“A day in the country is worth a month in town”Christina Rossetti

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Kid Update

When the nannies have young kids, they each get their own cube in the maternity ward.  It helps make sure the kids stay fed and warm.
 Twee's trips are right next door.  They get to have the rest of the stall when I'm in mucking and the twins go outside.
 The twins have been going outside for a week now.
  The trips got to go outside for a short while yesterday afternoon.
 Its getting difficult to tell who is who.  Angus sticks out with his size and speckled ears. The rest??!!
And this is amazing.  All three triplets nursing at the same time. In the Boer goat world, people look for single teated does, but with triplets, that would be a significant disadvantage. Many of my does have two teats on each side.  Some more dominant than the other. Twee has three large teats and a smaller one, but they all have milk and they all get used.  Sometimes imperfection works!

3 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

Mother Nature knows what she is doing, doesn't she!

Schick fun ideas said...

I didn't realize that the boer goat world looked for single teated goats. I always thought they wanted 2 teats on a goat. Why do they look for 1? Don't goats usually offspring twins?

Deere Driver said...

Hi Schick Fun!

They do usually have twins. By single teated they mean a single on each side. I have read articles against that being the standard for the very reason that a nanny can support more than twins when they have two sets on each side. Quads, as well as triplets, are not unheard of also.

There can be problems with multiple teats, and deformity in the teats. We have seen kids struggle a bit when they go on a secondary teat and can't get enough milk for all their work, but they usually catch on to the better milker in a few days.

Its good for us that Twee can manage with enough milk also, but I can see her being worn out by these guys soon enough!