So Proud of My Little Girl

I am so proud of what I hope is the last bottle baby this year. I've been bottle feeding goats since February and I am so over it! Little Ms. Coral was born about six weeks ago, she is the last baby of our prized herd sire, Big Red, who passed away in March. Coral was a twin, but for some reason her mother didn't want to take care of her babies and I lost the other kid. Their dam cleaned them up after she had them, but left them and wouldn't have anything else to do with them. I moved the family to the barn and held the mother so the kids could get colostrum, then I started them on a bottle. Their mother kept them clean, let them sleep with her, and did everything a good mother should do except let them nurse. I've always heard that a mother animal knows when something is wrong with her kids and won't take care of them, but I was certain these two girls were healthy. Unfortunately I was wrong about the paint doeling, she had a seizure while I was feeding her one night, she came out of it, finished her bottle and seemed fine, but the next morning she was dead.

Now, back to why I'm proud of Coral...for the past two weeks I've been trying to get her interested in grain. She never tried to eat with her mother, I have them together in the barn, but I still bottle feed, so I wasn't sure how I was going to get her to start eating. Everyday I would pry her mouth open and put a little grain in and she would spit most of it out like I was trying to poison her or something, but today my work paid off!!! I always let her roam around outside while I'm feeding my mare and colt and her mother. She likes to explore, chase the kittens, and pick a little grass. Today I left the lid of the feed barrel and when I came out of the barn, there was Coral chowing down!!! I was so happy I nearly jumped for joy!!! The teenage boy that I hired to help me was watching her so he thought he would be helpful and went and got her a scoop of feed out, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. She went right back and started eating out of the barrel. Apparently it's HER WAY OR NO WAY!!! Guess that's just the way we red heads are.