# Me and wife are kinda new to goats we are raising angora goats, we have a preg angora



## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Hello everybody,,,,,,long story short, wife is about to retire she and i started with a few non registered goats because we both love animals and wanted to start a little farm, she has learned the art of spinning and wanted to start raising angora goats, well over the past year we have acquired 6 angora goats all with papers except 2 of them (( scratch and penny )) and they are angora/fainting and they are quite the characters lol.....anyway our latest angora goat we purchased (( mama dukes )) we purchased her pregnant from a very respectable angora breeder, we thought we would jump right in and start raising babys....lol the more we read the more confused we are...its cold as hell out side, babys are due 1/25/15..lol we are still living in a camper on our newly started farm while we wait for our new house to be finished. (( its very close ))..lol....We think we have the signs pretty much down when she gets ready to give birth but maybe not, we have a metal barn just recently built the goats own part of it untill we get all of our stuff out of the other side, then the entire barn is for them and llamas, more than enough room...hell they are living better than we are atm....any suggestions on what we need to do to prepare momma dukes to kid would be kindly appreciated. ....

This is what i can tell you

1....she is proven and from a champion blood line so was the buck, both are registered
2....she is 3 years old
3....im sure i have been feeding her to much grain (( seriously )) maybe 3 cups a day mixed nobel goat/ beet pulp pellets and big bales of hay free range and free choice mana pro goat minerals, and every now and then fresh pine from tree cuttings....mainly because of ignorance too goat feeding..one would compare this allmost to rocket science
4.... I have a barn however it is not heated
5.... i live in the state of V.A and night time lows are cold...anywhere from mid to upper 30s to most recently 19 degrees right now as i am typing this
6....I think we have basic goat common sense other than feeding them to much lol

Again any help would be very very helpfull to us 

I can post pics of her and the way their living quaters are if it helps...im really concerned about the cold weather its been a bit colder than normal here as of late.......Ty so much for reading my ridiculously long post=)


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Mamma dukes last year in the summer


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

The goats side of the barn pretty much its current state minus the all the green trees lol and trash bag.


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Was thinking of making the little area when you walk in the door the temporary kidding quaters , i know that it needs to be draft free and this is going to take something creative to pull that off im sure ill figure something out


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

And here is the guard dog (( Tipsy )) she is broke not sure if she is fixable lol really not guard dog but she really is broken, just thought id share just how good our animals have it while their humans are living in a tiny house as one would call it


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## OGYC_Laura (Jan 9, 2014)

She will definitely need the kidding stall and a CD/T booster about now (usually a month before due date) a dewormer for immediately after birth.. 
I have not figured the rocket science of feeding well enough to critique. 
Of course you got to have your kidding supplies on hand... Iodine, selenium if your area is deficient, bottle and nipple just in case.. A heat lamp for the first few days... Lots of info on this can be found in the kidding korral

Good luck!! Can't wait to see pics


Old Goats & Young Chicks Farm
Boer and Boer Cross


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

3 cups sounds like a bit much, but you say it's mixed with beet pulp? Beet pulp is roughage not grain, so if you used a 50/50 ratio she'd only be getting about 1 1/2 cups of grain (which is fine). I would replace the beet pulp with alfalfa pellets, the calcium is needed for her kids and milk production. 

Make the house as draft-free as you can, fill it up with straw and cover the entrances with heavy carpet. Some kids are born- and thrive in- below zero weather, so I'm sure your kids will be fine. The key is to be there when she kids, so you can dry them off and make sure they nurse. A kennel filled with straw will provide the babies with a warm sleeping area, if you feel they need one. Also its best to seperate mama duke from the others, so she can bond with her new kids in peace.


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Hello ty for responding, we actually had to give her a cdt shot last week because a few days prior we lost one of our yearlings (( loretta she was one of our beginner goats as my wife calls them she was lamancha, the vet we use says his best guess was because of her symptoms he thought she died from tetnus or possibly a spine injury but he was leaning towards tetnus,so we went around and gave everyone their cdt shot, my wife was devastated when she passed away, so know we are probally worried to much about everything goat health related....bless her heart loretta was a very charismatic goat tons of personality he is a recent picture before she died.....she is giving goat kisses


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Here is loretta giving kisses she is in goat heaven


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Sorry i went off topic ty canyontrail for reply, yeah its not really a 50/ 50 mix its more grain than beat pulp, and sorry i probably didint specify how much beat pulp i was mixing with the grain,just really wing it and throw handfulls in with the grain, i do know that beat pulp will swell in their tummys and have allways been real carefull about how much i give them but my goats go nuts for that stuff its like goat crack to them, and ty for ideas on kidding room this is the exact reason i posted all of this and tried to explain as much as i could at this time of the night to get peoples help and ideas , so ty much my friend


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Ok went and did some measuring this morning the area in the barn that i want to use is about 4 1/2 foot wide by 10 feet in length its basically where i keep all the grain and goat supplies that ill have to find another place for.....is it enough room?, and should i put her up in there before time to give birth? If so how long before she gives birth should i seperate her in her new spot...Thanks in advance ...lol sorry i have so many questions, just trying to get prepared


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

41/2 x 10 is actually pretty big for a kidding stall she probably doesn't need it all. Do you have electricity in the barn? If so you might want to get a heat lamp and I usually make a box for the kids to get in where the lamp is but the doe can't get in. That way she can't knock the lamp down and start a fire.


