This morning as the "girls" gathered 'round their feed pans, Avalon was a noticeable absence. She's the only nanny on the place that hadn't yet kidded and it's certainly not like her to miss feeding time. I went ahead and made my morning rounds.
Let me share a little something about critters. For the most part, they are much more independent than we humans like to think. I knew if she was in distress she'd bleat, and all was quiet on the homestead, except the usual arguments over feed pans.
I peeked in each little shed as I made my rounds but all were empty until I looked into last year's garden pen. There was Avalon still licking her little twins. Everyone was fine, so I finished up the chores and headed in with a nice flake of orchard grass hay. One twin was obviously more adapted to her new surroundings. I dried the other one a bit and nudged it toward "the food supply." Again, I don't intervene unless there appears to be a problem. Upon checking a bit later, I realized one twin had a system. She found the teat first, then when little sister showed up, she'd move over to the other one and the little one wouldn't get much. Baby goats can drain the mom in record time!
This same thing happened some years back, but I was pretty new to the homesteading gig then. The mama didn't reject either baby, she just didn't coordinate the feeding plan. so I bottle fed the smaller one twice a day, but left them both on mama. As soon as I'd return her to the pen, she'd go right for mama, so then I realized I'd need to make sure the more aggressive one didn't drain mama, when I brought the little one in. That resulted in twins in the house every morning and evening for weeks, feeding one and making the other one wait.
I'm smarter now. Today when I saw this taking place, knowing the larger more aggressive one had just eaten, I brought her in for a nap in my office.
The littler one stayed with mama for her undivided attention and the next round of milk. It's worked
beautifully today, and this evening both little babies were one on each side with tails happily flagging.
