Pre-Show Jitters

I use to have pre-show jitters when I showed horses. I know I shouldn't be super nervous about my first goat show, but I am a little wary. I showed lambs for two years, and I showed a Pygmy once at a county fair. I remember it being pretty laid back and simple, but I'm afraid of making a fool of myself by doing something completely stupid. I need to dress in white, although its going to have to be blue jeans and a white shirt, because thats what I have. I at least have some nice chain collars to use. I need to be there between 6-8 a.m. Oh joy. Ha ha. If all goes well, Tomahawk will get some nice marks, as long as I don't mess things up for the poor guy. If nothing else, I get some show experience, so does he, and I get to finally bring him home!

Poor little Narf and Val seem to have some sort of issue going on. They both have some pretty nasty diarrhea. I started treating them for Cocci immediately, and I put them up in one of the pens so they can't eat any rich alfalfa or spring-time grass right now. Narfs "output" seems to have tightened up already. She seemed a little uncomfortable and bloated looking, although she was still nibbling at grass. So I sat with her and rubbed and patted her belly for a good half hour. She burped a little and seemed to relax. She didn't look overly bloated, and I'm not sure if she WAS at all...but I felt better about taking the precaution. When I put her back in her pen, she sprang to life and started crying and leaping off of the walls. I'm sure she'll be just fine. I get over paranoid about the health of my goats. :) Better safe than sorry. Thats my motto anymore. Val didn't seem uncomfortable or bloated at all. She just had the diarrhea. If the Cocci treatment doesn't help, I'll worm them again and see what that does for them. It might simply be the rich diet they are on. I might need to start penning the pregnant girls at night so the young ladies don't get to share their food with them. I don't need fat little cows with runny poo. Its not healthy for them.

Only One Left to Come Home

I welcomed Pearl and Dakota home on Sunday. The little farm they came from is very nice. I loved the organization. They also had several very nice doelings for sale, as well as a few great looking does in milk. If you'd like their email address, contact me at firelight_27@yahoo.com. They are attempting to downsize, and the prices are great. They are also very well bred, mostly Camanna. I believe they still have a few who are bred and due this summer. If you haven't yet, and you are interested in registered Nigerian Dwarfs, you should check out Camanna's Petite Paradise. They are one of my favorite farms. They always have amazing animals, and they have gorgeous color on top of the quality.

[Camanna]

This is Pearl. Her full name is Tualatin Acres. D. Black Pearl. She is a little wary of me, but I have attempted to spend as much time as I can with these does over the past few days and she has become pretty easy to catch. They both like to jump in the horse feeder and chill, which I've never had any of my goats do. Poor Romeo (my gelding) gets to be fed in the hanging feeder from now on. Pearl is such a capacious, wide-bodied doe. She is also long, uphill and has a gorgeous neck. It is very hooky when she decides to look at something in the distance. She just has an overall regal appearance. I felt kids kicking in her belly today. She is also a little fleshy around her udder. Not filling, just fleshy. Supposedly, she was in with the buck the end of January...however, she seems closer to kidding than Dakota, who is supposedly due next month.

Dakota is super flashy. I love her spotting. She is very refined and level. She should be wider bodied, but I just love how showy and correct she is. Her pooch tells me she is preggo, but I can't feel kids no matter how hard I try, and I'd expect her udder to be doing something at this point considering she only has a month to go (supposedly.) Not that being able to feel kids, or udder development is a sure indication of anything. Here is to hoping she is bred, because I like her the most, and I love the buck. She is actually pretty friendly, and comes sniffing for treats and scratches.

Finally, I brought home Narf on Monday. She was amazingly quite the whole ride home. She just laid in my lap like a car ride was a completely normal event. She is very attached to people. I gave her and Val a shave a couple of days ago. They are staying together until Narf settles down and gets a little bigger and can mingle with the big girls.

I missed a little fuzz over her rump. My clip jobs aren't always the best. Now the only one left to come home is Tomahawk, who I'm picking up May 1st at the Megabucks show. After some confusion I got the show form mailed in and everything, so we are all set to compete. Here is to hoping we do good at my first Nigerian show! I signed him up for all three rings. :) Hopefully my lack of experience doesn't hurt him in the pen.

