But to the one watching his every move, there is definitely a difference, the primary one being the reaction of his mother to him (vs. the reaction of the other mamas to their babies).
For those new to this scene here are a few things to know about goats:
1) Goat babies come out rather quickly. (They birth in 60 - 90 minutes once the process begins.) Once out, the mother starts cleaning; once dry, they are good to go. They'll usually wobble during the licking process, inching their way instinctively towards the milk supply. By the time they're dry, they're walking and by day two, they're hopping. It truly is amazing. Unlike with puppies or kittens, you don't have to wait 10 days for their eyes to open. They come out bright-eyed and bushy tailed and pretty much wind up toys from the get-go, which is just one more reason to love goats.
2) Things like nursing come naturally. They have to punch their mama's udder to get the flow going (as a calf would do). In other words, they don't need me to point things out (another reason Whiskey caught my attention; he kept punching at the wrong end of his mom; fortunately, he's since figured it out).
3) Mama goats know their own (which is a good thing since a half dozen of these babies are identical in markings.) While I'm starting to recognize them by personality, to the naked eye most you can't tell apart. The sweetest trait, which I've spoken to before, is how they pair up at night, each little family sleeping in its own cluster. Whenever I need to know for certain which baby goes with which mama, I just wait till bedtime when they make it easy for me.
To that same end, when I need to identify someone in a one on one situation (as was the case last week when selling a couple of mamas with their babies, (definitely don't want to send the wrong duo out together as normally a goat will only nurse her own, though I have had one exception*) --all you have to do is put two babies in with one mama and (assuming one of them is hers) she'll let you know by nudging the other away. (A little quick test, which we do several times before letting anyone leave the premises for a new farm.)
Meanwhile, it is the nature of the mama to get her baby here, lick 'em clean and teach them the routine, then get back to her normal way of life. Sure she's around for when they need milk, but she doesn't coddle; when there's chow or hay or any of the other things that make for a nanny's favorite part of the day, babies can wait. While herd animals, goats are independent thinkers and they are VERY smart. Come chow time, the mamas all rush to troughs and food bowls with little concern for their babies well being until they get theirs, after all, they've been with them all night and if they don't eat, the babies don't eat. They'll get back to them once they've eaten. But nobody puts baby over food come breakfast time, except for Callie.
Day 4 and Callie still stays behind when I hit the door with that all too familiar food bucket. (And trust me; Callie loves to eat, she just loves her baby more.) So now we have a new routine. All the others do their usual dance of racing to troughs, jumping on spools, checking out their bowls and butting around to spot check each others' bowls. Meanwhile, Callie stands at the barn door and cries. Then slowly she'll walk towards the troughs, but not without making sure her baby is following, meanwhile "whinnying" the whole way, (i.e. making a sound like a horse). To watch little Whiskey following you'd suspect no problem. (And nothing would thrill me more than to think he could see.) But the break in the pattern (both for the mother and for the baby) suggests to me that for Whiskey, we're just going to have to take a little more time and for Callie, we're just going to have to give her her own feeding ritual, after all, blind baby or no, she gets the prize for being the world's greatest mama ~ (And I've seen some really good mamas.)
*Note: the exception I reference regarding the nanny that allowed another goat's baby to nurse came year one when little Rachel lost a baby to a mis-matched breeding that happened before I bought her. (Size of mamas to papas matters. PLEASE folks, never fence pygmies with larger breeds.) The ending was horrific, but we were able to save the mother (Rachel) who was so distraught she wandered for days crying for the baby that did not survive. Two days later, her sister (Donner) had twins and once done drying them, nudged one over to Rachel to nurse...Again, not a normal thing to have happen with goats...Then again, nothing about this experience has been normal. (We gave that up years ago.)
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