So, we’ve been using a mineral bar (20 free choice minerals) with our doe herd for going on three years. I can attest that it has made a HUGE difference (for the good) in our herd. Glossy coats and a marked increased the health of newborn kids: no knuckle dragging or floppy kids since the summer that we started with it.
I’ve always wanted a bar in our buck barn but never figured how. This is our doe mineral bar , which uses 11″ long, black, 2-hole mineral feeders from TSC (10 of them) which is quite a lot of wall space needed. (About 10 feet.)
Recently, I saw a post on a FB group for mineral bar users by Lura Huff who used these reinforced pig feeders (available at Amazon and Walmart).
Each feeder unit has five holes, so you need 4 feeders for a full 20-mineral bar. Here is a picture of Lura’s design. It’s a portable version (which is what I thought I’d do when I ordered them, and may yet do in another buck barn).
It is ingenious because it can be unbolted quickly in order to service the dishes or to move it to another spot on the farm
The trouble was, of course, getting time to make it.
Photo Credit to Lura Huff
As I took inventory of our second barn’s interior space (where we usually house junior does in winter and/or bucks during breeding months, I realized that we had about 8 feet of wall space… enough to easily put all four, five-hole feeders onto one 8-foot 2×4. So, we screwed them on with lug bolts and washers, measured up the same height as our manger openings, and screwed it to the wall.
We have found that when you put the dishes higher and give goats a step up (in this case, cinder blocks) you have less poop in the feeders.
Our supply buckets (5 gallong Home Depot buckets) are in our main bard, about 200 feet away, so we had to think about how we were going to easily re-supply the mineral feeder in this new barn. We came up with using two file boxes (bought at Staples) to keep 12 quart-size mason jars in perfectly.
You only need 8 jars in the second box, but they stay put nicely with 12, so we double up on some of the most-loved minerals in the remaining 4 jars.
We labeled the tops of the jars, and now I only make two trips to refill all the minerals with ease!
This series is not meant to be comprehensive, but I hope that it’s helpful, especially to those facing pregnant mommas with no experience. I wish I had had such a webpage series when I was where you are now!
Part 2 focuses in on the basic steps and signs of normal labors and deliveries, which a vast majority of deliveries are. Part 3 focuses on delivering with more difficult kid positions and gives a few ideas of how to help distressed kids.
I always pray for my animals when they are pregnant, and especially so during delivery. God is very gracious to help our animals and us through deliveries. He loves the animals that He has created (see Numbers 18: 14-17) and redeemed. I have done some of my deepest spiritual growth during stressful labors. Turning to the only One Who can really help is natural to me, and I highly recommend it as a normal practice for you!
Is She OK?
Our does can get SO big and look SO uncomfortable during the last month or weeks of pregnancy. Here is a small gallery of pictures of Candy (two with my barn cam at night) in her last week of pregnancy in 2023. I just feel SO BAD for them, but be reassured, they are fine and those babies will eventually come out.
The thing to watch for most when does are big with multiple kids is their behavior. If they seem listless, low energy, or “walking on eggshells” then suspect pregnancy toxemia and/or ketosis. Read up on these and lay in supplies so that you can detect/treat them!
To detect or confirm these conditions, I buy new each year (because they do expire) Ketone strips. You can find them at any drug store. You hold them in a doe’s pee to detect ketones. We give our girls small amounts of grain, with Vitamin E and red raspberry leaves starting at 3 weeks out from their due dates.
Signs That She’s Getting Ready or in Early Labor
Spoiler Alert: A doe may have none of these signs, or all of them. The Doe Code keeps us guessing!
Taken together, the signs give a pretty good warning that “today’s the day (or night!)” but a doe can fool you.
