(Mina with Goneril and Cordelia - Regan is on the other side of her out of sight)
No-drama Obama has nothing on No-drama Mina, who calmly gave us triplet doelings last night with no muss or fuss. Yes, that's three little girls from her over-achieverness. And she politely waited until we were done with dinner, and by the time we realized she was in labor, she had delivered three goats and had them all up and nursing. All in all, an incredibly auspicious beginning to our kidding season and just one more reminder of Mina's basic awesomeness.
As you may remember, every season's kids get a name theme, partly because it is fun, partly to remind us what year they were born in. So far we've done Flowers and Herbs, Greek Mythology, Liquors and others - this year, as you may be able to guess from the baby's names, the spring kids will all be from Shakespeare (I'm hoping for a buckling named Sir Toby Belch myself ;-)). The summer babies will have dessert names (the kids are hoping for twins they can name "Trifle" and "Truffle.")
Babies are up and doing great, Mom is, of course providing ample milk, and life is good. Now it is really spring!
Regan and Goneril are almost identical, but Regan has moonspots on her side.
And Goneril has a bigger blaze on her forehead.
While Cordelia, as is fitting, is a little different looking. The cuteness is the same, though.
The happy family!
Sharon
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Oh, the cuteness! I want - I want NOW! (I suspect Bast wouldn't mind, either)
Who's their father, Sharon?
So cute!!
What a great mama. Yay Mina!
Triplet girls?! How lucky are you?
They are Wiggy boys - hopefully he'll pass on those beautiful udders and attachments that come with his genetics (his daughter Arava has the nicest teats and udder attachments I've ever seen on an ND).
Olympia, I know, isn't it amazing. I'm hoping this year compensates in some measure for last year when we had 2xs as many boys as girls.
Sharon
Sharon- It IS amazing.
I'm sure you've told us numerous times before, but do you care to share one more time what breed your goats are? And are healthy triplets common with said breed? When I was a kid, my parents raised Neubian goats, none of whom could produce a full set of living triplets :(, although they gave birth to three at a time pretty often. They kept having boys, too. :(
They are Nigerian Dwarf goats, and they are somewhat famous for having multiples - I have friends who have had sets of quads and quints. We've never had more than triplets at a time. This is our fifth set of triplets in three years - but our first set of all female trips. We did lose one triplet last year - Mom was a first freshener and I wasn't home, and I think what happened is that she didn't realize she'd given birth to three, so never licked the last one and it never breathed. Otherwise, they've all done fine - and we had a first freshener with enough milk for triplets and some for the pail!
Twins are much more the norm - I actually think that singles are the hardest thing for these goats, because they tend to be a big bigger (kidding problems are uncommon, but the only time we've had them has been with large singletons) and also because they tend to favor one side when nursing which can mean engorgement early on.
So far in 20 kiddings over three years we've had 10 sets of twins, 5 singles and 5 triplet sets. So we've averaged 2 kids per kidding, and twins are the norm, with singles and triplets about equally likely.
In terms of kid losses at or shortly after birth, we've lost one triplet and one twin.
Hmmmm...interesting to see it all laid out like that. Thanks for asking!
Sharon
Sharon, sounds like an awesome track record- such sturdy little animals! And they are, of course, quite mind-blowingly cute- but you knew that.
Put simply, sustainability issues have brought a more focussed & honourable reason to my scientific career.
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