# Goat kids!



## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

My dairy goat, Mimi, blessed us with twin doelings in the night! A little cou clair with gopher ears, and a black girl (like her daddy) with elf ears. Mimi was a sale barn goat we brought home on Memorial Day last year (hence her name). She was in milk at the time, but a little wild. Milked her all through the summer and fall, then bred her to our registered Lamancha buck. First kids of the spring!


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

To Cool! I've been wanting to get in the goat business for years! Are twins common in goats? Just curious...  You're two kids are not identical. I think the heifers I had born yesterday are identical. Again, just curious.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Cotton said:


> To Cool! I've been wanting to get in the goat business for years! Are twins common in goats? Just curious...  You're two kids are not identical. I think the heifers I had born yesterday are identical. Again, just curious.


 With the does we had it was common for them to have twins.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Cotton said:


> To Cool! I've been wanting to get in the goat business for years! Are twins common in goats? Just curious...  You're two kids are not identical. I think the heifers I had born yesterday are identical. Again, just curious.


Twins are more common. IMO triplets are not all that uncommon either.

Star I saw you post these pics on FB and thought hey wait i've seen these pics before. :sssh:


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

smaj100 said:


> Twins are more common. IMO triplets are not all that uncommon either.
> 
> Star I saw you post these pics on FB and thought hey wait i've seen these pics before. :sssh:


Good eye. 

Yeah, oddly enough, a cow has 4 teats and usually just has one calf. Goats have 2 teats, and usually have 2 kids, although they can have from one to 5! I had a doe that gave me 4 healthy quadruplets. And they rarely are identical.
http://www.preparedsociety.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

Our experience is that a first bred doe usually has a single, while older does generally will throw twins. Trips and Quads are maybe 2-3%, and most times we've ended up with a bottle baby or two. Milk goats might be able to care for trips or quads, but the average meat goat is doing everything she can to raise two healthy kids.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

Balls004 said:


> Our experience is that a first bred doe usually has a single, while older does generally will throw twins. Trips and Quads are maybe 2-3%, and most times we've ended up with a bottle baby or two. Milk goats might be able to care for trips or quads, but the average meat goat is doing everything she can to raise two healthy kids.


That's been my experience, too.

The one doe that threw quads was a special subject. I always said she was an alien in a goat suit.... She didn't want to nurse kids, she didn't want to be milked, and the service is just terrible down here!  I usually bottle feed my kids when they're a week old, but IIRC, I bottle-fed her four from the start.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

New babies yesterday. Doe #2 dropped her kids in a matter of minutes! We were out of town, but youngest son was keeping an eye on her. He checked her and about 20 minutes later the neighbor called to tell him she had two kids on the ground! We got home about 20 minutes after that, and one of the kids was still damp. She had a little buck and doe. Good girl!


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

*Week-old LaMancha kids*


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## talob (Sep 16, 2009)

Starcreek said:


>


I've been following this thread because I have an interest in goats, when I click on this video it says video is private, now why would you post a private video or am I just missing something (more the likely)


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

talob said:


> I've been following this thread because I have an interest in goats, when I click on this video it says video is private, now why would you post a private video or am I just missing something (more the likely)


Because I posted it to the wrong YouTube account. It took me about 15 minutes of searching to figure out how to make it "private" so it could not be accessed from that account. When I get time, I will go back in and re-post to my personal account.
http://www.preparedsociety.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

*Here you go...*


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## talob (Sep 16, 2009)

I've been trying to find goat meat locally to try it before I take the plunge into raising meat goats hard to find, guess I'll have to buy a critter and butcher it out myself, problem with raising them myself is the wife those kids are just so damn cute!


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

talob said:


> I've been trying to find goat meat locally to try it before I take the plunge into raising meat goats hard to find, guess I'll have to buy a critter and butcher it out myself, problem with raising them myself is the wife those kids are just so damn cute!


Now is the time of year to get a kid for butcher. Half of all kids born from February-April will be males, and most of those will go for butcher. A castrated male is called a "wether." Just do a search on your local Craigslist for "goats" and when you find somebody with goats for sale, contact them and ask how much for a wether. They've all got'em even if they don't advertise them.

You might find somebody that will butcher it for you, but usually the people selling a wether don't want to kill it themselves, or they would put it in the freezer for eating later. Not hard to butcher, just like a deer, but a lot smaller.


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