The Girls at Itty Bitty Critter Farm
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| Baby Jr. |  |
Baby is one of the first girls we purchased. Actually, she should have been named Cry Baby. She is the first one to the gate whenever someone goes outside and is very vocal, liking a lot of attention. Since having her first kid, she has mellowed a lot. Of course, it could just be that her mama's next set of girls (Big Sister and Little Sister) took over the spot of being the most vocal. She's like a different goat but still loves as much as attention as possible. Since her mama is the queen bee, she can get away with sneaking some attention while mama Reba is basking in all the "me first" glory. |
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Maggie | Maggie is our other first girl. With blue eyes and waddles, she appears to be somewhat shy around humans, but her personality is that of the sneaky kid. She is third in line to be the queen bee, behind Reba, then Queenie. She is constantly climbing to the top of things and butting others off her various perches. Maggie is also our curious girl, often standing with her head cocked sideways to watch what you are doing. Well, I'm not sure if that is curiosity or nosiness. Either way, she is very inquisitive. Maggie loves to be petted and especially likes to have her hips scratched, swaying in the direction you are scratching her. |
| Reba |  |
Reba came to us at almost 8 yrs old. No doubt about it, she IS our queen bee. She also
likes the attention and doesn't want others to share her time. She is very jealous of others
getting any attention (except Baby Jr.). She will chase the other girls, and especially the
babies, away from me so she gets all the attention!
In addition to being Baby Jr.'s mama, Reba provided our first baby born on our farm - Little Bit. She has now give us two more girls, Big Sister and Little Sister, then two more boys, Snowball and Snowflake. |
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Penny | Penny has blue eyes and waddles, with a little mouse voice. She is very shy and tends to stand back until last, often getting pushed around by everybody else. But she is very sweet and loving. As we get more babies, she is moving up the list and isn't quite so "bottom of the list" material. She is moving up the ranks (you go, gal!). That is, until it comes times for brushing. She doesn't take turns with anyone - she will share with Pepper - but she thinks it's her turn all day. |
| Pepper |  |
Pepper is our only polled girl and has brown eyes and is really small. She is more needy, wanting
to be petted and noticed. Brush time, she doesn't take a back seat to anyone, pushing and
shoving everyone out of her way! Good thing she and Penny like each other. I just have to
make sure I have a brush in both hands.
She is living at a new home with Jason and Katie now but we miss her very much in our herd. |
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They do everything together! Funny how things happen! Penny and Pepper came to us as a set and although they are not twins, you would think that they were. They are inseparable, often holding their heads across each others. When it came time to put them in the stalls prior to birthing, since their due dates were only six days apart, we placed them in one stall so they could comfort one another. Once I realized Pepper was in labor, I left Penny in the adjoining stall with the door open between them so they could still see each other. Pepper had been in labor for a short while, up and down, pawing a nest, all the normal things they do to get situated. Once she laid down and starting to push, I looked over and noticed that Penny had started a mucous string. She had quietly also gone into labor. (Remember, they were supposed to be six days apart.) Here I was with two first timers in labor, my husband was at work and I'm starting to get a little bit panicky! Pepper gave birth and just five short minutes later, Penny gave birth. Both girls had to see each other's babies. Now that is what I call friendship. |
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| Obviously some of these were purchased rather than being born during this season. |
| Daisy |  |
Daisy was purchased as a "milk" goat, one with bigger spigots! She is probably a Nubian and Alpine cross and came to us with very little information and was already bred. When we bought her, she didn't make any noises - no bleating, bawling, nothing. After an emergency separation, we found out she could, and did, make noises. Now she bleats just like the rest of the girls, although it sounds more like a cow mooing. And of course, while she was pregnant, she grunted - a lot! Now, she's added a few moans and groans with her grunts, so I guess it wasn't pregnancy after all. Maybe just her old age? She was the second oldest one here. |
| Daisy had this unique style about her. She would "grin" and we just could resist that adorable little face. She was as spoiled as
every one else, even though she was older when she came to us. That wasn't even her name but hubby couldn't remember what
the lady said it was, so she became Daisy to us. And she definitely knew her name and would come running at just one call.
