Sunday, July 21, 2013

And... Done!

Thursday afternoon we got home from work and when hubby and son headed back into town for martial arts, and I changed and went out to feed.  As I walked out to the does birthing pen, I blinked my eyes wondering why I was seeing double.  Why on earth were there two Aberfeldy's?  And two Tess's? 

As I got closer and saw that there were some differences - the second "Tess" wasn't painted - just a pretty champagne color with some grey markings, and the second "Aberfeldy" was not fully painted - only the heads were similarly colored and this little one had just a couple of small white spots. 

My instincts Thursday morning were correct - Balvenie had given birth!!  (She had been off her feed a little bit, and was extremely restless... I just knew she was going to give birth that day!)  She had already cleaned them up, dried them off, and was bleating softly to her little ones!  First time mama had her instincts in the right place!

The heat was bad, and the babies were new born and panting heavily without an interest in nursing.  Called hubby and had him pull our son from the martial arts class to come home and help out with cooling down the babies and get them on mama.  Once again, newborns in the house and mama as well to cool them down so they would nurse.  Once that was finally accomplished, and the temperatures came down they all moved back out to the doe pen. 

Meet Ophelia...

 
And Myra!





So far everyone is doing well, though Balvenie has become a little bit less interested in her daughters.  The babies are still learning that they can go to her and she will let them nurse, but she isn't the best about going to her babies when they begin to call for her. 

All three of Gerie's babies are now thriving!  They are putting on weight and growing every day, and starting to nibble on hay!!


1 comment:

  1. Five babies! I think they are in the best place in the world/ Nobody would take care of them as well as you do. it will be so nice to see your pictures and read about them while they grow up.

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