Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

I'm actually glad you asked. Emilee (my heart!) has a bit of redness again around hers. And there was kind of a flakiness I was pulling off. I was hoping that was normal. The other two look kind of the same. They don't seem bothered by them, in fact, I see them butting little kiddy heads over mock battles out there, very important matters like who gets to stand on the upturned bucket. But the word I'd described Emilee's areas with is "raw."

I just love my little doeling. She is so super friendly, she follows me like a puppy and keeps trying to get my attention. When I pick her up, she MELTS into me. She loves being warm. I think she remembers all the times I put her in my coat.

I'm in goatie-love. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I decided to breed Ginger and I got this little doeling. I love Molly's kid too, but he is nervous and scared just like his mom and both of Ginger's offspring have her personality. My little Buckley whom I bottle fed now things I'm pretty wonderful too. I think that is why I like goats so much more than other livestock. They love you back, more like a dog or a cat than anything else.

We are supposed to get really really cold tonight!

 

[glenolam]

I took some really nice pictures of the girl's buds the other day...give me some time and I'll post them in my disbudding thread over on BYH and in my journal. Right now I've got to go clean out the goat barn and get some hay so it may be a day or two before I get them up.

FWIW, I too think I didn't do it right becuase to me it feels like they still have buds. Guess only time will tell!

I sure wish I took pictures of Cara and Nilly after the vet did theirs. That would have been a great way to know if I'm looking at the same thing - but I didn't so we'll just have to watch and wait!

 

[Javamama]

Oh good. I'll try to get some photos of mine today too. Between the rain we have had and not having a helper to hold them still I haven't had a chance for photos. The little bugger do NOT want me looking at their heads

 

[savingdogs]

If I can get someone to hold them still enough for me I'll try to post disbudded head photos. I have a hard time getting pictures of the little pogo stick kids. Emilee always wants to climb on my lap, chew my hair or snuggle.

Everything was frozen solid as a rock this morning. Trouble spent the night with a friend so I was stuck taking the hot water out. Everyone was so grateful though. Ginger and Molly sucked down a whole bucket. Does that seem excessive? I was wondering if Trouble really took water out to them last night like he said he would. They LOVE hot water. Not super hot of course, but real warm. The kids all drank some too, I was surprised with all that milk that they already add water to their diet. My rabbits all sucked down a big bowl too and several of my watering devices cracked overnight. Sigh.

I'd like to provide the kids with sweet feed because it says on the bag to offer it free choice. However if I did that I'd never get Molly on the stand. How do you all accomplish that? I've heard about a creep feeder or something but can't quite picture it. When I put any sweet feed out, Ginger or Molly BUTT their kids away from the bowl to hog it all.

Speaking of milking, we had good luck last night with Molly. My son brought her in the room before I was ready, so I just put her sweet feed on the table in front of the stanchion and left the room to get my milking supplies. When I returned, she was on the stanchion with her head between the bars, munching on the grain calmly! My eyes got big and I slammed the neck thing shut asap! Molly's milk comes out wonderfully especially on one side. The other side feels full but I can't seem to get the milk out as well. The technique that works on the other side I can't quite do on the opposite udder, and if I move to the other side of the goat, my hands won't make that same position because I'm right handed. I guess I just need to practice.

Ginger hops up on the stand happily now, but has nothing I can get out. I think that it is two things, for one, she never has as much milk because of milking two kids and two, she has different orafices. When I manage to get the milk out, it seems to always squirt sideways instead of down. Is this a type of teat or because she is a FF or do I need more practice? After last night I decided not to even try on Ginger except a little 'training practice" until her buckling is sold, it just is too hard.

I may not breed her again after all if this is how it will be. Her doeling has a wonderful personality but I hope her udders don't turn out like Gingers. While she has only two teats, I wonder if her milk will squirt sideways too.

But Molly's kid is starting to have Molly's more standoffish personality, slow to warm up. I don't know if it is hereditary or whether she is teaching him this behavior. It is so cute how she nurses him though, she lifts her leg somewhat in the fashion of a boy dog lifting his leg, but she is making room for Sebastian to come in and RAM her udder about three times fast and then suck away. She gets this dreamy look in her eyes too.

I keep reminding her.....YOU were going to kill him....how about a little appreciation around here?

