# I just got 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats!!



## Hollywood Goats (May 26, 2010)

I got a 2 year old that is white with brown spots and blue eyes and her baby (a girl) that is black with white speckled ears and a white spot on her forehead!!!

The mother is Daffy and the baby is blossom.

She is kind of nervous, is there anyway to help her get use to us?

and she has never been milked so any tips on starting her would be very appreciated! 

I am so excited to finally have goats!!!












How to I trim her horn?


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## ksalvagno (May 26, 2010)

Congratulations on your new goats. You will enjoy having them. Just spend time with them. Offer some of their grain in your hand. Just sit in the stall with them.

As far as the horn, it looks big enough that you may have to do something like band it but some others who know more about that may have some other suggestions.

Since she is nursing her cria, I would let her get used to you first before you start milking her. The dairy goat that I'm milking was already in milk and already used to being milked so I don't have any good suggestions for you right now.

I'm sure others will come on here and give you some good advice.


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## Its not a GOAT its a DOG (May 27, 2010)




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## glenolam (May 27, 2010)

Welcome!

I'm with ksalvagno - I wouldn't try milking her until she's used to you and knows you aren't there to hurt her.  The kid should weaning around 8 weeks, so then would be a good time to start milking.

If she's kicky, there's a few good threads here about kicky milkers and does who are hard to milk (mine included!)

I can't help on the horn, but it does look like banding might be your option.

Good luck and have fun!


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

I milked her a little bit today since she held still when I reached for her.

She is adjusting very nicely, she was kept in a 6' x 8' pen all day every day, so she is really happy to have the whole yard (about 1500' by 10') 

Here is a better picture of her, could she be pregnant? their were 4 bucks that the lady said kept getting into her pen.


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## cmjust0 (May 27, 2010)

It's nearly impossible to judge a goat's bred status by looking at her until they're right up toward the end of pregnancy, but....well, she actually looks pretty bred to me.  And if she was kept near four bucks who kept fence hopping...and given that she's a Nigerian, and that Nigerians are year-round breeders...I'd hazard a guess that the chance of her NOT being bred are pretty daggone low.

If I had to guestimate, I'd say she's going to kid in the next 6 weeks -- but that's a HUGE, GIGANTIC, purely speculative guestimate from someone who's never owned a Nigerian and doesn't really know what "normal" looks like on that type of goat..  Sooooo, take it for what it's worth.  

<EDIT!>
Check that....how old is blossom?!?  I was just looking at the pics again, and it looks like blossom is pretty little still..  If she's less than about 16 weeks at the very youngest, then what I *think* I'm seeing in terms of mama's girth almost couldn't possibly mean what I thought it might mean..

Soo..._how old is Blossom again?!?_
</EDIT>

She looks great to me, though..  Coat's good, and her condition looks to be 3+ -- but she doesn't look _obese_ -- which is good...  

If she were here, I might be inclined to go ahead and hit her with C/D-T and give her a shot of Bo-Se (I'm in a Selenium-deficient area...check local listings), just to cover the bases in case she does kid soon..  If she didn't kid in about four weeks, I'd definitely go on and do the C/D-T again, but perhaps also the Bo-Se.  After that, I'd probably just wait to see what happens.

<EDIT AGAIN>
If it happens that my eyes were playing tricks on me, hold off on the above protocol...it's sorta the "pre-kidding" protocol, and you wouldn't necessarily want to do it unless you're pretty sure she's HEAVY BRED...like, close to kidding.
</EDIT AGAIN>

Is Blossom up to date on her C/D-T?  

I gotta say...aside from the scur, and speaking strictly to their outward appearance, those are two of the healthier looking "Look at my new goats!" goats I've seen on here in a while.


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

I think blossom is 8-10 weeks old, she is weaning now.

Her pen was right next to theirs, and the lady said that she was ready to bred if we wanted it.

How pregnant could she be?

Thank you!


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## cmjust0 (May 27, 2010)

Ok, well...if that's the case, then my eyes were tricking me..  From the picture, she looked like she might have been in her last 6 weeks or so of pregnancy.  That would mean she was >100 days preggers, though..  If the kid's 8-10wks (56-70 days) old, it wouldn't be mathematically possible for her to be that far along.

Not saying she isn't bred, mind you...just saying that if she is, she's not as far along as I thought it appeared from the pic.

What's funny is that if you go back to the very first thing I wrote in my initial reply......uh, yeah......I pretty much knew better than to even speculate, but gave it a shot anyhow.  

But now at least we all see what happens when you try to speculate on bred status by looking at a goat.


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## savingdogs (May 27, 2010)

I'm new to goats so this may sound stupid, but my goats bellies seem to change size after they have been eating a lot! A couple of times it was like "Holy Cow, did you guys get enough or what?" after they had been browsing. Maybe she was just really full in the picture. 

Pictures can be deceiving too......at least I sure look a lot fatter in photos than I feel! 

Your goats are very cute.


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

Thank you very much for your suggestions anyway! I really appreciate it.

Since her side are not evenly wide ( one part sticks out a bit more) I would guess that she is pregnant. so if she is how much protein does she need in her diet?


