Sometimes humans need to help a first time goat Mom!

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As a goat farmer, we are always learning and adjusting to what is going on around us. First time Boer Mom, Hazel, gave us a beautiful set of twins before 10am. We got a birthing suite prepared for her in the Boer pasture and moved this new family in.  We went out to check on them and noticed Hazel had laid down and was laying on half of her newborn Boer Buckling boy.  We got him out, loved on him for a while and made sure he was breathing ok. We thought this odd and decided to keep a closer eye on them. She stepped on his foot, he started to scream but she didn’t move. We had to push her off his foot.

At this point we knew we needed to make an adjustment to keep the Boer baby goats safe for the night. I don’t think she was being mean, she is just a first time Mom and needs to adjust. We decided to leave them with her but to put them in a dog crate. We added shavings and a heating lamp to ensure they were warm since Hazel goat wouldn’t be close enough to keep the twins warm.

This meant the human parents, that’s us, had to go out every 2 hours and let them nurse since they are newborns. We spent as much time as we could throughout the night and let our sweet Nanny goat interact with her baby goats. She is doing everything a new goat Mom should be doing. The boy nurses like a champ and is going to drain her dry. Every time we went out to let the Boer twins nurse she would be standing close talking to them. We will let them out later today and evaluate how they are doing. Hopefully we can get them back with Mom full time today without the dog crate.

Cotton Bean Goat Farm  704-941-7944