New Arrival!

Prada kidded this morning! She gave birth to one* buck kid, who currently has her color with white markings.  He is sired by Candyman!

Both mom and baby seem to be doing fine though grandma (that would be me) might be panicking a little bit.  He may have nursed immediately after being born before we got out there this morning — Bryan’s pretty sure he came upon a freshly birthed goat, given the state of wetness, when he stopped to peak before heading off to work.  (He took this first photo with his camera phone, so the quality’s a bit off).

By the time I got out there though, maybe 20 minutes later, little bit was clean and dry.  I was then gone for about an hour and a half before I returned to take up my post side-stall.  I’ve yet to see him nurse directly from Prada, so I milked her a little and gave him colostrum with a syringe.  Now I’m trying to busy myself and let mom and baby rest for a little while before returning to panic mode, if necessary.

More photos of the newest member of our herd:

*UPDATE: Unfortunately, we discovered that Prada had kidded another buck, which we believe to have been stillborn.  She kidded early on a Monday morning in the kidding stall.  I scooped out the “clumps” of soiled top straw, but otherwise did not disturb mom and baby to clean out the entire stall.  On Tuesday, when mom and baby were scampering around in the small yard attached to the goat house, I decided to take the opportunity to clean out all the straw down to the dirt and replace with fresh.  In doing so, I found another kid “buried” in the corner.  It was under quite a bit of packed down straw.  Given that she’s a first freshener and first-timers typically only have one kid, we didn’t look for another kid right away.  I spoke with Candyman’s owner who said it could have been the result of a separately-fertilized egg, though that’s rare, or that she could have fallen on it during the second kidding if they came close together.  However, given how deep the kid was buried under the straw, I don’t believe that to be the case.  The good news is that the little buck that survived is doing well, growing and getting feistier every day!