Baby Goats Sometime need Help

I have a friend that has raised both sheep and goats. He is a cattleman, but his job required he also raise other animals. His view was that a goat or sheep is always walking around looking for a place to die. They have too many problems, need worming too often and are a bother to raise for what you get out of them.

We have both and at time I wonder the same thing on occasion. Last winter, Eva called me to a hold barn where I found a dead goat under the roof edge. She said she thought the goat took a dive out of the loft door and broke it neck. We lost three goats that week.

This is the time of the year to have baby goats and we have had a bad run of luck with our pigmy goats. Three live and six dead. All of the dead ones came premature for some reason. We have never had that problem.

Yesterday, we found a baby boar goat crying in the paddock and alone. I moved it to where the goats were foraging and no one claimed it. I ran all the goats into a pen and Javier joined me as we checked each female and caught the one that had just delivered. While I took the new mom and hungry baby to a pen, he looked and found the twin of the one we had. Holding the mom by the horns, each got their initial supply of milk. Today we will release her and her babies into a larger confined area, but will keep watch to be sure she continues to care for them.


Not dead, but very hungry


None of the females seemed interested in the baby


What a way to get a drink


Okay now...all is right with the world and each baby has a
place to nurse while Tux stands guard.