First of all, I was thankful I had this comparison picture from this past March.
Anna and the girls were enjoying some unseasonally warm spring weather. The girls still have their heavy winter coats on, but are looking almost svelte otherwise!
Fast forward to last week! Now I suppose their size could be chalked up to enjoying too much alfalfa...
But a back-end picture puts it into perspective a bit better!
Pardon the unflattering rear shot (don't tell the girls I posted this...they would be so embarassed)! People will often ask if a goat is pregnant simply because sometimes they just seem so, well, w-i-d-e. But what they are most often mistaking is a full rumen. A goats' stomach system is on their left side. If they have been eating recently, their left sides can bulge-quite a bit, even! But if you look at Butterscotch here, her right side is also rotund, and is actually almost angular! And Sally is just a little barrel on legs! She doesn't have the protruding look that Butter has, but she is also due a month after Butter. They say that there is really no way to tell if a goat is pregnant just by looking at them...but I'm pretty convinced. And unless I totally missed it, I'm fairly certain they never went back into heat-for over a month I took them up to visit Pete, and they were not interested AT ALL!
Now about due dates. A goats' average gestational period is 150 days. I've heard of as few as 142, but never on a first freshener. Some will go even to 154 days. (Any of my goat-world friends reading this, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this)!
My family has been wondering about plans for celebrating Christmas together, and I kept saying I had to check when Butter is expected to kid, as I didn't want to be away when she's due. So I finally checked the calendar in the barn, where I record all this stuff, and counted 150 days from the first time I bred her to Stinky Pete. Guess when she's expected to kid?
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!
3 comments:
we used to have goats (pygmies and regular) on our little farm growing up...that is funny that she is due on Christmas!! i remember my dad dragging me out of bed as a teenager to see some baby goats being born...i was not amused at that age :) but now it would be pretty fascinating. baby goats are the cutest!!
ROFL...relating oh too well to the "not interested at all" during the end of pregnancy. Poor Pete!
I'm so glad to have 'discovered' your blog...I'm going to go poke around some! Kim
Well I'll be leaving for NY soon after Christmas, so she better make sure she's on time, cause I'd like to be the "honorary aunt" on hand for the birth ;)
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