New Year and New Life on the Farm

So many new animals on the farm. The girls got their cavies (guinea pigs) right before Thanksgiving. Two Americans, one is brown and the other a golden agouti. On December 27th, we got our pig, a female Berkshire/red wattle mix. She will be sold at the San Diego East County Junior Fair in Lakeside in April or May.

We had a group of friends over on New Year's Day, and we all got to watch our neighbors' goat gave birth. We knew that she was going to give birth any day and I had asked them to call us when it happened so we could watch. On New Year's Eve, they though the baby was coming and we rushed over, but it was a false alarm.

We weren't really thinking about the goats on New Year's Day, we were busy getting ready for a little get together with some friends. Just as we were just finishing preparing the food and our first guest were pulling up to the driveway, the neighbor called saying that the baby was crowning and it was coming any minute. The guests were welcomed at the door with, "glad you're here. Want to go watch a goat being born?" Luckily, they were as excited as I was, so we headed over. We were too late to see the first one born, but we got to watch it learn to stand and figure out how to nurse. It is pretty amazing that within 20 minutes the baby is able to stand and nurse.

It's pretty typical for goats to have two babies, but we weren't sure if this one would because she only had one last year. But as we were watching the first baby nurse, we saw the second baby start to crown. Poor mom had one baby nursing and one trying to come out. At first, we would just see a little of the second baby's head, but eventually, the whole head came out. It looked rather alien because it was still enclosed in the sac. Poor mom had one baby nursing and another starting to deliver.

The mom kept trying to lie down, but she wouldn't stay down for long. She was very focused on the fist baby. The first baby just wanted to nurse, so the neighbor would hold him for a while trying to let mom focus on delivering the second baby, but soon mama goat would hear her baby bleating and would stand to comfort the baby. 

Finally she laid down long enough to start pushing. We were sure that she was going to finally deliver, but again, she stood up to take care of baby #1 and ended up delivering baby #2 standing up. The neighbor had to catch it!

It was all amazing and a wonderful way to welcome a new year. I am so grateful to our neighbors for letting a large group of strangers come and watch. None of us had ever seen an animal give birth, so it was special to us all.