Baby Goat

We've been having a little trouble with our littlest goat.  She's the runt of the group, and the mom has somewhat disowned her.  It was pretty sad to see - the mom bucking her out of the way when she'd try to suckle, or shewing her away from the greens we left for them.

After being rejected, we noticed that baby had stopped eating altogether - she wasn't eating the greens we'd give her (keeping the mom distracted so she wouldn't step in), and she wasn't as perky as she used to be.  She was also looking unhealthy - somewhat emaciated.  Not good.

Apparently this is very natural.  In the wild, mothers (of many species too, I imagine) know the little one won't survive, so, facilitating natural selection, they reject them.  It's pretty sad to see.  But, since these are our goats for the foreseeable future, we stepped in and decided that this goat is going to live, if we have anything to say about it.

We consulted a local goat expert who said she needs to be drinking milk and confirmed she was not doing well.  She brought us a bottle, and was able to feed her 4 oz of whole cow milk during her visit.  At baby's age, she should have taken in closer to 10-12 oz.  Her stomach had shrunk from not eating.  

We've now incorporated bottle feeding into our daily ritual.  We all have designated times of day to feed the baby.  It's really quite cute.  At first she was resistant, and it required 2 of us to feed her (one to hold, one to man the bottle), but once we got the right kind of milk (goat's!) she took it much more easily.

Taking care of these goats has been more work than we thought!  But they're so adorable, I'm quite enjoying it.  David has really taken to them.  Here he is rocking, as Brittany has named "Little Miss" on the steps to our kitchen:

We also like to take them out of their "cage" and let them graze, aka mow our lawn for us at least once during the day.  The baby girl and little boy also roam free, which is pretty cute.  Who knew taking care of goats could be so time intensive!