Best-dressed goat
Never in my life have I
spent as much time on personal daily hygiene as I've spent lately
grooming our pregnant goat. My goal isn't really to make her look
pretty, though. Instead, I 
have a couple of more constructive points on my daily agenda.
The first is to keep
myself occupied while Artemesia eats her morning and evening ration at a
snail's pace. I realized a few weeks ago that Abigail was getting the
lion's share of Artie's food (as well as all of her own) since our
horned goat eats at lightning speed then bullies our smaller, hornless
goat away from the rest of her dinner. So now I lock Abigail out of the
goat shed while Artemesia nibbles on her alfalfa pellets and roots.
And even though it sometimes seems like a long time to wait on a busy
morning, I'm actually glad Artie is a slow eater. That trait means I
won't have to overfeed the doe just to keep her occupied while milking
the way I did with Abigail.
So I brush our goat to
keep myself from getting bored while Artie eats, right? Well, not
entirely. I'm also trying to get her used to being touched all over long
before the kid(s) arrive. I have a feeling that if I'd done this with
Abigail, it wouldn't have been such a hassle (especially at first) to drawn down her milk.
Of course, Artemesia is
much more malleable and people-oriented than her herd mate already. But
even she flinched and tried to tuck her hindquarters the first few times
I gently felt at her expanding udder. After a couple of weeks of
personal attention, though, she's still not entirely thrilled at being
felt up but she accepts it as a necessary part of eating her 
daily carrots.
While I'm messing around
down there, I also press up gently on Artemesia's belly. About 90% of
the time, Aurora (or her brother) kicks back. I have a feeling that if I
was more experienced, I'd be able to guess how many kids are in there
using this push test, but I can never seem to remember exactly where the
last kick happened well enough to know if more than one kid is nudging
its mother's insides.
If I run out of goat to
brush and prod, I move on to giving our darling a pedicure. I'm very
glad to see that her hooves are suddenly growing a rate more
commensurate with her food intake --- a good sign that the wormer
might have licked her parasite problem. The insides of her eyelids
might also be getting a little pinker, but that's harder to tell since
my camera tends to misread colors in closeups of Artie's dark face.
As you can tell, though,
I'm not entirely teaching our first freshener good habits. Once she's
done with the food in the stanchion, she moves on to licking out the
bowl. Oh well --- a beloved goat needs to be at least a little bit
spoiled, right?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Julie --- Yeah, I'm unfortunately aware of that. Abigail's already been getting meaner to Artemesia --- not sure if it's because of the extra attention and food we're showering on the expectant mother, or just the fact that Artie doesn't want to play as much. Either way, we've decided to keep one of Artemesia's kids (a girl or a wethered boy) and move Abigail to a new home as soon as the kids are born. I think we've got a taker, but if not I'll be posting on the blog soon asking if anyone wants a cheap goat.
Mark's actually inclined to move Abigail on before the kids are born, but I feel like Artemesia would be too lonely. What do you think? Is a mean herd mate better or worse than no herd mate?
Anna, I think you're wise to line up a new home ahead of time, but I wouldn't have her leave until after Artemsia delivers. I'm sure you'll be right on hand to separate them, and no sense stressing her out beforehand. A lone goat is not a happy camper.
I am doing exactly the same with my Mary... and for the last week have definitely felt baby movement in there! She is getting less reactive to all the brushing and belly/teat touching.... and jumps right up on the stand waiting for her goodies.
And.... one of my little wethers is bullying her also. It will be harder to place an unregistered wether than a doe like your Abigail, so i really hope we can work it out.