Saturday, April 30, 2011

New Goat Babies!

Our lovely goat Dasha gave birth to 3 beautiful babies this afternoon. We could tell that Dasha was likely to go into labor earlier in the day, but we expected her to kid at night (as she has done in the past). Brian and I left for 2.5 hours to do a gardening activity, and when we returned home we found the 3 babies!

Dairy goats need to be bred periodically in order to maintain their milk production. A Nigerian Dwarf goat's lactation cycle is around 300 days. The gestation period is 5 months, and the babies need to be nursing for the first 2 months of the 300 day lactation. Given all those numbers, we figure that we need to breed each of our two goats about every 16 months in order to keep a steady flow off milk for our household. So, around every 8 months or so, we welcome 1-3 new goat babies!

The babies will stay with their mom until they are 8 weeks old, and then they will be re-homed. We feel confident that they'll find wonderful homes!

The light-colored girl, brown eyes.

The dark-colored girl (with a white spot on her head and chest!), brown eyes.

The boy, with blue eyes.

The light-colored girl, stretching her long legs...

...and showing off her beautiful markings!

The dark-colored girl nursing...

...and saying hello.

The boy getting some love from his mom...
...and then falling asleep on his feet.

The baby Dwarf goats are quite little -- they're smaller than a chicken!

Our neighbors came by to visit the babies. Peaberry is wondering why no one is paying attention to her (she's usually the center of attention).

Dasha and her 3 kids.
(Thanks to Brian Kraft Photography for the photos.)

3 comments:

Tiffany said...

I admit, I am a sucker for babies of any species, but still, that's darn good photography! You want to come over and take pics of my kids? (-;

Sundari Elizabeth said...

Thanks, Tiffany! I have to confess that I didn't take the photos myself. There are many benefits to having a professional photographer for a husband. Brian does take lots of photos of kids, and they always turn out beautifully. If you want to see some of his work, visit his website at http://www.BrianKraft.com He has a lot of great kid/family photos in his "Portraits" gallery.

Tiffany said...

I can't get enough of these goats. I think I need one. About a year ago I dreamed my husband traded our lawnmower for a goat. I've been stalking your husband's site for two days - love his work! I'll give you a call this summer some time - would that be okay? Our last professional photos were when we got the pic in my profile taken. Now my boys are 9 and 4. Time to do some more! (-: