

[lalabugs]

She has alfalfa hay 24/7 (only hay we can get here right now). Fresh water at all times. She gets grain twice a day, tried BOSS. She does not eat it. Keep offering minerals. She just dumps them over.

We were told they fed alfalfa, however the gal recently posted another animal for sale stating they don't feed hay or feed store food. Only fresh fruits & veggies. Not exactly sure. She does love scraps though. She LOVES bananas.

I have not tried a bottle. We do not have any goats milk. Yes monitoring fecals, will be getting another one done on Friday. We will be doing CD&T on Friday. It's a calmer day of chores & kids school work. Home schooling all the kiddos takes up a good portion of time.
As far as breeding, I was thinking minimum of a year. With her current weight. We will have to see how she is once she's a year old.

I will keep you all updated.

These last 3 weeks of Honeys pregnancy seem to be going by slow.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

@Latestarter
Pretty unlikely.

Look at the dam. Extremely skinny with what appears to be a very rough coat.

Same with the kid.

This shows that it is most likely a management issue. Had the animals looked to be in better health and condition that would be different. It doesn't look like these animals are (were) being cared for in a manner that will make them reach their full potential- size, weight, and production wise. It does not appear that this is a case where the animal is just "small". There are other factors here. Almost all F-1 50/50 mini lamanchas WILL be somewhat larger than a dwarf. Heck, our smallest full grown Dwarf doe is 60lbs.

I will have to go back but I'm pretty sure my Dwarf kids were bigger than this kid at the same age.

ETA I bet the dam isn't even a full 65 lbs…
You can get small lamanchas, but there is an obvious reason here. This isn't just a "small" lamancha. This looks like parasites and nutrition are an issue. Not trying to sound judgmental on the breeder, everyone can have a rough season…

 

[Goat Whisperer]

We were told they fed alfalfa, however the gal recently posted another animal for sale stating they don't feed hay or feed store food. Only fresh fruits & veggies. Not exactly sure. She does love sc

I had a feeling is was something like this situation…

@lalabugs you can request that this conversation be moved to another thread if you'd like. I know it got a bit long

 

[NH homesteader]

Her dam would be small even for a mini. I have two mini alpine sisters, 10 months old. One is over 60 lbs and the other is probably 55 (I have to weigh her this week when I do her hooves). The smaller one has a more Nigie look (and size) to her, so yes F1's can get more from one side than the other...

It sounds like she's doing really well with you, keep up the good work!

Side note: yay homeschoolers! I love finding other people who homeschool, just had to say that!

 

[Goat Whisperer]

@lalabugs here are a few pics of one of our mini lamanchas. This is Trouble
She was just over a year old here. If memory serves me right, she was around 65lbs
She was raised on very little feed, most of her nutrition came from her dams milk and pasture. She was in a little bit of an awkward growth stage when this photo was taken

This is Touble back in August 2016 next to a full sized lamancha doe. Trouble is probably around 90-95 lbs not including her pregnant weight. You can really see the size difference here. The black lamancha was 142lbs before she got sick. She looks awful in these pics, she was very thin because she fighting an awful bacterial gut infection caused by the Chaffhaye she was being fed Recovered but it was a tough fight.

 

[Green Acres Farm]

How much milk does Trouble give you? It looks like she has a super nice udder.