Separation anxiety....

[glenolam]

I have two 5 1/2 mo old doelings and currently their mother is with a buck for late winter/early spring kidding. I have mom and the buck away from the girls, but holy cow! They keep calling and calling for her, and she calls right back.

They've only been separated for a day, yesterday was the first day and they calmed down after a bit, but when nightfall came both girls started yelling at the top of their lungs again and mom chimed right back.

Anyone else ever deal with this? Should I just move mom and the buck closer to them, but not close enough where the buck could "fence breed"? Or just suck it up?

 

[ksalvagno]

Suck it up. They will probably cry louder if they can constantly see mom.

 

[Mea]

I have two 5 1/2 mo old doelings and currently their mother is with a buck for late winter/early spring kidding. I have mom and the buck away from the girls, but holy cow! They keep calling and calling for her, and she calls right back.

They've only been separated for a day, yesterday was the first day and they calmed down after a bit, but when nightfall came both girls started yelling at the top of their lungs again and mom chimed right back.

Anyone else ever deal with this? Should I just move mom and the buck closer to them, but not close enough where the buck could "fence breed"? Or just suck it up?

Three days ! we always figure on Three days of uproar with any changes in routine or life with the goaties.

That's one "reason" we do any routine upsetting things on weekdays.... so by the weekend our neighbors will have a better chance of sleeping in.....

 

[glenolam]

Sorta why I put mom with the buck on Sunday....

That way I'd be at work too!

 

[Mea]

Sorta why I put mom with the buck on Sunday....

That way I'd be at work too!

( been there.... done That too )

 

[Ariel301]

The best will be to just let them get over it. It will not be fun for a few days, but they need to be weaned from mom emotionally as well as physically, or they will not be able to ever get away from her without all the crying and screaming and throwing a fit...I had to get rid of a doe because she refused to be weaned from her full grown kids, when I took her daughter out for milking, she would throw herself at the fencing until she got hurt, screaming at the top of her lungs, and making the younger doe nervous about milking. Trust me, you don't want that!

They will get over it in a few days, other than the crazy doe, I have never had one go more than two weeks, and that one was a super clingy needy prematurely born kid who wasn't quite all there in the head.

 

[jas]

Can you keep it down? I can hear them all the way over here in Chaplin.

 

[glenolam]

So....here's the best part of the whole thing

Yesterday when I got home I went to see how everyone was doing. Saw the other buck and doe together...OK, everything's the same there....

1 buck and.....wait....where the heck is she?

**crickets chirping**
**little maaing going on**
**more crickets**

Me: "ELOISE! WHERE ARE YOU!"

Eloise: "Meeehh" [translation] "I'm right here, darn it, what do you want"

Me: "Where? You're not with Duke...."

Eloise: "Meeeeehhhhhh" [translation] "I'm right HERE...LOOK DUMMY"

Me: "How the [explicit] did you get out of the "baby making" pen and back into the goat pen!?!"

Eloise's daughters: "Meh Meh Meh" [translation] "HA HA HA"

Still can't figure that one out....

Sigh....luckily someone is coming to take a look at one of her daughters this week...