Daisy is now living with the Goodin family along with her daughters Fudge and Oreo. When she rode home, I had told hubby about this man picking up Daisy and her two girls and they were in the back of a jeep. Hubby was watching for them to come down the road as they would be riding past where he was working. All of a sudden, he sees ears. Big ears! Yep, Daisy's big ears were clearly visible, sticking straight out with her head between the seat just looking out the front windshield. Guess she was making sure he knew where he was going? |
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Little Bit
(from Reba and 4Boot Farm Ben) |
Little Bit was the first baby born to our farm. Watching her grow and learn was so amazing.
Of course, I think most of the learning was on our part. She got her routine down really
quickly and, standing on the log at the barn gate, she started the morning breakfast chant.
It took us a while to figure it out, but she had a touch of myotonic gene in her (that is, fainting goat). It didn't happen often, but at times of excitement or whenever she would run seemed to trigger her "faint". Unfortunately, in August 2008 we lost her to anaphylactic shock. |
| Sassafras
(from Daisy and BigUn) |
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Sassafras, or Sassy for short, was the second kid born on our farm, born to Daisy,
along with her twin buckling, Sox. In April 2009, she had her first kids, a buckling
and a doeling. She has another set of twins in 2010, a buckling and a doeling.
Matter of fact, the boys from each year look a lot alike and the girls from both years
look like each other.
She is a very attentive mother. If her kids get out of sight, she is calling them back. Those first few days after she kids are very nerve racking as she is "Nervous Nellie" about watching those babies. |
The Heart Family
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Our first registered herd members: the Heart Family consists of mama Queen of Hearts and her two firstborn doelings, SuzyQ and Minxy. |
| Queenie |  |
Queenie is second in line for queen bee around here. She is black with frosted ears and white on her head between her horns and has blue eyes. She just loves being petted - that is, if she likes you. One of her previous owners several owners back didn't treat her very well and she is very timid until she gets to know you. Timid might not be the right word, maybe "scared to death" is more appropriate. But once she gets to know and trust you, if you don't pay attention to her, she will nibble on your clothing to get your attention. Or sometimes she will gently bite you with that "hey, pay attention to me now" nip. Ouch. |
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SuzyQ | SuzyQ was a two tone goat: the front half brown and the back half black, intermingled in
between. She also had blue eyes and was more quiet than her mama and sister but still
liked being petted as much as anyone else. Mama seemed to favor Minxy over SuzyQ, so I
always tried to give her a little extra attention. No fair playing favorites, Queenie!
Sadly, we lost SuzyQ in December 2009 due to pregnancy complications while giving birth to triplets. |
| Minxy |  |
Minxy is solid black with about six hairs tipped in white on top of her head and is our smallest doe. Although Minxy has brown eyes, when she looks at you with those huge eyes, she just melts your heart. She has had a personality change since having her first kid. Minxy used to be hard to pet but now loves the extra attention; maybe because she got extra grain with no one to disturb her, a special sleeping spot, hay that she didn't have to share, you get the idea. She is an extremely protective mama and appears to be really good at it. She will hike her leg to allow you to milk her with no reservations about it. When it's time for mamas to get their extra feed, we pen them up so they can be fed individually. Minxy gets so excited her whole body wags along with her tail, like a little puppy dog. |
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Big Sister
(from Reba and Brock) |
Big Sister, born in December 2008, is twin to Little Sister. She has a white band around her
midsection and is white with gray intermingled and has brown eyes.
She is our newest jumper. If you are anywhere near her, she likes to see just how far she can jump. And if you are bent over, she will be on your back and especially loves being on your shoulders when you stand up. I guess she is not afraid of heights. She would rather be on your back than be petted. Now that she is getting bigger, I have learned to discourage that trick. Big Sister went to live with the Jeffersons. |
| Little Sister
(from Reba and Brock) |
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Little Sister (twin to Big Sister). While Little Sister has the white band around her middle,
she is white with tan intermingled in rather than the gray like Big Sister. She too has the
brown eyes.