For grins and giggles, watch THIS VIDEO to give yourself a stress reliever and reality check. Does have their own body clocks, and usually obey Murphy’s Law to the letter! 😉
The Doe Code is real, so find some stress relievers and pace yourself. Try to not stay up all night watching the barn cam from a week before the due date. My husband and I check a doe who’s soon due, watch and watch, every two hours (He wakes up at 2 AM and 6 AM, while I wake up at 12 AM and 4 AM). Thus, we both get 4 hours sleep at a time on those nights when it’s feasible that a doe could deliver, or is overdue and needs watching. Given your resources, choose a pace that’s sustainable for you!
OK: the list of SIGNS. From the earliest indicators to “this is probably IT!” signs.
Check her ligaments. Next to the tail, there are two ligaments (that support tail wagging) which, before delivery, soften and seem to “disappear.” (See more details on the ligs here.) In goat-speak, we talk of a goat’s “ligs being gone.”
Full disclosure: I’ve had does whose ligs go a week or two before delivery. But, for many does, it’s a good indicator that labor is a day or two away — or closer. Remember, it’s just one of the many signs that labor is close at hand.
Look at her udder. Taking pictures every couple of days, starting when they are 2 weeks out or so, can really help newbies to see changes. A doe’s udder starts to be noticable anywhere from 6-8 weeks before due date. BUT, it really grows in the last few weeks, and typically, you can really tell a difference in the udder and teats when labor is 24 hours (or less) away (right picture is 2 days later than left). The udder will be engorged, and the teats will be firm to stiff.
Watch for her mucus plug. This is my most reliable sign. If I see an inch or more of mucus hanging out of her butt, I know that we are going to have babies within the next… oh… 10 hours on the outside, but typically more like 6. 🙂
Signs of Early Labor
Not eating her breakfast. Or, not eating hay, if it’s after breakfast.
If I’m watching a doe through the night on the barn camera, and she’s eating away, I’m thinking she’s not in labor, nor will she be, for the next few hours.
Generally speaking, does kid on an empty rumen, so they don’t tank up right before delivery.
Here’s a free tip: LOAD up does who are near to deliveries on hay in the evenings and you may not have as many night time labors.
Standing off by herself in a way not usual for her.
An “inward look.” She’s not alert to her surroundings. She concentrating on what’s going on inside her.
Mucus is visible on her butt, or even a long stream of mucus as in this picture… six to eight inches long, thick and white or yellowish and more transparent. This doe is well into labor.
Generally, the closer to delivery she is, the more liquid or transparent it will be.
Stretching and moving, looking uncomfortable. Some will lie down and then get up several times.
Biting her sides.
She may want to be licking your hands.
Visible contractions: tensing of muscles, while tail extends straight upward.
Her vulva may look convex (pushed out).
She may paw at the ground.
NOTE: You may have all these signs going, and then they will diminish, and the doe may eat and/or drink. It’s normal. She is taking a break. Typically, labor will start up again after a bit.
You should not think of intervening until the doe has been actively pushing for 30 minutes. The early contractions are lining the kids up inside, and the cervix is opening. The doe must feel the pressure of the first kid to be born pressing on her cervix before she will begin to push him out. If you intervene too soon, you will be trying to pull a kid through a tight cervix, and can do real damage.
In these pictures, Candy is not pushing. She is having heavy contractions and stretching so as to line up her kids, but she is silent.
When the doe is well into labor, you’ll want to start brewing the red raspberry leaf tea. This warm drink given after all the kids are delivered will give her an energy boost and also help her uterus to contract and expel the placenta(s) sooner.
Get a 4 quart pot and a colander that will fit into it.
Put the red raspberry leaves (available on Amazon or other providers) into the colander and turn the water on to medium heat.
Allow the leaves to steep, making tea. Set a stopwatch for about 20 minutes.
After the tea is made, turn down the burner to “warm.” (Make sure it doesn’t boil away…)
Get out your molasses and a large serving spoon. Put them nearby.
Right after the doe is done kidding, you’ll stir in a big dollop of molasses and serve the tea warm (but not hot) to the weary momma.
