Fudgie's first freshening, questions about FF udders and BABY PICS!

[glenolam]

It could be that she wasn't letting her milk down for you too. Plus just practice. The kids are just adorable!

I thought that, so I tried all the 'tricks' I've learned along the way - putting kids in front of her, bumping, etc but nada. I think she just needs to woman up a little more.

I am going to continue trying each day, though, just so she gets more used to the stand for milking purposes as opposed to grooming. Although, judging by her attitude yesterday I doubt I'll have to try hard to get her used to milking! She was a gem!

I have several friends near by that could help me out in a pinch, but it's always useful to have some on hand.

 

[Hillbilly]

congrats - lovely babies - and they look big babies, did she manage OK on her own.
I suppose they were only shivering after coming from a nice warm world into the cold and being wet wouldn't help

 

[glenolam]

Fudgie did great, Hillbilly, much better than could ever be expected.

The doelings don't really shiver much anymore - Fudgie's been doing a great job of keeping them warm. I put little dog sweaters on them yesterday because, even though I have a nice heat lamp set up for them they choose to lay down and sleep in the darkest, coldest spot in the barn :/ But they don't shiver and are still hopping around so I'm not worring about it.

We're thinking of names - trying to keep along the lines of Fudge Ripple since mom is Fudgie and dad is Rip. So for the chocolate one we've got Rocky Road or Mocha Fudge and for the white-ish one we have Heavenly Hash or Moose Tracks. Just can't decide

Tried putting Fudgie on the stand. Still didn't get much out of those teats, but at least she was still a gem up there. She still couldn't have cared less about me messing with her udder. Those black spots on the orifices of her teats are still there, but I inspected them and there not really plugs since milk comes out no problem (I just have to really work for it!). Since my fingers aren't sucking in addition to milking I figured the girls get enough when they nurse as opposed to me milking.

I'll try to get a picture of her udder this weekend and post it in the udder thread so you can see how she's doing.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Her udder could just be congested too. It should soften up in a few days hopefully.

 

[ksalvagno]

It could be that the kids are taking everything from her. I was getting about a quart a day from my girl and now I'm barely getting a pint from her and I need to feed one of her kids. But look at the other boy that is nursing from her and you can see where that milk is going. He is significantly bigger than his brother.

 

[glenolam]

That was my other thought, too, k. At any rate, I'm not going for gold any more - it just would've been nice to have a little colostrum on hand.