Looks like Xanadu will not be having kids this spring...bummer. She was due March 28. We had a feeling a week or two before she was due that she wasn't looking like she was going to kid anytime soon. You can't always tell by looking at goats whether they are expecting or not. A couple of my goats do seem obviously pregnant. I was hoping that maybe Xan just had one or two kids. She is wide through the middle but I think that just means that her rumen is well developed and in good working order. According to Molly (Fiasco Farm site), if the does are wide and big bellied they say that they are in "good condition" or if they are really big but not pregnant they are in "very good condition". I guess that it the case with our Xanadu, she is in good condition. Last fall when I bred Xanadu I had been pretty sure that she was in heat but she wasn't too receptive. I attributed her unsubmisive attitude with the buck to her recent move up and dominance in the herd. She use to be my most gentle submissive doe but after the birth of her son she started picking fights with the other does and moving up in the herd. This winter I haven't been able to tell if she or Maggie are top doe. I did mark on the calender that a week after I'd bred her it looked like she came back into heat, but I never noticed her come into heat in December or January, but those are more challenging months to notice heat cycles because it is so cold and we don't spend a lot of time with the goats during those months. I am disappointed that we will not be having any chamoisee kids this spring. I've been dreaming of a little chamoisee doeling. Xanadu is a great milker too, she is everyone's favorite goat to milk because her teats are so big which make hand milking easier than smaller teats. I feel a little cheated now that I've been feeding her so well, and she is not due to kid and provide us with milk. Kinda like she is living for free and not paying rent, but it is completely my own error. She is certainly taking advantage of the situation by letting the expecting does (who are at an awkward disadvantage) know who is boss, and she doesn't let them forget it. So here are some photos of Xanadu and her buckling last spring. Breeding earlier in the fall has it's advantages, one of them being that if the doe doesn't take you have lots of time to notice. So at this point I am planning on breeding Xanadu first thing in September.
As you can see from the pictures Xanadu is an attentive mother, always close by her son. I never worried (as I do with Xoe) that she was going to be too rough with him, or not let him nurse. Rose and Maggie were also great moms and they are due May second and May ninth. I thought I was going to have to make some difficult decisions trying to decide which doelings we were going to keep this year, but it looks like we'll be lucky if we get two. If Rose and Maggie each have a doeling we will be keeping them both, if one of them has more than one doeling we will probably sell her, unless there are only two total. We are limiting ourselves to two doelings a year, no bucklings whatsoever. We've got to have some restrictions or we would quickly find ourselves overrun with goats.
Looks like Xanadu will not be having kids this spring...bummer. She was due March 28. We had a feeling a week or two before she was due that she wasn't looking like she was going to kid anytime soon. You can't always tell by looking at goats whether they are expecting or not. A couple of my goats do seem obviously pregnant. I was hoping that maybe Xan just had one or two kids. She is wide through the middle but I think that just means that her rumen is well developed and in good working order. According to Molly (Fiasco Farm site), if the does are wide and big bellied they say that they are in "good condition" or if they are really big but not pregnant they are in "very good condition". I guess that it the case with our Xanadu, she is in good condition. Last fall when I bred Xanadu I had been pretty sure that she was in heat but she wasn't too receptive. I attributed her unsubmisive attitude with the buck to her recent move up and dominance in the herd. She use to be my most gentle submissive doe but after the birth of her son she started picking fights with the other does and moving up in the herd. This winter I haven't been able to tell if she or Maggie are top doe. I did mark on the calender that a week after I'd bred her it looked like she came back into heat, but I never noticed her come into heat in December or January, but those are more challenging months to notice heat cycles because it is so cold and we don't spend a lot of time with the goats during those months. I am disappointed that we will not be having any chamoisee kids this spring. I've been dreaming of a little chamoisee doeling. Xanadu is a great milker too, she is everyone's favorite goat to milk because her teats are so big which make hand milking easier than smaller teats. I feel a little cheated now that I've been feeding her so well, and she is not due to kid and provide us with milk. Kinda like she is living for free and not paying rent, but it is completely my own error. She is certainly taking advantage of the situation by letting the expecting does (who are at an awkward disadvantage) know who is boss, and she doesn't let them forget it. So here are some photos of Xanadu and her buckling last spring. Breeding earlier in the fall has it's advantages, one of them being that if the doe doesn't take you have lots of time to notice. So at this point I am planning on breeding Xanadu first thing in September.
As you can see from the pictures Xanadu is an attentive mother, always close by her son. I never worried (as I do with Xoe) that she was going to be too rough with him, or not let him nurse. Rose and Maggie were also great moms and they are due May second and May ninth. I thought I was going to have to make some difficult decisions trying to decide which doelings we were going to keep this year, but it looks like we'll be lucky if we get two. If Rose and Maggie each have a doeling we will be keeping them both, if one of them has more than one doeling we will probably sell her, unless there are only two total. We are limiting ourselves to two doelings a year, no bucklings whatsoever. We've got to have some restrictions or we would quickly find ourselves overrun with goats.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment