Nigoras -- -- Milking and Shearing.

 

Kella is trying to feed the does.  They KNOW what's in that can.

My Nigora does are all in this picture.  They are the blond ones; from the front to back is Mia, 

Gia, and Ginger.

Kella holding Hartleigh (1/4 angora 3/4 nigerian); I found her Monday night about 9pm after coming home from work.  She was cleaned off, her umbilical cord was mostly dry, and very lively but no doe claiming her as their baby.  So with flashlight in hand I started searching back ends and found that Gia was the one that had her.  So I took them to the barn and put them in a pen.  Every time the doe kid would go to find milk Gia would walk away.  Gia is a first time freshner so I guess this is not surprising.  I tried to help her but no go, instead I mixed up some formula and gave that along with some dried colostrum that I'm keeping on hand for births (I don't really know for sure if she had any after birth).  I left her with her mama and went in the house.  A couple hours later I came out to try again, by this time it was midnight, but Gia would have nothing to do with her again.  I decided to go ahead and take her into the house so it would be easier to feed her.  Thus my third bottle baby (too many) this birthing season so far.  My mom is helping with all three of them.

This is Gia on the milk stand and she is the mother to Hartleigh.  I decided since she was in milk I would go ahead and milk her at least once a day.  With my work schedule having some early days getting started before light, that is all I can handle.  So I've milked her for the last two days.  I've gotten 2oz each day.  I'm going to keep a daily journal each day and see how she does.

She also needed shearing...her fiber wasn't wanting to comb or brush out so I decided to get out my hand shears, the ones in the picture, to use instead.

This is Gia sheared, milked, and hooves trimmed.  She kicked a little but over all did fairly well.