# Sherry's Last Kidding!



## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

My first doe due this year is set to pop in January! This will be Sherry's last kidding before being retired and I'm dying for a doe to retain as a replacement in my breeding band. Her first heat would have made her due within the next few days, but it seems as if she took the second cycle. I did see some evidence of the "deed" being done the second time around, so assumed we'd be waiting until the new year.

Of course when I first bought her she had a single and didn't bag up until she went into labor...last year she was more "traditional" in her approach with twins. So she has no set pattern it seems. Well, except for insisting that between 4-5 A.M. is the ideal time to give birth.

Sherry as a younger gal:










Being a dork:










The baby daddy...not the best photo, but you get the idea:










Come on twin, moon-spotted does! Lol. Or is that being too greedy to ask of the kid fairies??


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

What a pretty gal!!  I love the second pic of her!! Too cute! 

Sending pink fairies with moonspots your way!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Good luck and thinking :kidred: for you!


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## JaLyn (Oct 10, 2012)

Good Luck..I so hope you get a doe!!!


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## nursehelg (Jul 5, 2012)

Love the second pic! Hope you have girls!!!!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I hope she gives you twin girls :hug:


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## clearwtrbeach (May 10, 2012)

She's a cutie, good luck kidding.


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Thanks everyone, she is a character. My favorite in terms of personality. She is a hog for scratches. She loves to lick faces (and then burp right in your nose of course...) If you stop scratching her shoulders and she decides that isn't acceptable, she'll paw at you a bit, or tug your clothes a few times and then put her nose right on your face and breath all over it like a creeper until you resume petting. If you still ignore her she'll lick your face or arms until you do. Its a little weird honestly, but we love our little weirdo Sherry. 

She has a handful of an udder tonight compared to the loose baggy nothing she had when I started this thread. Definitely planning for her second cycle so looking at about the 5th of January..


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## RedGate (Dec 7, 2012)

Haha, she sounds like a real charmer! Hope you get your little doe and that she has personality to boot like mom!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

She sounds like a great goat to have  
Our meannie herd queen <as I call her lol>, is very loving towards us, and does that burping thing lol She likes to nibble on your ear and rub your face. She rubs all over you, and has horns but is so careful with them. 
Our special goaties ♥

I hope you get a couple of does from her that you can retain


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Thinking pink


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Excitement! Her udder went from a tiny handful to a real udder today. And her ligs are bouncy instead of hard. Progression! She is right on schedule for my second breed date. Good Sherry, staying on schedule and what not! Now kid in the evening or a decent hour in the morning please.


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Gave Sherry a birthing clip yesterday. Bag only half full, ligs are really low and she is pretty posty. Getting steep out her rump. Losing her plug steadily the last week. Pretty predictable for her. If she is going to be as exactly identical as she is being compared to her last two kiddings (which she is so far)...I'll be in for labor starting around 6 pm the day she decides to go, with her waiting to kid until 3-4 in the morning. If she can do it this weekend, I don't mind the lack of sleep because I don't have to work!!!!! Lol. As if she'd make my life THAT easy! But you guys all know EXACTLY how it goes. ;p ... So nice to be able to share and chat (and whine at times) to people who know exactly what I mean and don't think I'm the crazy goat lady! (Which is exactly how my family, especially my hubby, sees me. Lol.)


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

I am excited for you! Doe..Doe... Doe ..Doe.....Ivy and Harley are doing great by the way...I love them very much. Ivy is set to pop by the 28th of this month! I can't wait!!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Very cool! I just checked out your site, they are looking good! Exciting that Ivy took 2nd in her first show! I always thought she had great depth of body and the very correct structure of her sire. Can't wait to see her kiddos!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Oh, and when you start having some mini-manchas, send me a line. I REALLY want to get into mini-manchas.


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## MOgoatlady (Oct 23, 2012)

Hoping all is good and thinking pink for you!


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

I've been wondering how your kidding went...Hope all is well...


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## clearwtrbeach (May 10, 2012)

Ok update  how is it going?


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Lol. Sorry guys, no kids yet. The 5th would have been day 145 if she had the shortest cycle between the first (definite) breeding and the second (that I didn't see...) ... So a 17 day cycle. If she had a 21 day cycle, day 145 would have been today. If she had a long cycle, we aren't even looking at day 145 until even further out. This is all based on my dumb math. She is always hard because you just can't get her bred easily unless you leave her in with the buck, and she can be sneaky about her activities. She has been losing her plug really slow the last week and a half, but today its coming out in pretty big white globs. We are getting there...she NEVER plays by any rules, ever. She is my biggest pain to kid out. Lol. She won't soften her ligs, or go above a half udder, or drop, or anything until she goes into labor and then she does it all at once. You can't even feel kids until that point either. She just has a huge, squishy tummy and hides those suckers. And the last two years she has gone at different days in her pregnancy, so she doesn't even stick to a usual due date. Always praying for the weekend, lol.


