Baby feeding woes

So Darcy's been being a butt-head about not wanting to feed her babies enough (Symbol's been a champ). I bottle fed them for a couple of days, before calling out the cavalry, Janet Cooper, aka Darcy's breeder. Janet showed me how to hold her still so the babies can get what they really need, Mom's milk. I hate to do it to her, but I hate to have starving babies even more.

New arrivals

We've had an eventful few days around here, but I guess I should start at the beginning. This summer, we bought a Nubian buck, Jesus.

We sold him recently, since I didn't want him around to taint the milk, but Jesus left us some little blessings, kids who were born this Sunday and Monday.

Darcy, our 3/4 Nubian, had her babies Saturday night or Sunday morning. Anyway, we went out Sunday morning and there they were. I learned my lesson from that and checked Symbol all through Sunday night. Here are some pics of Darcy and her kids.

They seemed reluctant to waste their first day sleeping, but they had a really hard time staying awake. I've named the girl (left) Maria, and the boy on the right Pedro. Does Maria remind you of anyone?

The third kid I named Pedro. This is Darcy and her babies this morning.

Monday morning, Symbol obligingly went into labor when I was outside checking her the first time after it got light. Monday morning was cold. Regardless, I managed to get some good photos of the births in progress.

This is kid #1's front feet. I haven't named Symbol's kids, because I feel like they're less likely to become pet wethers than Darcy's kids. She kept trying to clean Darcy's kids throughout the process.

Symbol cleaning kid #1. I had to keep dragging her back over to him from where she was trying to mother Darcy's kids.

While kid #1 was reaching for his first meal, kid#2 was already on the way. He was breech, but he came out much more quickly than his brother.

Symbol cleaning kid #2. She got him about that clean, then I grabbed a towel while she tried to clean Darcy's day-old kids.

Reaching for their first meal.

Symbol's kids, 2 days old.