Pushing and Delivery: Normal or Ideal Presentations.
Normally, after a few hours of contractions, the doe will begin pushing. I’ve only had two does who was soundless in this. Most will give prolonged grunts as they bear down; a few will actually give high-pitched screaming at this stage.
Pushing is different from contractions: you can tell that she is bearing down. You can hear it on a barn cam, so I always leave the sound on at night. I’ve had one birth in particular to which I was only alerted through hearing the doe pushing, since it was mid-morning, and she was out of sight behind a manger, and we had no idea since our last barn check that she was in labor.
The dam may push standing up or lying down. Mine almost always lie down, and almost always wedge their butts into the most uncomfortable (for me) location available. This is one good reason for kidding in the open, and not in a tight kidding stall. It gives us humans more room to maneuver around the doe.
Pushing is the stage when you will begin to see the kid. Below are details of what you’ll hope to see and do …
Focus on the dam…
Each normal, live kid is encased in an amniotic sack, filled with fluid. This sack can look white or yellowish, and is translucent. As the kid begins to be pushed out of the doe, you’ll see a “bubble” — it’s the tip end of this sack.
There aretwo ideal (or normal) presentations: two feet and head first, or two hind feet first. Both of these are “normal” or “ideal” presentations. See these diagrams. (We will discuss abnormal presentations in Part 3.)
If you have a bright light (such as a flashlight or cell phone light) you can look into the bubble, and hope to see two hooves encased in a protective, white casing. Ideally, there’s a nose there, too. Often you can see teeth and a tongue.
Sometimes, the sack will burst as the doe pushes the baby out. This is normal. If it does, and the kid is nose first, you can wipe its face and nose with your towel, as it may start to gasp and breath before it’s fully born, or not.
Typically, after the head and shoulders are out, in a normal delivery, the rest of the kid slides out and onto the floor.
Ideally, you are waiting with a towel (or feed sack) placed right near the scene of the action. You should wipe the kid’s head with a towel first, clearing its nasal passages (carefully — they are delicate) and throat if needed with the bulb aspirator.
After the kid is breathing well, which should be within 30 seconds, put the kid in front of the doe so that she will lick it and smell it.
This is VERY important.She needs to bond with her baby, and should eagerly lick it. You can assist with drying, but do not get in her way, especially if she’s a first freshener. Such new dams might not know to do this. Present the baby to the doe, and if she’s uncertain, back away and see whether she will start to lick it on her own.
If it’s not cold in the barn, you don’t have to assist with drying at all.
In most cases, there will be about 15-20 minutes between kids. It can go longer, or shorter. Sometimes multiple kids can come fast: one after the other. During the interval, it is a great idea to get each kid nursing if possible. (See details below)
Bumping her: If you think the doe may be done delivering kids, you can try a little test to see if there are any kids left inside her. If she is standing up, stand behind her butt and reach around her belly and lace your fingers together. Then pull up on the belly and then let it drop again into your hands. (This is not a big motion, but it is quick. Be gentle, but firm.) If there are kids left, you can typically feel sharp hooves or bony butts bumping against your hands.
When she is finished delivering kids, you will want to give her the red raspberry tea with molasses as an energy boost and to help the uterus contract to expel the placenta(s). (If the tea is too hot, cool it by adding some cold water.) Most of mine gratefully suck down nearly a gallon of the stuff.
Also focus on the Kids…
As each kid is born, it will need to breathe freely first, and then quickly be presented to the dam for cleaning, sniffing, and bonding. Additionally, you need to be concerned with each kid’s temperature and note their sucking reflexes.
Healthy kids will emerge with open eyes and a perfect mouth. They are miracles on hooves, ready to stand and eat within 5-10 minutes of birth.
They will be slick and wet from birth fluids.
As the dam licks them, she is drying and stimulating (and thus warming) them. However, if the barn temperatures are cold… under 40° or so… the wet kid can get chilled.