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

Yep, I hope she kids for you on the weekend too, maybe she is just holding it all in so you can be there. (fingers crossed). 

I am sooooo hoping I get does this year,,..last kidding season I got ALL bucks.......every......kid (6)

I hope all goes well and you get at least one doe


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

myterravita said:


> Yep, I hope she kids for you on the weekend too, maybe she is just holding it all in so you can be there. (fingers crossed).
> 
> I am sooooo hoping I get does this year,,..last kidding season I got ALL bucks.......every......kid (6)
> 
> I hope all goes well and you get at least one doe


I didn't get ALL bucks, but it was a really bucky year last year. I wonder if it was the area? Thats weird that you had that happen too...The first doe kidded in February with twin does, but she also spent most of her pregnancy up north with the person I bought her from. Sherry had buck/doe twins in March. Everyone else kidded in June/July and I had EIGHT bucks and only TWO does, and one of those does was from a girl I bought from Washington who spent half her pregnancy up there and not here. Sometimes I wonder if environmental factors play a huge role in kid gender. Here is to the weather, soil, water, etc down here being favorable for girls! Lol.


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Ugh, I have given up on a due date for this girl. I wrote down the first heat and the second one (didn't see cover, just a "mess" on her behind.) After that, we were going to move...it was a confusing mess and I lost track of dates. I think she was in with the buck until maybe the 5th of September?? I thought I moved her and her daugther in August, but looking back at some old posts I'm thinking it was the first week of September. If was bred all the way towards the end, say the 5th of September, her day 145 would be January 28th...Stupid hectic time period in my life, made my record keeping crappy. Lol. 

I'm actually glad she is due later as she now looks like she has twins. Earlier on I thought she would have a single, but she has widened quite a lot. The last few days she has dropped significantly and hollowed out in the "pockets" on either side of her spine in front of her hip bones. Her udder has filled a little more and gotten softer, but I know her tactic isn't to fill much until the day of. Her ligaments have sunk a lot, although still firm. Her pooch is very swollen and soft. We are getting there, I just think I'll go insane if I have to wait another two weeks! What are the odds she was in with the buck over two months and didn't take until the last few days they were together!!! Old bat! Lol. This is the ONLY doe I have trouble with on due dates, catching labor, etc. You can't do leash breedings because her heats are nearly undetectable, so leaving with her with a buck is the only way to guarantee kiddos.


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

I was wondering what was up...well Ivy is due the 28th ...so I guess we are counting down the days together....

lol.. sounds like it is her job to keep you guessing!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Neat! Keep me updated! I'd love to see how her udder turns out, Ivy had so much potential when she left here.  ... When I bought Sherry she was bred, and she had been in with the buck five whole months. Started expecting babies way too early, because she didn't kid until way late...the math said she got bred near the end of that last month. Last year I left her in with the buck for three weeks, took her out and put her back in another couple of weeks. Due dates on those kids point to them being conceived at the end of the second "honeymoon." She's just a weirdo. I was told by the lady I bought her from that the only way she was able to get the sneaky gal pregnant was just leaving her with a buck for several months. I guess she is holding true to that. After this year, no more dealing with it. Lol. Love the gal, always produces better than herself and is a dream to milk with a super pliable, soft udder...but she drives me insane at breeding and kidding time! I'm just glad her daughter I sold, Fae, took the first observed cover and kidded right on schedule! Audrey doesn't have to worry about her following in her mom's annoying footsteps in that department! .... I had a dream last night that Sherry kidded with triplet bucks. I have "all buck kid" dreams every kidding season. Am I insane? Lol.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Yeah, I too am very thankful that Fae is a totally cooperative breeder! Shes such a good mama too, and really outproduced herself imo  I hope Sherry goes for you VERY soon! LOL on the all bucks year for you! Thats what I am hoping for, for myself!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

audrey said:


> Yeah, I too am very thankful that Fae is a totally cooperative breeder! Shes such a good mama too, and really outproduced herself imo  I hope Sherry goes for you VERY soon! LOL on the all bucks year for you! Thats what I am hoping for, for myself!


