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Monday evening, Sprite, who’d been behaving normally all day, was standing in the middle of the goat yard making “I’m in pain” noises. We ran down there and could see she was in labor. We moved her quickly to the goat house maternity ward. She went to the corner and stood and cried a little bit. She finally sat down and we watched as the baby came out. It’s so amazing, every time.
But then–
Sprite walked away.
The baby flopped and mewed for its mother.
Sprite went to the opposite corner and wouldn’t even look upon what had sprung from her flowered loins. Whatever it was, she didn’t want it. I turned her around. She turned back. I turned her back around and pushed her a little toward the flopping, mewing thing. She climbed up onto the table in the goat house to get away.
The baby struggled to its feet, still covered in goop. Sprite wouldn’t clean it.
I thought–maybe she’s having another baby. Maybe she’s busy.
But when we found Fanta the night before, she had just had her second baby. It was still covered in goop and she was cleaning it. The first baby was already on its feet and obviously cleaned off and fluffy. Fanta didn’t wait till she had the second one to clean off the first one.
Sprite wouldn’t even look at this baby, much less go near it. I made her move down off the table. The baby half-walked, half-flopped toward her, crying. Sprite climbed back up on the table.
Afraid it would get chilled as the minutes ticked by, we got a towel and dried the baby off as best we could without, you know, licking it. The other babies came around, nuzzled it and talked to it. Sprite drank some water and ate some hay. And wouldn’t look at her baby. She ran away every time it wobbled up to her. It was one of the strangest, most unnatural things I’ve ever seen.
We put the baby under Fanta, who was still only 24 hours from delivering her twins and would still have colostrum in her milk, and let it suck on her. She was busy eating hay and she has two babies so she wasn’t paying attention to who was sucking on her. And that baby wanted a mommy so badly.
It was drizzling and, luckily, not a very cold night, but there was still snow on the ground. If Sprite had given birth just a little bit later, we would have gone to bed. She would have had the baby in the snow in the middle of the goat yard–and she would have walked away and left it there.
Eventually, when she never showed any sign of delivering a second one, I went inside and found the little goat milk pail. We held her down and I milked some colostrum out of her. Then I thought–why not try the baby? I put the baby under her. We had to hold her. She didn’t want the baby anywhere near her. We let the baby nurse a good long time to get colostrum. I took the colostrum I’d milked out of her into the pail inside the house to store. We stayed with the baby in the goat house for a long time before leaving it for the night to snuggle in with Nutmeg, Fanta and their babies in the dog house inside the goat house. (Sprite won’t go in the dog house with them. She doesn’t want to be anywhere near any of the babies. Especially her own.) Fortunately for this baby, it has three little goat buddies. And two other mommies.
Well, maybe just one other mommy.
Nutmeg: “I’m having nothing to do with this. I have my own baby.”
Fanta: “How many babies did I have????”
Sprite: “What baby?”
The “new” babies–Fanta’s two and Sprite’s one–are baffled and new to the world. They reach their little mouths to any mommy who passes by. Sprite runs from them all. Fanta feeds them all–when she’s not paying attention. She knows that other one isn’t hers. Yesterday, throughout the day, I went down to the goat house repeatedly, backed Sprite into a corner, held onto her with all my might to stop her from running away, and let the baby suck. It needs all the colostrum it can get within the first 24 hours of birth, and especially within the first 12. (If you have goats, see this article about colostrum replacements, substitutes, and “borrowed” colostrum from outside your farm.)
By yesterday afternoon, I was introducing a bottle of Sprite’s colostrum to the baby to get it used to the idea, along with continuing to hold Sprite down to nurse directly.
Baby: “Are you my mother?”
Sprite continued to run away unless she was held in place.
Because it causes her stress to force her to nurse him, I won’t continue to do that. Last night was the 24 hour point for the colostrum intake. We’ll probably let Sprite out of the goat house today–she wants out very badly. She wants as far away from that baby as she can get. The baby continues to nurse sporadically on Fanta–when Fanta’s not looking–and has also taken eagerly to the bottle. I’m going to dry off Sprite. I have two goat mothers that can be milked, and I always have milk from BP.
It’s cute when there are three little tails wiggling back and forth under Fanta.
It’s a boy. A seriously cute little stinker of a boy who was born as big as Dr. Pepper is at a week old.
He’s black with a tuft of white on top of his head and at the end of his tail, and also patches of white on both sides.
We’ve got a bottle baby.
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He is very very cute. Keep an eye on him if you decide to leave him with the other does and kids. The ‘orphans’ tend to get picked on by the mothers eventually. Maybe no violent, but little things like being shoved away from warm bodies, and not being allowed to nibble at hay provided. Not their fault. They’re just looking out for their own kids.
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It’s too bad you’ll have to go through the extra work of bottle-feeding him, and too bad his mama won’t care for him, but at least for his sake he’s in a good home.
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I am so glad you were there and you are learning what to do!
Happy baby goat days!
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I’ll be thinking of you and the little one over the next weeks, and hoping that all goes well. (It’s good that you can feed milk from Clover and Fanta)…Poor Sprite must seem very confused too – give ‘em all a hug from me!
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So now you get to bottle raise a goat baby
Is he going to be staying around or will he have to be rehomed eventually?
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Let us know if you find that something was physically wrong.
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Glad h has you to take care of him.
@Nancy in Iowa — remember Casper? It may not be a good idea
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On the plus side, since Fanta seems to allow him to nurse, soon he will start to smell like her, if he gets enough of her milk, and she might even take him in as her own. Best to continue supplementing with the bottle, though, since she already has two of her own little ones to feed, and as they get bigger, they will really drink her dry!