 

[Farmfresh]

A creep feeder is an area blocked up so that a full sized animal can not get inside while the baby can easily come and go. One method is to rig up a corner with a "creep gate" something like this Creep Feed Gate. The rods in this gate can be adjusted so the baby only can fit through. These rods even roll! Of course there are many ways to accomplish the same thing.

Once you have an adult proof area you simply keep feed out for the babies all of the time so they can nibble when they want to.

 

[Javamama]

Your days sound much like mine. I caught the girls this morning before the kids had a chance to drain them, but with all the other distractions (hubby, kids, cats, dog, ducks) milking did not go well. They are inhaling their grain and now I'm on the search for ways to slow them down. I can't give them more grain because they are getting clumpy poo. The very helpful ladies on this forum suggested beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, and putting things like large rocks in the dish so they have to pick around them. If that doesn't work, I will buy a hobble.
I have discovered the difference between milking a full udder vs. a soft one. Wow!

The amount of water sounds right - mine will drink a gallon bucket of warm water at one time. I figure they need more for the milk supply.

I'm not giving the kids grain. They are eating a good amount of hay already. A couple of them are just little tanks. I can't believe how big they have gotten.

 

[glenolam]

My doelings are nibbling here and there. I don't leave food out free choice, but I do offer them the same grain I'm feeding everyone else when it's time to eat. My mixture has regular grain (unsweetened), alfalfa and calf manna.

ETA - Huh...someone to hold the kids during pictures? What's that? All my pics were taken as movement pics, and you can clearly tell!

I've got the pics downloaded of the disbuddings. Here's a sample, but I'm going to post more in my thread here and on BYH. On Hash's head I ended up "slipping" and burnt some hair where I didn't cut so in the 2nd picture it looks way more black than nice and copper but that's because of the burnt hair, I think...

 

[savingdogs]

Well looking at those photos I'd say my kids look really similar, glenolam. The color of the hair makes it hard to compare. Mine all pretty much have dark brown or black hair around the buds, except one side on Emilee.

Farmfresh thanks for that link, I have Hubby's brain working on how to devise one right now.

Java I use alfalfa pellets mixed with the sweet feed to make it go farther, especially with Ginger. And I "hobbled" mine by using an old dog collar. Worked okay. OFG said to use baling twine. Molly seemed to learn that if she kicked I hobbled her so she doesn't kick now. She sometimes tries to "squat" though.

Can someone tell me what would happen to your doe if they fell off the side while on the stanchion? Would it break their neck? Molly sometimes turns herself sideways and it scares me she will step off. My does are not that heavy and I don't know if the stanchion would tip over if they slipped off the side. Hopefully that will never happen but it makes me nervous to move too far away from Molly to put the milk on my counter or grab things, etc., if I'm trying to milk her alone. I'm not even sure she could step off.

My stanchion is the one from fias co farms, the same one OFG has in her picture on her blog. Can they fall off stanchions? Molly is such a dork sometimes, everything scares her. I try moving slowly and gently and talking softly and gosh, I have a WAY with animals, but she is a skittish girl who doesn't like her breasts being fondled!

 

[glenolam]

They could fall off and *possibly* hurt themselves, but you'd be there to save them so I doubt any real harm would follow. Is your stanchion against a wall? If not, it might be better to put it against one so they only side they could fall off of is the one you're sitting on.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Your does sound a bit like mine were.

I had one with nice large teats, large orifices, didn't produce a LOT but still more than I really needed, and I milked her easily enough.

My other doe has nice tight attachments (I think that's what it would be) and a high udder, with tiny teats and very tiny orifices. It took extra learning to milk her and a different technique. And at first the milk went everywhere ... usually off to the side. I DID learn to milk her pretty fast and into a jar, rarely spilling any. But it as a LOT of work, and not easy.

I had decided to give her another year (she was a FF) and see how she progressed. She was also my wormiest goat, and I could never get her clear. So unless she really improved with milking, she really didn't have a future. She was fine at producing kids and took good care of them, but if she wasn't a good milker I didn't see the point of producing kids from her.

Coyotes took that decision out of my hands, however.

But while I'm certainly no expert, I did want to say that at least in some cases of does being hard to milk and hard to aim, it is possible to learn to milk them.

I just let the second doe go until after I learned to milk well on the first. Then it was easier to learn a different technique, so I wasn't learning both of them together. (The second doe also had to be "bumped" for EVERY pull, while the first I only bumped toward the end of the milking for one additional let down. So it really was a totally different technique, grip, and everything. )