Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Bottle Babies Have Arrived!

In her usual style, Zilla kicked off the kidding season yet again with the birth of a set of beautiful twins - a boy and a girl - we dubbed, "Snowball" and "Narf" (respectively). Yes, we are still on a Pinkie and the Brain naming theme for Zilla's progeny. Her contractions began shortly before evening feeding time, so I went ahead and did farm chores a little early and locked all of the goats in for the night. After roughly 20 minutes of serious pushing, little Snowball catapulted into the world. He was healthy and active from the get-go, and we were so excited and focused on him that we nearly missed the birth of little Narf! She appeared to have asphyxiated a bit during the birth, and was weaker than her brother, but with a little toweling off and some extra help finding the milk, I am pleased to say that Narf is doing fabulously!

Snowball (a future wether) is an interesting mix of sire and dam coloring: tan with the white side spot on either side (and a large white spot on the top of his head), but with Zilla's gorgeous black & silver moon spots too! Very flashy, and I am hoping that he will make an excellent pet wether for some lucky family! Narf is a replica of last year's baby, Troz, and takes her coloring solely from her sire.

I am so SO relieved that this year's kidding had a happier ending than last year (when we lost the boy twin, who was born weighing under a pound and severely weak). I have a feeling that we are going to have a good and easy kidding season this year, and I only hope that my instincts are accurate.

Pictures will follow as soon as I get out to the barn this morning...

Citrine and Cheerio appear to have lost their ligs, so we may be in for a double kidding tonight!

Stay tuned...

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