I just love this picture of first time mom Gazelle nursing her one week olds. It seemed like such an idyllic and perfect way to start life. And then Gazelle's character kicked in and about a week later she refused to nurse Oreo. It took me about three days or so to figure that one out, not until he started to get unkept and skinny looking and became really pushy for food did I realize she was not letting him nurse.
In the picture above Gazelle is getting away from her kids by jumping on
the kids sleeping box. She'd hang out there a lot, so much that when
she would come down the kids would jump on her to try and get milk
making her want to hide from them some more... For a few weeks I would
first pin Gazelle down against a wall so they could nurse, which
gradually got better in me just restraining her and even later in her
eating with her head thru the hay manger (I'd put her bowl in there) and
letting them nurse while she ate. I think it took at least six weeks
before I suddenly noticed both boys being able to nurse on their own
again, and they've been fine since.
As a side note, here are the girls eating goat potato chips - as in crunchy dried leaves! When I pick up bagged leaves in town I put the real light weight ones (a.i dry) with nice leaves like maple separate for the girls to much late winter and early spring. When I feed leaves in leaf season they have no interest in them, but when I feed them when there is snow on the ground and nothing else to find, they are like fast food and get nibbled up fast!
No comments:
Post a Comment