I didn't plan to write about Zelda for my next blog post, but we had a bit of a moment this afternoon and I wanted to write about her. Zelda is a very special little doe. I am so very very proud of the transformation she has made in the six months since I rescued her. She began as an emaciated, completely wild and very distrustful little soul. I had to keep her in a very small pen in my backyard initially because I knew if I turned her out into the ten acre paddock I would never have seen her again. I had to chase her in behind a gate to catch her for handling. There have been a lot of trials, tribulations and tears. A lot of frustration and swearing and threats of "freezer camp". But my goodness it has been worth it and just look at her now. It makes my heart sing to see how she has blossomed into a beautiful fat, shiny and soft coated doe. She has a beautiful udder and is easily the best milker of all my does. She has become so trusting; she now answers to her name and comes out of the paddock to the milk stand when i ask. She is the most beautifully behaved of all my goats when it comes to foot trimming time. And look at this photo from today - she is voluntarily walking up to me in the big paddock and sniffing my face to say hello. She still has many funny idiosyncracies and behavioural 'hiccups' but she is super intelligent and she ALWAYS tried her heart out for me. She is always asking me what i would like her to do next. I just love this doe and i am so very very proud of how far she has come.
Zelda in September 2013 on day 1 after being rescued from a gumtree ad. She was so emaciated that I could see and feel her kidneys. Her abdominal walls were touching as she had such little gutfill. I have never seen such an emaciated goat. She did not understand what hay was, though she loved the green grass and she understood what grain was. I believe her former owners were simply ignorant, not intentionally neglectful. She was being fed a good Lucerne and grain mix, just not enough. Their other goats were well conditioned and healthy, but they were Toggenburgs which are slightly smaller goats and require less feed. A big framed, heavy milking Saanen doe like this requires quite a bit of grain to keep her body condition while milking.
Zelda, two weeks after rescue, tied out on the front lawn to eat some grass. By this stage she has learned how to eat hay, is eating her chaff and grain mix well and has started on "Fibrebeet" - which is shredded beet pulp and Lucerne, compressed into a pellet which you then soak in warm water before feeding. "Speedibeet" is a similar product but just the beet pulp without the Lucerne. I find both products are fantastic for underweight goats, although some do not like eating wet feed. At this point Zelda was still very wild and difficult to handle, although starting to learn to walk on a lead. I still needed to catch her by running her up behind a gate. I couldn't catch her even with food.
Zelda at the end of November 2013 after giving birth to a gorgeous little polled buck kid. When I rescued her I had my suspicions that she was in kid, as the previous owner was running a buck with the does all the time. Again, I think it was simple ignorance. Running a buck with your does full time is not an ideal husbandry practice as the does will be mated back-to-back and will always be either pregnant or lactating - they never get a break. This wears the doe out very quickly, she will struggle to keep her body condition, her milk yield, fertility and fecundity will suffer and her overall life span will be reduced. When this little guy arrived, and I worked out the dates from when the previous owners said she last kidded, it means she was mated 1 month after her previous kidding. Usually you would re-breed does around 7 months after their last kidding. You can see in this photo Zelda has put on so much weight, her rumen is really healthy and full - that's why she still looks very pregnant even though there are no more kids in there. She also freshened (kidded) with a beautiful productive udder. By this stage we had come to an agreement - she would allow herself to be handled as long as she was fed plenty of carrots. Catching her in the paddock was still an interesting affair, involving holding a piece of carrot in my hand just behind a loop of rope, so as she reached forward I could slip the rope over her neck.
Zelda, January 2014. She is a completely different doe, and she is an absolute stunner. Beautifully conditioned, long and deep body with a lovely dairy wedge. Strongly attached udder and easily my best milker. She was doing up to 7.5L and hadn't even reached her peak when I decided to slow her down and start to dry her off. I decided to do this because of how rough her life has been to this point, I am guessing she has never had a break in her life since she first kidded down (and I wouldn't be surprised if she kidded down at a year old instead of 2 years old as I prefer). Although I am keen to see just what she can do in a lactation, for her health and welfare she needs to concentrate on her body condition now instead of putting it all into the milk bucket. She is still doing about 3L a day for me, which is a nice moderate amount for our milk and dairy needs while not being too much of a strain on her body's nutritional demands. She has beautiful sweet creamy milk, and she has such a strong will to milk I doubt I will be able to dry her off any time soon. By now I dont need to use food rewards to catch her, she will not walk up to me but she will usually tolerate me walking over to her and putting a collar on to lead her up for milking.