This year, our herd matriarch, Willow, who is a fourth freshener, had quintuplets. I have been keeping goats on our farm, for the last four years. We got Willow and Clarity, with Willow being bred. She has delivered twins every kidding but this year.
It all started when I found her limping, closing in on her last 4 weeks of pregnancy. Now normally I supplement the girls with tums, the last 4 weeks of their pregnancy, to make sure they have enough to keep the kids healthy, and don't have to draw on their bones for stores of it. Upon doing some research, found out Nubians are prone to calcium deficiency in late pregnancy, and will start limping. So right away I quadrupled her Tums, and she started feeling much better. Even after speaking with the vet, who had never heard of this and recommended I don't do it, I kept it up. I am SO glad I did, as when kidding time came, my sweet Willow delivered 5 happy and healthy babies. There were 3 boys and 2 girls, and all of them survived being born, and are shining examples of the breed. (Don't worry, it looks like one of them is dead in the picture, but I can assure you, she is very lively and awesome!!) Every four hours, I went out and supplemented 3 of the kids with a bottle and some milked colostrum, then milk as they got a bit bigger.
I was lucky enough to find a home for 2 of the boys as bottle baby wethers, so that they had the best chance of survival. They were named after Firefly characters, we had Malcolm, River and Zoe and the next baby born on the farm was Preacher. We have retained Malcolm for breeding, and Zoe went to a new home, with River still here with mommy and family. I still feel like Mini Nubians are the best goats ever, and you get a ton of milk!! We are at almost 3 gallons a day, with 4 does in milk, 2 of them being first fresheners!!