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Yeah i have eletric in barn and the ceiling height is pretty tall, i was thinking i could hang the light shining down into the kidding area, i am pretty certain she cant reach up 8 feet to get to the heat lamps....i went to TSC and purchased 2 of them today i dont know if i should use both of them in the area or just one....i think my biggest problem is ...simply i dont know when enough is enough lol. My idea is to temporarily enclose that entire area untill i can get her and her kids out into the area in the barn yard that i have enclosed for these kinda things.... Also any ideas on how long i should put her up in her kidding area before she actually gives birth.....the other goats ram her every chance they get, so she kinda stays away from them.....i just dont know


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Awww Mama Dukes is beautiful! She has the neatest hair I've seen on a goat! Very pretty girl ♥
Very sorry about Loretta, she looked like a sweetheart ♥ 
Just remember to do a Cd/T booster in 3 weeks especially if they haven't had one before, or got these Cd/T's late.
You can wait to give mama Dukes a Cd/T as soon as she kids.

When you put her in her stall, will she be able to see the other goats? If so, then if she were here, I'd start stalling her at night about a week or so before she is due. That will get her used to being separated. She might stress out if she can't see the other goats.
OSB/plywood thin sheets can make good draft blockers if you have a way to mount them.

I always keep a close eye on our girls, generally about 7-10 days before they are due, I start checking tail ligaments <youtube - how to check goat tail ligaments look for a video by Goat Mentor it'll show you how to check>. I also pay attention to their udder. Usually, when our girls are close, their udder will get very full & tight.
Personality might change, they may become more talkative, or quiet, or 'don't touch me, everyone is out to get me and my babies!'

Watch some goat births on youtube, that can really help you see what is normal.

I'm in KY, and our temps have been all over the place. I generally only use a heat lamp when it is below freezing temps, or when kids are being delivered, and for a couple of hours until they are dry and starting to control their body temps. BUT, I check on our kids quite a bit the first couple of days to make sure they are thriving.
Usually, after they are dry, we are able to put a sweater on them and they are fine. 
Just use your judgment, if you think your kid needs a lamp or sweater, then do it 

I agree about having selenium if you are in a deficient area. We like using the selenium e gel for goats, we can't find it locally so we generally order ours from Jeffers or Amazon.

BTW, I loved all the pics you posted! Congrats on having a house built! And I love your critters, especially the occupant on the couch, haha, very cute!


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Ty so much for the kind words and advice and yes the critter on the couch is a mess lol....they all got a cdt shot on 1/2/15, do i give them all booster shots in 3 weeks? What about babys? And i have read you want to worm momma after birth what would you reccomend using? And what about babys. Lol sorry i have so many questions l just want to be on top of it.....


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

She is a beautiful girl, I agree I would not make her kidding quite that big, 4 x 6 would work. I only put a heat lamp on my babies if it is really really cold, like in the 20's or teens, other wise I do a lot of straw for bedding and they will get down in that and it will help keep them warm. The reason is first it will kill your utility bill, second I worry about barn fires like no other, three, I believe they need to learn to regulate their own body temp. If you have a power outage and they are use to the lamp then they more them likely will get sick. If you are to worried about them getting cold then put a dog coat on them.

I also in my 14 years of kidding never dewormed my does after kidding. So many say to for the stress of kidding and that will I guess cause them to come out. I don't understand that myself, if they don't have a worm problem how is kidding going to cause them? Always get a fecal float on them first before you give them deworming meds.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Bootsy said:


> Ty so much for the kind words and advice and yes the critter on the couch is a mess lol....they all got a cdt shot on 1/2/15, do i give them all booster shots in 3 weeks? What about babys? And i have read you want to worm momma after birth what would you reccomend using? And what about babys. Lol sorry i have so many questions l just want to be on top of it.....


If you aren't sure they had cd/t before, then yes, I would redoes in 21 days/3 weeks, for Mama Dukes I'd wait and give her a booster right after she delivers. 
Everyone does things differently, but we typically give babies cd/t about 3-4 weeks old, then again 3 weeks after that. Then it's 1x a year after that.

Wormer, honestly it depends on what type of wormer you'd needed to use in the past? Here, we like using Quest Plus horse wormer, we dose 2x a horse dose, so if a goat is 100lbs, it gets treated like a 200lb. horse.
We don't worm our babies until they are weaned, unless something comes up and we think they need it, but we've never had any issues that I can remember, seemed the worm issues hit about the time they are weaned.

Oh, you had asked how long to keep mom & baby separated, I forgot to mention that here, we like to keep them separated from the others for about a week. So Mom & Baby can bond, and babies can get strong on their feet, that away if someone tries to bully them/push them around they are able to run away. Weather permitting, we take our mom & babies out by themselves for a while each day, and slowly work them up to going out for most of the day, introduce them to the herd, and slowly work them into staying with the herd all the time. 
I'd look into a 'creep feeder' area that you can make in your barn - a place where only the babies can go, so they can get away from the other goats, and eventually they can have free choice feed when they start eating.


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## Bootsy (Feb 4, 2014)

Ok ....went outside and started checking and mamma dukes has a trace of blood on her vulva....what does this mean is she about to give birth i have no idea, i just put her in the kidding pen by herself, and vet to ask im going into panic mode here, i was told she wasent due untill the 25th but she was breed twice, im not prepared and running like a manaic to get stuff togeather.....


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