If your barn is cold, help to dry the kid with a towel and, if the kid is “floppy” — i.e. not attempting to get up to nurse — put your finger in its mouth. If it is cool to the touch, then you need to warm the kid.
We use a styrofoam cooler and a hair dryer. Put the kid into the cooler; turn the hair dryer on a low but warm setting, and then put a towel over the cooler. Be careful not to burn the kid, but fill the cooler with warm air from the hair dryer. Typically, this only takes 5-10 minutes. If this is the kid’s issue, it will brighten considerably and start looking to nurse your hands and/or to stand up. Take it back to its mother and help it to nurse, as described below.
As you are helping to dry a healthy kid with a towel, don’t be too gentle. Friction on its skin will stimulate and warm it.
As the kid warms, it should attempt to get on its feet. Because it is using its ligaments and muscles for the first time, it will usually take many tries for the kid to be on his feet, and some only seem to know how to go in “reverse.”
You can assist with this process, maybe by untangling limbs and making sure that the surface under the kid gives him good footing, but also do let the kid struggle to right himself. This is how his muscles strengthen.
IDEALLY, each kid should get some colostrum in him within 30 minutes of being born, the sooner the better. It is vital that the kid be warm, or he will neither seek the teat nor be able to digest the colostrum.
If the kid is warm and active, it will start searching for the dam’s teat. She will nuzzle her dam’s side and bump her head on her dam’s belly (or your hands). She may go the wrong way, nuzzling along the dam’s chest or ear.
If it’s been about 15 minutes and no active pushing is going on, urge the doe to stand so that the firstborn can nurse. (Nursing will stimulate uterine contractions!)
You can pick the kid up and bring her to the teat. Don’t try pushing her butt or her head towards the teat, as her instinct will be to push back. The kid has eyes; you can put her in front of the teat, and then bend the teat towards her mouth. Her God-given reflex will be to “latch on” and suck vigorously.
If the kid just “sips” at the teat, that’s OK for a first try, but attempt to get the kid back to the teat in a very short while. You want to see vigorous, prolonged suckling as soon as can be.
Take a break from trying to get kids to nurse if the doe starts to deliver another kid. Make sure that the first one is safe from being sat or stepped on, and then give your attention to the delivery of the next kid.
As soon as you can, dip each kid’s umbilical cord in iodine.
The Clean Out
Typically, after the last kid is born, there will be long, stringy, bloody tissue hanging out of the doe’s vulva.
Do not touch it! Between one and twenty-four hours later, the placenta(s) will emerge on its own.
Most of my does have birthed their placenta(s) within 2-4 hours, but it’s not unsafe in goats for it to take up to five days to deliver placentas, especially if there are birth complications (see Part 3).
Again, NEVER pull on the tissue that is hanging out of the vulva. You want the placenta(s) to disengage naturally.
Did you notice that (s) on the end of “placenta”? Yup. Sometimes there are two.
A goat’s uterus is pronged: it has two “horns” in which kids can be lodged. In some cases, each of these “horns” can have its own placenta.
VERY rarely, you can have a kid or two born, and then a placenta, and then another kid (or two). This has only happened only a few times to me.
It’s the time of year when many of us are expecting goat kids, so I thought I’d put together a primer for newbies. I make no claims to be an expert, but am just trying to share how we do things, and offer a few lists and tips. This turned into a three-part series.
I so remember my first kidding season. We bought two pregnant does to start our herd, and our very first kid got stuck in her mom. When we finally got her out, she had stopped breathing. My husband, Scott, gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation for over half an hour.
When we called to say that we wouldn’t be making it to our Care Group, our pastor, who had raised sheep all his life, advised us to put this kid into a styrofoam box with a hair dryer blowing on her to warm her up.
She finally made it through all this! Her name is JC’s Bluebelle 3*P, and she’s been one of our best dams ever since. Here are Scott and Bluebelle, days after the birth.