I guess I should rephrase that, they are all buck nightmares. Lol. The more does the better, and the less castrating that has to happen. You want all boys? Do you have a lot of desire for pet whethers? I never have reservations for the pets, but when I have them they go like hotcakes.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

She, is sure making you wait isn't she.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

No, but I am hoping to get one or 2 nice bucklings to keep, one from each doe would be ideal so that I could have with only the 2 does likely bred (I am not counting on poit being bred, not after the infection she had!). Ke$ha is a FF, and I would LOVE a buck out of her! And this is honeys 2nd freshening, so I am hoping for a buck and a doe LOL.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Thinking pink and blue


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

H'okay.... I've finally got a last possible date in the buck pen narrowed down to a two day window....based on serious investigations of Facebook posts and TGS private messages...The last possible day she could have been with Densil was the 2nd to 3rd of September. IF she got bred on the VERY last day it would put her at day 145 tomorrow or Saturday. What in the world are the odds though, that she would conceive the LAST day! One of her ligs was gone tonight, the other sunk extremely low. She is in the kidding stall starting tonight. Its quiet, private and bedded with fresh straw. Hoping this "encourages" her, although I know thats silly and its all me being hopeful. We're hitting another weekend, so weekends are always primo time for actually getting to business!!! Plus, the last couple of weeks its been frozen, but this week has been in the 50s and next week is supposed to be the same. So it'd be great if she kidded before we hit another pre-spring freeze (we always do, but usually more towards the end of February/beginning of March.)

I KNOW she was in heat July 17th with Fae. Obviously didn't take there. So I'm calculating her next cycle at 19 days later based on an average in-between date on goat cycles (every 17-21 days, with 19 being smack dab in the middle). That would put the next heat at August 5th or there-abouts...putting a due date at December 28th to January 1st. Obviously she didn't take that cycle...so lets go another 19 days....That would be August 24th, giving her a due date of January 16-20...Obviously this is a little off as well since she would be day 154 today and I've never had anyone go past day 150. ....If I calculated a heat cycle every 21 days, the third one would be August 28, which would give her a due date of 1/20-1/25...so tomorrow would be day 150 if she stretched each cycle to the furthest average...if you add another cycle, you are too far out..past the date she was taken away from the buck. Does this math look insane? Lol. By my math (based off of the one heat I am positive about) she shouldn't be due any later than tomorrow or the next day unless she has very long, un-natural cycles? All this math is more for my benefit. It's helped for me to type out the thought process. I'm horrible with math like this...and word problems. Oh Lordy those word problems... :hammer:

Her rear udder has started filling the last two days up towards the attachments, but you can only tell by feel and not by looking. She is very dropped and she has "ski-slope syndrome"...what I call it when they get super steep from hipbones to tailhead before kidding. Go Sherry go!!! I get up at 2:30 AM tomorrow to be at work at 4...she only kids at about 3-4 AM....so if she kidded Saturday morning, since I will be sleeping mid-day tomorrow for a bit, I will already have my sleep brain adjusted to being up at 4. How would that be for co-operating with me schedule? ray:


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

WOW!!! I am so glad I'm not the only one who does the pregnancy math!! I think my husband figures I'm crazy! Haha good luck with the little stinker!!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Yay, another crazy goat math person!!! You are definitely not alone. Now instead of having to keep re-thinking the possible math outcomes I can just reference this thread instead of making my brain hurt again. Lol...Well, her ligaments are SO hard to find this morning. I got off work at 10 AM and to the barn by 10:30 crossing my fingers that they hadn't bounced back. The one lig is gone, gone, gone and the other one is so low its very hard to find it....half of her udder is rather large while the other half isn't, so she is working on filling it...which she has never done more than 24 hours before kidding. My guess would be tomorrow morning or Sunday morning. Lets see how good my intuition is. I'm probably jinxing myself. I've decided on a couple of girl names and a couple of boy names because I don't think she has more than twins:

For girls:

Firelight Ranch DW Firefly
Firelight Ranch DW Serenity

...and for boys: Malcom and Jayne (I'm a HUGE Firefly fan, if you can't tell. Yes, there was a guy named Jayne...and he was an awesome character.) I'm not keeping any intact bucklings this year, so these are whether names.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Cool!! How exciting! My goats aren't due until march... But I have an extremely ornery sheep that I bought pregnant so I have no idea for pregnancy math which is kind of killing me because I'm "mildly" neurotic about dates... She is so bagged up I thought she would have lambed a week ago... NOTHING!!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Wow, that looks tight. I would think she would be popping any second!!! .... Well, there will be no kiddos tonight. Those ligaments that have been almost completely gone since late last afternoon are back. Still low, but firm. Her udder is even though, although needs to fill more and she is so sunken and hollowed out on top that I almost did a double take when I went down. Do it this weekend dang it!!!


