Baby Angora Goats

March 14, 2022

I had felt along the tail ligaments of Lita that day and felt like she might give birth at any time. We made sure her separate area was prepped with fresh straw and a hanging heat lamp in case she went into labor.

As the day wore on she didn’t seem to be in distress and I felt like everyone needed a good dose of outside time in the beautiful weather. Feeling a bit unsure but still not thinking that birth was going to happen in the next few hours, I had Lita go outside with everyone to the paddock.

Lita was still out in the paddock when Aaron went to get everyone set up in the barn for the night and heard the sounds of a very high pitched, very new squeal coming from the pen. It was dark and a little later than we normally do nightly chores. Quickly Aaron scanned the paddock and saw a baby goat next to Lita.

Little Rudy was instantly bonded with his momma and she had done a great job laboring, birthing, and cleaning him off all on her own! I happened to be gone and the kids had just been laid down for bedtime and Aaron called me to tell me the great news, with a cry of hope and love and joy in his voice. I hurried home so we could make sure Rudy was latching well to momma and getting that much needed colostrum and we clamped and snipped his umbilical chord too. We woke the kids up and had them get dressed to come out to the barn to meet the newest herd member. The next day I was able to snap these sweet pictures on my fancy camera.

We stayed in the barn until almost midnight, making sure we saw her deliver the placenta and see Rudy nurse well before heading to bed for the night.

The next day I checked Lita’s sister, Meredith, and felt like her tail ligaments were softening and widening also and so we prepped her stall, and hung her heat lamp as well. It was a good call because Wednesday morning (March 16th), Everest and I went out to do morning chores around 8/8:30am and found a brand new baby boy in the stall with her. Just like her sister, Meredith had gone through all of the birth on her own and I was thankful she was isolated to the smaller pen when it happened this time. She was ok with letting her little on - who we named Oliver (aka Ollie) nurse well but she didn’t do a stellar job at cleaning him off and getting him all prepped for the world. Almost two weeks later now she is a much more stand-offish momma but also provides him with the vital things he needs.

As much as we wanted to stay in the barn the entire morning, I had to go get our youngest up, breakfast made, make arrangements to get our oldest home from a sleepover and attend to the normal house chores we have each day. Everest and I made our way back inside and he helped me to sew some medium sized sweaters for both Ollie and Rudy. That afternoon we went and got them bundled up in them and made sure the moms could still identify and bond with their babes. It was a magical week on the farm.