As we are starting our fifth kidding season, I thought I would share some basic information for those who are just starting out. Many have written much more comprehensive articles on this subject (and books). I’m not an expert by any means! But I have had preemie kids (who we lost) and tangled kids, most of whom we’ve pulled through, but not all. Birth is a scary business, and all the more so when you are just starting out. My prayer as I write is that this will help someone to have more confidence, and/or knowledge, as they enter their first kidding season.
Prenatal Care of Expectant Dams
We have a chart that I create each year. The information here is then also transferred to my day timer calendar.
A picture of this chart goes onto our cell phones for easy reference in the barn, but it’s also helpful to me to have it where it can be cross checked and a reminder in the day timer.
For each doe, here is our care list, counted back from a due date that is figured at 150 days from breeding.
5 weeks before delivery: BOSe shot (Vitamin E and selenium shot: read more here)
4 weeks before delivery: CD&T shot (this will cover kids from tetanus during disbudding)
3 weeks before delivery:
Start feeding a handful of grain 1X/day to get the rumen ready for bigger feedings immediately post partum. In this grain, we put one Vitamin E liquid capsule (cut open) and a small handful of red raspberry leaves. The grain gradually increases to about 1 cup/day until delivery. We find that we’ve never had pregnancy toxemia using this protocol.
We also start pregnant dams on alfalfa hay around this time. Since we have 20+ does kidding, this is not as strictly controlled, since they all eat together. We usually house about 10-15 of the does nearest delivery together, and feed one bale of alfalfa to all each morning, then feed high quality grass hay through the day.
2 weeks before delivery: another BOSe shot
One more note about prenatal care: For our first 2.5 years of kidding we used various brands of loose, all-in-one, goat minerals. In our first kidding season, we frequently saw kids with weak front legs, or kids who “walked on their knuckles” — really, their pasterns. Both of these conditions required splinting.
In our third season, we switched to a free-choice mineral bar. We have seen a marked change ever since. We have had extremely healthy, vigorous kids ever since, and not one has needed splinting, or walked on their pasterns. Additionally, our does have had glossier coats and brighter eyes overall.
Getting Ready for Kids
When I was starting, I spent an entire day searching out and watching every single goat birth video on YouTube or blogs. It really DID help. I saw normal birth after normal birth. Some videos showed tips and tricks that helped. Almost none of them showed troubled births because, well, if things are going awry, there’s not always the desire or attention to give to capturing events on film.
I also gathered supplies specific to kidding. I gathered far more than I needed, so this list is in order of things that we really use almost every time, down to things we are sure glad to have when we need them!
Equipment for Normal Deliveries
Barn Cameras: Top of my list. Saves us so much sleep and so many steps. I wrote a whole blog post on ours, and you can search to find tons of articles on various systems, from baby monitors to security cameras. Do it! (You can thank me later!)
Towels. We use 4-6 bath towels, and 1-2 hand towels per birth. We wash them afterwards, and use them each year. We keep them in a tote from year to year, and just pull it out with the first kids.
Hand Sanitizer, or better, soap and hot water, for sanitizing hands before you go inside a goat. Put it in a bucket and have it handy as the goat goes into serious labor.
KY Jelly: Lubricant to be used AFTER cleansing hands, or with gloves.
Bulb syringe (also called a nose sucker) to help clear mucus from nostrils and throats of baby goats.
Gloves (throw away, latex or other kind). I don’t always use gloves, as in hairy situations they can impair my grip on tangled kids. I soap up and go in without them. But, we always give LA200 antibiotics to does whom I have had to enter deeply, regardless of whether or not I was wearing gloves.
Iodine: because you need to dip the kids’ cords in iodine as quickly after birth as is practical. Find a container about 1″ deep with a lid and use the same 1/2 cup full for the season.
Scissors: for cutting a cord. Mostly never used.
