Happenings on the Ranch

Our experienced momma goat, Onyx, had two new babies this past Friday … in the middle of a snow storm, no less.  That’s her usual M.O. – wait for the worst weather or when we are not home to have her kids.  Thankfully this time we were home and got to sit with her the entire delivery.  Two more beautiful babies, one boy and one girl (whom we’ve named “Blizzard”).  Onyx typically has very big kids and her two newborns were born the same size as our other two babies who are 2 and 1/2 weeks old!  Momma and babies are doing very well and the kids are exploring the world.

One of our young rabbits, Feifel, had her first litter of kits on Saturday.  Three little ones are now nestled snuggly in their nest box with their young mommy keeping a watchful eye on them.  When they get a little bigger I’ll snap some pictures and post them.

And a wonderful surprise today!  Just after Chrismas we lost our breeding rabbit buck, Elvis.  We had been breeding him to our bi-colored doe, Tigger, hoping to have some striped babies that looked like their dad and some tri-colored calico babies.  Tigger seemed like she was bred and had dug a nest in her outside pen, but we never saw babies.  She covered the hole and we were disappointed that Elvis wouldn’t have any kits to carry on his legacy.  Much to our surprise this morning, Tigger opened up the hole she had previously covered and little noses started sniffing out!  Lo and behold, we have six kits!  Three calicos, three black and white and one of them looks just like their jailhouse striped daddy.   They are all healthy, beautiful babies and seem to be a few weeks old.  Three are busy exploring their world with their proud momma watching over them.  The other three are still deep in the nest.  We are so excited and very impressed with Tigger’s inherent mothering abilities since she is also a first-time mother.  What a sneaky little girl!

 It’s been an exciting couple of weeks around here.  Until next time.  ~Karin