A Fresh Start

Hello everyone. I decided to create a blog for my Nigerian Dwarf operation, Firelight Ranch. Actually, one day Firelight Ranch will be the name for my entire farm, which will include training/raising horses. However, my current business is restricted to these adorable miniature diary goats.



In this blog, I simply plan to journal about my adventures with my herd. I have been raising grade Nigerians for awhile now, but have recently decided to get into registered animals. I would very much like to show, but the entire experience will be new to me. Well, not exactly new. I used to show lambs, and from what I can see from material I've found about showing goats...the process is almost identical. I've also never disbudded anything. I always believed in allowing my goats to grow horns. They use them to scratch their backs, and keep the dogs from nipping at them should one of them get into the field somehow. That, and I've never had any issues with their horns getting caught in anything, or harming each other or anyone else. However, they must be disbudded as ADGA registered show goats. Everything from my first experiences with these new activities, to a day of delivering kids will go in here.

Currently, I am preparing to go on a trip to the coast, where I will be picking up two bred does. My husband thought it would be fun to leave a day early so we could hit the beach and have a miniature vacation. Since the sun has actually decided it would like to shine the past couple of days, I am very much looking forward to the entire weekend. The girls I am most interested in are called Black Pearl and Oreo. Black Pearl is an OK name. I'm all for Pirates of the Carribean. Oreo's name would definitely be changing. Both are very capacious looking does. They are long and deep bodied. They are also very level, with long dairy necks and feminine heads. I'm super excited. Both are black & white, although Black Pearl has some grey. The father of the kids to be is red/white with blue eyes! I must admit I love blue eyed goats. I know that quality over color is important, but if I can get everything in one package all the better. I'd like to keep a buckling so that I have two total bucks, who are unrelated, so hopefully one of the girls gives me one. I'll also most likely keep a doeling from one of them.



In other news, I won the auction for the buck kid from the Megabucks Show. (Pictured above.) He is being delivered to me in Grants Pass, at the show, on May 1st. I plan to show him there. He looks a little steep out his rump in this photo, but from what I can tell he is not. I will have better photos of him after the show. He is white with chocolate legs. His daddy had blue eyes, so perhaps those genetics will pass on through him. As far as I know, he is nice and friendly, which is a huge improvement over my current, crazy buck. His mom was white with chocolate spotting, what I like to call the "dalmation" look. He apparently missed out on the spots, but I'm sure he will produce them. He has some really nice lines. He even has Gay-Mor up close.



I am also bringing this little girl home on Monday! She is Pholia Farms x Piddlin Acres bred. That just makes me giddy. I love both farms. Her mom is really well built too. Very uphill, level, dairy...super straight legs with great rear angulation. I loved her mom, so when I went to pick out a kid she is who I chose. I'm hoping for a great udder on her as well. According to the farm, her dam kids very easily, and has a nice udder. Also, her mom has moon spots galore. I'm hoping to get some from this girl as well. I'd love to have all kinds of moon spots and blue eyes, on high quality, show worthy goats of course (with amazing udders.) That is my ultimate goal. Her name is Narf. I think its funny. Apparently they name all of this particular goat's children after odd words that Pinky (From the Pinky and The Brain cartoon), would randomly blurt. I'd rather connect her name with the movie Lady in the Water by M. Night Shamylan. In the movie, Narfs were the grass wolves that were the enemies of the water people from the Blue World. Its a neat movie. If you haven't watched it, you should.

I've sold most of my grade goats. In fact, I only have Doll and Val left. Well, and my buck for now. I won't be selling Val. I'd like to have a couple of grade does of a high quality, so that I have a few kids every year for people with a smaller budget who still want good milkers. I wish she could be registered though, because she is gorgeous and correct. In any case, I do have someone interested in Doll, but they want to work a deal with me. I offered her with a free breeding to my grade buck. I am honestly very curious how the cross would turn out, and think it would make some awesome kids. If they could get her for half price (with the breeding), I would have first choice on any resulting kids. Of course I would be hoping for a buckskin doeling with blue eyes and allot of white...but she could have all bucks and then where would I be. The thought is that if the kids are as nice as I think they'll be, I would have a second grade doe that was of a very high quality. Therefore, more high quality kids for my customers looking to spend a little less. I'm still thinking about it.

Thats all for today. I really need to go and take a shower so I can get ready to leave on our trip. TTYL