Supplements
Red raspberry leaves and molasses: to make a post partum tea for does. The sugar restores their energy and the raspberry leaves help the uterus to contract and expel the placenta. Put the leaves into a colander and thence into hot water in a pot to brew the tea while the goat is in advanced labor.
When she finishes, serve it warm with a big dollop of molasses stirred in. Most of them LOVE this brew!
Herbal calcium drops: Can help does during long labors or pushing sessions with added calcium. It helps the uterus to contract. I administer two dropperfuls at 30-minute intervals during protracted labor.
Helps for Distressed Dams/Kids
Styrofoam cooler: About 12″ x 18″ inside. This is used with a hair dryer to warm up chilled kids. (See Part 2)
LA 200 antibiotic: (see above). It’s available at feed stores. Also check your supply of syringes and needles. We have syringes in 1 ml, 3 ml, 6 ml, and 10 ml sizes, and needles from 1/2″ 20 gauge to 1″ 20, 16 and 18 gauge.
Colostrum substitute (or frozen colostrum cubes from last year’s kidding) in case the mom doesn’t make it, or rejects a newborn. Buy fresh from year to year.
Thermometer: rectal type.
Normal temperature is 102° F.
Newborns need to have temps above 100°F to digest colostrum. If a kid is cold (feel mouth to see, or take temp) you must warm them before feeding (whether they nurse from dams or are tube fed.)
Winter kids sometimes get pneumonia, or hypothermia. Read up about distressed goat kids so you can recognize the signs.
Feeding tube: This has two uses.
One is for tube feeding distressed kids, but I use the apparatus far more often for helping very small or weak kids with constipation issues. See Part 3 for more on this.
Again, YouTube videos on tube feeding are a great resource. If you’re new to kidding, watch some while you are waiting for your babies to arrive! It’s easier than you think, but also very scary. You CAN do it, if you have to!
Kidding Stalls or Bonding Pens
Whether or not your doe delivers among her friends in the general population or in a kidding stall is personal preference. We have tried it both ways, and we prefer kidding out in the general pop area (where clean up is easy and goats may be less stressed) and then transfer to a clean, waiting bonding pen with a kid-warming hut, water and minerals, and fresh hay waiting for mom and babies.
There are articles on this website about various pop-up bonding pens/kidding stalls (we are fans of movable, modular goat enclosures) and kid-warming huts made of 50 gallon barrels equipped with heating pads under and heat lamps over. You may need HD (heavy duty) extension cords to supply hair dryers, heat lamps and/or heating pads with power.
NOTE: We NEVER, EVER leave the heat lamps on when we are not IN the barn. Too many animals and barns have been lost to heat lamp accidents. That said, heat lamps do warm up the hut initially and help newborns to dry off. Since we spend the night in the barn during cold weather (on cots in our heated milking parlor) in order to check on newborns through their first night, we do use the lamps. But, we never leave them on if we’re not there.
In winter, it’s nice to have hot pots (if you don’t have hot running water) in the barn. Does really appreciate warmed water on cold mornings with their alfalfa! Keeping them hydrated (particularly if they are nursing) is very important, and we find that they will readily drink down warmed water quicker than ice water.
We have a newer barn, and it has a heated milking parlor. (Yes, I know how blessed I am!)
The floor of the milking parlor is washable vinyl planking, so it’s pretty slippery for newborns, compared to a barn floor with hay spread. We find this heated room invaluable for warming kids when the barn temperatures are in the low 30°s. As soon as all the kids are born, we bring the doe and kids into this room. At our leisure, they are warmed, dried off, and fed. We then cool the room down slowly, and put the doe and her kids into the bonding pen, with the kids in their warming hut.
Last year, we bought a piece of inexpensive indoor / outdoor carpeting from Home Depot that we put down for good footing for kids in our milk room. This carpet gets used year after year.
The doe can deliver her placenta here, pee here, or poo here. It’s all good. We wash it off with a hose, or vacuum it with our shop vac, and it’s good to go again.
