We at the Rawhide Ranch EZ Stock Farm are pleased to introduce you to our newest additions!
Meet 8-year-old Cassie’s baby boy, the last of our winter babies, born February 21. We’ll find the perfect name once we get to know him a little better. For now, he’s enjoying being an only child!
We also managed to snap a picture of Meredith’s little boy, McDreamy. Handsome, isn’t he? Now he can share the photographic limelight with his sisters, Lexie and Christina, pictured in our last baby blog.
We’ll have lots more births through the end of spring, and even some early summer babies! Keep an eye out in March, when we expect cuddly new additions from Leche and Nutmeg. We’ll even start seeing little lambs in April!
To get our goats and sheep to give birth from late winter to spring, we have to breed them throughout autumn into early winter. They carry their babies for about 150 days (or five months). If multiple babies are expected, their moms may give birth sooner, but males and heavier birth-weight babies may stay in the womb a little longer. When goats give birth, we call it “kidding,” and when sheep give birth, it’s “lambing.” Easy to remember, right?
Goats and sheep can have from one to five babies at a time. Twins are most common, as you can tell from our winter babies, and births of four or five are rare, but do happen! During the first hour after birth, the babies will usually stand on their own to feed from their mothers. They’re advanced little learners! We can’t wait to see how our winter babies grow up.