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## glenolam (May 27, 2010)

I'm not saying this is accurate either and am not trying to scare you, but sometimes being larger on one side may mean bloat.  If she's acting fine/feeling fine, that's probably not the case.

Mine usually get a little lop sided when they fill up on something, then they pee/poop it all out and look even again.


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## cmjust0 (May 27, 2010)

Hollywood Goats said:
			
		

> Thank you very much for your suggestions anyway! I really appreciate it.
> 
> Since her side are not evenly wide ( one part sticks out a bit more) I would guess that she is pregnant. so if she is how much protein does she need in her diet?


What I was going by was as much the broadside picture as the overhead..  She looks wide in the overhead, but in the broadside, she looked kinda _low and tight_..  Might just be a Nigerian thing, though.

The last two months or so are when their nutritional needs really begin to increase..  Since you don't actually know if/when she was bred, it's going to be a little more difficult..  You can manage, though, if you keep a close eye on her condition..

Early bred does can pretty much be treated like open does up until 6-8 weeks pre-kidding.  If she's too fat in early pregnancy, do what you can to slim her down or you risk A) toxemia, from a late pregnancy condition burn, or B) huge babies, from feeding to keep her overly fat to avoid toxemia which results from condition burn.  Either way, not great..

What we usually do with open and early-preggers does is free choice grass or grass-mix hay, access to graze/browse if possible, and supplementing with grain according to body condition..  If they're fat, don't supplement.  If they're thin, supplement.  Feeding to condition requires more work in terms of continually monitoring their body condition on a goat-by-goat basis, but it's well worth it.

We bred an OBESE doe in the fall and slimmed her down throughout early pregnancy, hoping to avoid the two scenarios I outlined above in late pregnancy..  When she got to about where I wanted her in terms of condition, we worked to maintain that weight..  In later pregnancy, she started getting thinner than we wanted, so we we increased her supplementation to level her off again and stop the condition burn..  It took more to stop it than I figured it would, which seemed odd to me..

When she kidded, we immediately knew WHY....she had 23lbs of baby goat, including a 10lb buckling, a 5.5lb doeling, and a 7.5lb doeling..  

BUT...she was actually _fit_ when she kidded!  

Six weeks later, we're practically *shoveling* grain at her since she's currently nursing what's gotta be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75lbs worth of kids...and she's _still_ losing condition :/ ...but that's a whole 'nuther story entirely.

Bottom line:  Learn to judge a goat's body condition score, and feed each goat according to its particular condition.  If you can do that (..and it's not hard..) you'll be alright.


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

She is fine, running around and chasing her baby.

We got right before feeding time, and I thought she looked kind of large compared to the other goats.


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## cmjust0 (May 27, 2010)

Wow...she's like two different goats from one set of pictures to the next.  The 2nd set of pics says she's definitely still in the "who knows" category in terms of bred status....but if she was exposed to bucks recently, I'd say there's a fair to middlin' chance she is, indeed, bred.  Given Blossom's age, though, it would definitely be too early to tell from appearance.

I'll say it again, though...  To be in lactation right now -- likely peak lactation, at that -- she looks really good.


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

she and her baby appear to have lice.

They were scratching a lot so I parted the hair on the baby and she is covered with no-see-um like bugs and the mother has a few.

I gave the mother a bath this morning with neem shampoo so that might have helped her lice, but how do I get rid of it?


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## Hollywood Goats (May 27, 2010)

I just gave Blossom a neem bath, she hated it!

But it appears to have killed most of the bugs on her mother (Daffy) so I hope it relieves the itching a bit.


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## cmjust0 (May 27, 2010)

I've used Ivomec 1% injectable successfully for external parasites, dosed at 1ml/25lbs of bodyweight.  

When using Ivomec injectable for _internal_ parasites, I dose it orally..  When using it to treat _external_ parasites, I actually inject it SQ..  I think some folks use it orally in either case, and it apparently works.

Your call, I guess..

Your baby Blossom is probably still small enough that she could be dusted thoroughly enough with Python or some other livestock bug dust to take care of any lice she may have..  Most are pyrethrin products, so they're pretty benign to anything that's not a bug..  I've used it on baby babies before....newborns, like, a few hours old...born to lousy crappy scrub commercial goats who ignored them, and they were COVERED in lice..  Within minutes of being dusted, you could see a bunch of _motionless_ lice on their coats.  

Speaking of Pyrethrins, there's another product called CyLence that supposedly works really well..  It's a Pyrethrin product, but it's a liquid pour-on.....and, yeah, it's actually used _as a pour-on_ in goats (unlike Cydectin pour-on, which is typically drenched  )..  

I haven't used CyLence personally, though, so I can't vouch for it..  I've just read/heard about it, and the stories have  generally been very favorable.


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## Hollywood Goats (May 28, 2010)

I dusted them and bathed them in neem soap it seems to be all gone now.
they are not scratching anymore and I parted their hair and I couldn't find any.
I also dusted their bedding.

I felt her stomach it is soft by her back and hard down low, she is also weaning her baby and is not giving much milk.

Thank you all and have a great weekend!


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