Goat update

In March, we got our first goats.  2 Lamancha/Nubians, and I was so excited!  Once I started milking, my excitement waned.  It was not good, I posted about our milking woes here, here, and here.  Oh, and here.  And here.  Needless to say, it wasn't easy for me and I had plenty of challenges.

So, how are we doing now that it has been almost 3 months?  I don't want to jinx myself, but it has been better!  Here is Miss Aurora this morning after milking.  She loves her feeding time.  See her standing nicely?  It doesn't always happen this way, but the majority of the time, she is being a good girl.  She still tries to kick her back legs or dance when she is out of feed, or needs to poop...

I give her 1 pound of Dumor pelleted goat feed, and mix in about a half cup of Alfalfa pellets, 1/4 cup whole oats, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds.  It is making her coat so shiny and she looks great.  I haven't weighed her in a long time, but I need to.  

I swear she looks like she's smiling.  :)  The pic is a little fuzzy because she was moving her head back to her bowl.  

Nom.  

After milking, I release her back to the pasture and let out her baby, Millie.  Millie is huge already!  I need to weigh her as well.  She is still nursing, so I only have to milk in the morning.  They crushed my dog crate that I was using to keep them separated, so I haven't been separating them.  Even so, I've been getting just about a quart a day, sometimes 3/4.  We really can't use more than that at this point.  My friend is going to teach me to make cheese and soap, I can't wait!  She is the goat queen and runs Solstice Sun Farm and keeps all Nubians.  We might be using one of her boys to breed the ladies in the fall, or she may practice with Artificial Insemination.  

Millie is a bit of a stinker.  Her horns, even though they were disbudded 3 times, have come back as scurs.  Thankfully they don't look bad, but she does use them to her advantage.  She also eats holes in the tarp, sticks her head out, tries to headbutt me, and is generally naughty.  I'm hoping this passes when she gets older.  She also loves a good scratch and some occasional bites of grain.  

I won't lie, I tried hard to sell them.  I listed them all over Facebook, because I just couldn't deal with the kicking and small orrifices.  I guess it just wasn't to be, because every interest fell through.  I've accepted that they are staying, and have gotten into a routine.  If she was still kicking as bad as she was, I would reduce the price and try harder to sell, but for now we are doing good.