Raising Animals Isn't Always Rosy

***An update on my pictures of polled vs. horned in my last post. Both doelings are over 1 month old have not developed horns. So swirl or no swirl obviously doesn't matter. ***

We still have several does to kid. I waited as long as possible to put them with Kanga, since they are on the small side, and it will be their first kid. Last weekend Morning Glory went into labor, and her kid was stuck in a position with its head turned back. My Mom and I took turns trying to get the kid rearranged, but could not get the head turned around. We were left with only one option. Pull the kid out, and hope for the best. The kid was lost, but Morning Glory was OK. Goats are amazingly tough animals. We felt so bad for her. So has such strong mothering instincts, just like her Mother Jubilee. We left the kid with her, hoping she would realize it was dead. But she still cried for it when we took it away, and she is left with an udder full of milk. I wished we had a abandoned kid to give to her. She seems to be a little happier the past couple days.

I didn't have any good recent pictures of Morning Glory. 

Here is one of her when she was born.

 And one from last winter.

I'm so grateful we still have her.

My Mom's Diamond Doves had these cute little babies.

I took the picture a few days ago. Unfortunately they threw one of the babies out yesterday, and smashed the other during the night. They were doing so well. I found some larger nests my Mom had stored away. Maybe they will do better next time around with a more roomier nest.

Last Wednesday I walked out to the pasture in the middle of the day, and right when I reached the gate I heard a crash. There had been a huge hawk nest in the eucalyptus trees, and the clumsy baby hawk had flown back to the nest and knocked it down. The nest went crashing down through the tree branches. I hurried out to take a look. It turned out it knocked down another bird nest on the way down. I found two baby sparrows hiding in the grass. 

I brought them up, made them a nest out of a coffee can, and fed them. We used to raise many types of exotic birds, so hand feeding is nothing new to me. They were already feathered out, and yesterday they learned to fly from perch to perch, so hopefully they will learn to eat on there own soon.

My little guinea pig mops on the lawn.

While I had the guinea pigs out, this little praying mantis fell on the lawn.

 A pretty sunset.

Dandelion had this darling little boy this morning all by herself! What a nice surprise to discover this morning. 

Tired Mama.

Kimberly