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Well... She lambed a 5:30 this afternoon... After pushing for an hour and a half I finally went in and pulled the little heifer!! His head was folded to the side looking at his bum! After he was out had a ewe lamb about twenty minutes later!! Everyone is healthy and happy this far! It was a little stressful but all is well now!! Hang in there she will kid soon!! But not before you go just about crazy first!! Lol


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

They are adorable!! awwww....I can't wait. I have 2 ewes that I just felt were bagging up (their udders are nowhere as huge as your ewe), I can't wait till they lamb ..but I have no idea..how much longer I have to wait. We had only one ewe lamb last year and she completely surprised us...so ...I am not very good at knowing when the time is near....


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

AW!!! Lambs are so cute!!!!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Nada....her ligs firmed back up, udder shrunk a bit. Yesterday it went back up but ligs stayed firm. Tonight one side is bigger again and one ligament is low but the other firm. I can NOT feel a kid in there for the life of me, but I never can with her. Today would be 154 if she took the 28th, but just because she came in then doesn't mean she conceived then. If she took the LAST day she was with the buck, today would be 149. I'm starting to wonder if she is having some sort of "phantom" thing? She had no udder, just a dangly, empty bag and now its going up and down, filled with clear, sticky fluid. Her ligaments are definitely going in and out and she has had yellowish discharge off and on for probably a whole month, so she is showing all the signs. GAR! You drive me crazy Sherry, crazy! You and only you!

Last year she went on exactly day 150 of her first breeding if she took the first day she stood, day 152 if she took the last day. So she hasn't past the mark of impossibility yet. Le sigh...


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

I just looked at my posts from last year. Dumb dumb did the same thing to me, why do I forget her tricks? Based on last year she kidded 7 days after her ligaments starting doing their "thang." Lol. Her udder isn't as big as it was last year, nor is her tummy. I'm back to thinking a single if anything. That makes more sense since I can't feel a kid. Apparently I felt them last year, but forgot...because I wrote about it. Yay for this forum, its like my goat birthing diary and I can reference previous kiddings for each doe.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Ugh I feel for ya!! Stupid dates haha they definitely keep us guessing!! My big ole sheep FINALLY popped a couple days ago, I had to pull the first one two hours after her bad passed!! He was enormous and the hoof had his head back looking at his bum! And after we got that straightened out the little ewe lamb all but fell out ten minutes later haha. I thought I was done for a week or so before the next girl looked due... WRONG... Went out the next morning(it was -30C) and the other ewe lambed twins... They have been in and out of the house and tube fed... It it brutal it is not looking great for them!  fingers crossed!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Oh man, hope they make it but these animals definitely trick us! Still nada with Sherry. I swore I finally felt a kiddo rolling around in there and her ligs are low again.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:hug:


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Fingers are crossed she goes soon for you!! I think the lambs are going to pull through! So I am back to crunching calendar numbers with you!! ;-) you have my undivided attention lol


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Yay, I'm glad they look like they'll make it! I never birthed lambs, but I raised a few in 4H and FFA. I remember keeping them out of trouble in general seemed to me more difficult than the goats. I had one that was scared of people and would jump headfirst into the wall repeatedly when I first got it and came down to the barn...

Nothing new, although I haven't stopped to see her yet this morning. If she goes past this weekend I'm gonna say she isn't bred and I don't know WHAT she has been doing.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

I think once I sell these ram lambs and make a little cash, I'm investing in the pregtone! It seemed super expensive when I first thought about it... But after two months of checking sheep and literally feeling exhausted all the time, I've decided I am going to splurge!!! And the major bonus is, it will work for my goats as well!! Then no more guessing about if... Just when! Haha


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

No kids. Obviously she is not bred to Densil..... I don't know what was going on with her ligaments, but they are firm now and have been...she still has a small udder and her pooch looks bred (soft and a bit swollen). She was penned next to my leased buck and got in with the other girls one day...but I thought she was bred so I put her back when I found her out and didn't think much of it. I was only supposed to breed him to four of my ladies, so if she ends up bred to him... :shrug: The only way to know now is to test her. If she comes up positive its Fireworks....She looked sunken for a couple of days when I put her in the kidding stall but she wanted so badly back with her buddies she paced and didn't eat much so it might have been lack of roughage in her tummy. She is back to being wide, even wider then when I started driving myself insane about breeding dates...in fact, she looks like she is about the same size as a couple of the girls confirmed bred for April kids...so it would make sense for her to be due along with them. GAR!!!!!! Looks like I'll be practicing my blood drawing ability again! ...And no kiddos til APRIL! ....The thing I don't get is that I saw a white mucous which looked just like a plug. Weirdo goat.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Aww well that's a shame... Kind of haha hang in there!!


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