And, why not keep Sprite in milk? You could milk her while the others are still nursing their kids!
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This happens sometimes. Sometimes it is first timers that do this and then go on to be good mothers with the next kids. And then again some females just aren’t mother material and never think it is a good idea.
Good that you held momma for the first 24 hours. I had one doe that it took three days for her to decide to except the kid. She went on to be a very good mother to the rest of the kids she has had over the years.
Bottle babies are charming. Makes for a wonderful pet usually.
Good luck.
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He would sneak sip form the other nursing doe and 2-3 times a day I would put his mom on the milking stand and feed her while he nursed to his hearts content.
It just tore my heart out that a mother could reject her own baby. She would even walk by him in the yard and toss him with her horns. (I fixed that by putting a length of hose form one horn to the other and taping the ends on really well.) He grew into a very handsome and healthy goat! Good Luck and Congrats on all of the healthy new additions!
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A bottle baby isn’t the worst thing in the world, in fact, it’s fun even though it’s extra work. He will be a wonderful pet. As long as you leave him with your other mamas, he will learn to sneak when he can. I would supplement him with a bottle to make sure he’s getting enough to eat.
You were very smart to force Sprite to let him nurse those first 24 hours. I have found, it’s not worth the hassle of holding them down for each nursing after that 24 hour mark. It’s much easier on you and mama to graft them onto a foster mama or bottle feed. We have 2 goats who will let any baby nurse on them. Even had one raise a lamb for me! LOL Got to love nannies like that.
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He is as cute as all the others there and I hope and pray you get enough rest with the extra work.
I’m in agreement with Nancy in Iowa, I think Morgan could do the milking of Sprite and bottle feeding the little one. Your plate us running over already.
I have 5 baby calves coming Thursday to bucket train, and raise on milk. Can you bucket train goats?
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If it were me I would milk sprite. It would be much, much better than giving the baby cow milk. According to some other goat owners I know, cow milk can make a baby goat very sick.
Good luck with it. Maybe you will have a goat that thinks it’s a dog to keep Anabelle company.
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Maybe he will end up like Annabelle, or maybe he will eventually smell enough like one of Fanta’s that she will adopt him. Hey Ive seen dogs adopt tiger cubs, it can happen.
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MN Mona
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How sad that Sprite wants nothing to do with her sweet baby.
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He is a beautiful little bummer, and I hope he can thrive and grow up to be a magnificent leader of his herd!!!
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Just one sheep-herders opinion.
Good luck with your decision. He sure is a cutie.
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Is this her first time to kid? We’ve learned that first time mothers don’t always “get it”. This has proven true with other animals besides the goats, too. Our two does both kidded for the first time last spring. One of them did exactly what you describe, and NEITHER of them would nurse, even when we tried to force it. They kicked and stomped and it just became too dangerous. We’re hoping they do better this year, now that they know better what to expect.
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Before she was finished nursing the kittens, the cat was pregnant again. That time she figured out that nursing provided her with relief, but instead of getting into the box with the kittens, she would come to me to put her in there and plug in the kittens. She still didn’t want anything else to do with them. And when we found homes for them, instead of grieving, she celebrated. She was simply a bad mother, and a trollop. Even after she was fixed, she would give the tomcats that come-hither look and they would be smitten.
Suzanne, if you do end up having to bottle-feed Son-of-Sprite, won’t you want to milk her, to have enough goat’s milk for the kid?
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2 boys and 2 girls..they are the most snuggle babies we have ever had..and the girls still are here…they are still very into humans.
They are with the Billy right now..so I hope for babies around somewhere in May.
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At the other end of the spectrum was Bell. Bell took possession on all baby calves that she could run the mother away from. Since Bell was boss cow (and a really big Swiss cow with a good sized set of horns) she could make most of the others leave their calf. She thankfully wasn’t opposed to letting us get near the calf but she sure worked at keeping the other cows away. She was the last cow we had with horns and part of the reason all calves were dehorned was her possesiveness of the calves and the wounds she inflicted on the real mommas in running them off.
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I really hope the new beautiful baby finds comfort in the other goat mommies and babies. Poor guy.
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Suzanne
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I read a story once about an orphan foal. (Yes, it was a STORY – so I don’t know how accurate this would be…but it sounds like a good theory, so I’ll pass it on.)
If the baby smells like the mama, its more likely to be accepted. If you rubbed something on the kid & around the mom’s nostrils – she would hopefully accept it as her own. OR if you rubbed something on one of the other kids & then it’s mama’s nostril area…would this kid be accepted by the other mom? Both kids would smell alike.
In the book they used myrtle, a common shrub in the area.
Just a thought…don’t know if it would work, but thought I’d pass it on. It might be worth doing some more research. I fully acknowledge my lack of goat mom/kid experience…but it was a nice story. =)
Good Luck!
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And an even stranger question, (if you are weak stomached, skip this paragraph!!) did the third stage of labor go well (placenta delivered, no hemorrhage?) I know most mammals, with the exception of kangaroos, camels, whales and dolphins consume the placenta. Did Sprite do this? Just a theory I have…
I recently discovered your website and I am absolutely addicted. It reminds me of home and my grandmother and I miss her so very much. You’ve helped me reconnect with a part of me I thought was long lost! Keep up the marvelous work – love it!
Congrats on the birth, even if it has been challenging, it’s still something to celebrate!
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Hope baby is okay today.
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