The foetus makes two-thirds of its total growth during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy. The consequences of under-nutrition in late pregnancy are reduction in lamb’s birth weight, poor milk production and poor lamb survival. Under-nutrition may also result in occurrence of pregnancy toxaemia which results in collapse and possible death of the ewes. There is production of ketone and acetone bodies in the blood from the rapid breakdown of body fat to meet the energy requirements of advanced pregnancy. Thus, the amount of nutrients, especially energy, must be increased during the later part of pregnancy to ensure proper growth of foetus and high milk production.
The basic needs of pregnant goats can be summarized into exercise, proper nutrition and preventative health management steps. They need the strength to carry the extra weight during the last two months and go through the labor successfully. The normal activity of walking around grazing should continue. Further, nutrition is very important in the last two months of pregnancy as 70 % of the weight of the kid(s) is developed from around day 100 to the birthing date. Undernourishment during this period will result in the birth of smaller kids, increased mortality and slower growth rates. A doe in late pregnancy has additional requirements from their supply of food, especially for energy foods. The doe's body is designed to ensure that the kids get enough energy food at the expense of her own tissues. Her body will rob her own reserves to provide nutrition to the kids. A doe's appetite often drops off at this time and the volume of the uterus contents and the internal fat stored will limit the volume of feed she can consume. Therefore the quality of feed must be increased. Goats that eat a lot of hay during pregnancy maintain that ability to ingest increased levels of roughage during lactation. Ensure effective transition feeding for the pregnant goats.
Some of the important signs of labor include tail dropping in which the body will start to adjust to allow the pelvic bones to spread out. Either side of the tail bone will indent showing the body is getting ready. Further, a small amount of creamy jell leaks from the vulva which is called as losing plug. This can be seen as small drippings up to 2 weeks prior to the doe kidding. Bag Strutting is one of the better signs for estimating eminent labor. The top picture was taken 8 days prior to kidding and the bag looks full but the skin is not a shiny texture like the bottom picture. When the bag is strutted, the skin is as tight as it can get and the skin will be very shiny. Streaming is an extension of the "losing the plug". The difference is that large amount of creamy mucus is coming from the doe. Later, soft talking and pawing the ground can also be observed before kidding. One of the first activities of kidding can be a transparent bubble protruding that contains liquids. This does not always occur but is a normal process in the kidding process. The doe will go into labor doing pushes and groaning. This transparent bubble will start to appear. She may get up and down during this period. Eventually it will burst and the kidding process has almost begun.
Clean the nostrils and remove the placental membranes sticking on the kid, by gently rubbing with dry cotton or rags. Holding the kids up by hind legs with head downward for few seconds, will aid in clearing the respiratory tract. The kid will get up and start walking within half an hour. Allow the doe to lick the kids dry. Immerse the end portion of umbilical cord in tincture iodine. Repeat this after 12 hours. The kid should get its first drink of colostrum within 30 minutes of birth. If the kids do not suck properly, the teats should be held by the hand and pressed into their mouth. Once they have drawn a little of the milk, it will not be long before they take to the normal method of sucking.
Proper selection of kids on the basis of initial body weight and weaning weight should be initiated by maintaining appropriate records for replacing the culled adult stock as breeders. Additional feed requirements of lactating does must be ensured for proper nursing of all the piglets born.
A lamb should get sufficient amount of colostrums (first milk) from the mother during the first few days after birth. It imparts passive immunity, through gamma-globulins in which colostrums is very rich, against a number of infectious diseases against which the mother has been vaccinated or to which it has more recently been exposed to. There is no other way of protecting young lambs against these infectious diseases as they do not have their own immune system yet developed.
Colostrum is also a rich source of energy and nourishes the newborn lamb, and acts as a laxative to clear the gut of the muconium. Colostrum is richer than milk in protein, vitamins A and D, cobalt, iron and lactose. If some lambs are orphaned and no ewes are available for fostering, it is necessary to rear them artificially. It will require some personal attention and training the lambs to suckle goats. Artificial feeding of milk using glass bottles with rubber nipples can be adopted, but hygienic measures must be adhered to.
Lambs should be started on creep feed as soon as possible after birth. The consumption is negligible during first 2-3 weeks but will increase with age and weight. The creep ration (feed for young ones) should be highly palatable and rich in protein. Feeding of weaned lambs involves a balance between the use of cereals and the forages rich in energy and protein to achieve economic growth. The fattening lambs should be fed special rations high in energy and protein and low in fibre. Lambs achieve satisfactory growth rate at a dry-matter intake level of 4 to 5 per cent of body weight