Goat-O-Rama Kids of 2015

[Nanno]

Well, it's Sledge and Hammer's first night in the Big Boys' pen away from Mom. Nubbin has been looking skinny and run-down and her coat still doesn't have the sleek summer look it should have (although it is slowly improving). She gets twice as much grain as everyone else and the same amount of alfalfa pellets as Cuzco (who eats almost nothing else at this point), plus she gets alfalfa hay at night, but she's still ribby. Her two boys have a combined weight that almost matches Nubbin's at this point, and they're as demanding as any youngsters their age. Nubbin got a superficial but painful scrape on her udder this morning during feeding time, and I'm not sure if it was from one of her boys or from a scur on one of the other girls, but I decided that she doesn't need babies butting her tender udder right now, so it's a good time to get them away from Mom, at least during the night so she can get some rest. So far all is quiet. They baa-aa-ed a little at first, but they were already well-bonded with the older boys, so they spent more time running and playing on the spools in their new pen than they spent standing sadly near the gate. They'll be with their mom during the day now, and they'll get separated at night for sort of a "soft" weaning before I wean them entirely. This worked really well for Finn last year and seemed to cut down on separation trauma.