Marmie and Meg both both had a little buck each. Biggon has not had her baby (babies?) yet. It's gotta be soon. There is a full moon tonight and it is supposed to get down to 18.Hope to get atleast one girl.

One question. The alpine/Nuban cross has one small teat, the one her little buck did not use last year. If I put teat tape on the large one will the baby use the little one,hopefuly makeing it larger?

Oh, and Meg loves to drink the milk after I milk her. She seems so thin. I bought them some higher protien feed today and mixed it with the other. I'm going to get some black sunflower seeds Friday. It really bugs me to have skinny goats. Boy talk about a crash diet. I didn't loose weight that fast after I had my kids.

Any way these little guys sure are cute.

-- Bonnie (none@thistime.com), February 26, 2002

Answers

Hi Bonnie, the best way to handle this is to tape the large teat, making the kid use the small teat, and YOU milk out the large teat once a day. Then when the kid is about 2 weeks old its appetite will increase so that it can easily handle both sides of the udder, instead of letting her milk production decrease on that side. You won't believe how much bigger your single bucklings will be if you do this! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

I too, have a doe that lost much weigh post kidding. It's been three weeks now and I think she may just be starting to gain some. How long generally before she's back to normal do you think?

-- Hayley (puripada@cs.com), February 27, 2002.

Got to remember I always come at answers from the dairy goat perspective. But a doe who is milking good or nursing kids, shouldn't be fat. She should a be a lean mean milking machine, and in some breeds it is actually thin. If a dairy goat is putting alot of wieght on while milking, she is a poor milker! This is one of the reasons I want the girls carrying extra flesh over the ribs when they are bred, so that they don't come out of kidding and that first 6 weeks of kidding, walking skeletons. Make any changes in your feeding program slowly. And think about nutrition, uping protein, like us eating a steak isn't going to add fat, but pastries and bread will, so think about adding carbohydrates instead. Perhaps some barley, more oats if you don't already have more than 25% in the ration, or BOSS, which not only has a good amount of fat in it but also protein and scratch for the rumen. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.