When she was born, we didn't think she would survive as she was only 2.2 pounds to Big Sister's 4.6 pounds. She quickly grew and is only slightly smaller than her sis. Her personality is more laid back and reserved, totally opposite than Big Sister. Little Sister loves being petted. She has also taken Baby Jr.'s place for being the loudmouth of the bunch. She is the alarm clock for feed time and is very impatient about it, starting in when she thinks it's time and not stopping until her head is in the feed bowl. Little Sister, along with her Big Sister, went to live with the Jeffersons. I think it great they get to stay together. |
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Kisses
(from Pepper) |
Kisses looks like her mama. And like her mama, she is somewhat shy. I think it is mostly
because the others are more forward and she gets pushed to the back. However, she will paw
on your leg to get your attention. Before she began to eat grain, while the mamas were
eating, Kisses would go down the row and try all the faucets. When the mamas would lift
their leg and push her on, she just went to the next one. She wasn't particular.
Kisses went to live with the Aubuchons, but now lives with the Jarvis. Both are still local so I can check on them periodically. |
| Kuddles
(from Penny and Buckwheat) |
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Kuddles loves being held, even for hours at a time. She will also paw at your leg or rears up
and stretches for all she's worth if you don't pay attention. Mostly, she just jumps right into
your lap whenever she gets a chance. Kuddles is extremely fond of Baby Jr. for some reason
and often sleeps with her instead of her mama (Penny). Of course, sometimes she sleeps
with Kisses and Pepper. Guess she likes sleep overs.
Kuddles, along with her best bud Kisses, now lives with the Jarvis family (after living with the Aubuchon family for a short while). |
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Peanut
(from Minxy and Buckwheat) |
Peanut was named because she was so tiny and has remained small. I don't know what color you would call her, but her hair is black next to her skin and white on the tips with a tan tint in there somewhere. She has black markings over her eyes that reminds me of Morticia (of the Adams family) and her eye shadow. Peanut races around like Speedy Gonzales and hides her nose when she is afraid. At one week old, she had already started learning all the bad things - like jumping on backs, crying for attention when she is left alone, demanding extra time. When mama is out of sight she stands there and cries. Mama will hear her in the distance and mama also stands there and cries. Neither one will give in and go to the other one. Peanut usually wins the battle. Stubborn as she may be, she is definitely a keeper! |
| Glory
(from Sassy and Buckwheat) |
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Glory, twin to Blaze, was the smallest of the two at only 4 pounds (she is part Alpine/Nubian and
part Nigerian Dwarf). When Blaze was born, Sassy decided to stand up for her delivery - both of
them. I caught him as he was being born. In the process of helping mama clean him up, precisely
four minutes later, still standing mind you, we hear a kerthunk, and Glory had been born. She just
jumped right out onto the floor. That must be why she is pretty tough around all the other girls,
having started life in such a rough manner.
Glory went to live with at the Parks/Bilderback farm. They had originally intended to buy a buck but when Glory laid her head on his shoulder, he was a goner. I'm told she was quickly becoming the herd queen at her new home. |
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Oreo
(from Sassy) |
Oreo is part Alpine/Nubian. She is mostly black with white socks and no brown
markings; white blaze markings on her eyes; white around her lips of her mouth and
white on the underside of the tips of her ears. Her ears originally drooped, like the
Nubian, but quickly started standing out in the airplane style. She looks a lot like her
older brother Sox did when he was born.
She has gone to live with the Goodin family, along with her mama Daisy and her sister Fudge. |
| Fudge
(from Sassy) |
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Fudge is black with white socks and brown on her ears, neck, tail and small amount on her
face and top of her head; white blaze markingso n her eyes, white around her lips of her
mouth and white on the under side of the tips of her ears and brown on the top (that's how I
could tell them apart). Her ears were like sister Oreo in that they drooped originally, but
started standing out within a couple of days.
She, along with mama Daisy and sister Oreo, now live with the Goodin family. |
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Lil Sweetheart | Lil Sweetheart, or as we call her Lily, is one of our registered does. She has blue eyes and is mostly black with just a small white tuft between her horns. Lily started out quiet, mousy, just in the background. When she was about 4 or 5 months old, she came out of that shell. She has decided she wants to be noticed too if everybody else is going to get all the attention. At the feed trough, she will eat along with the other big girls but when she sees the other little girls getting fed from the grain cup, she is quick to follow suit. |
| Lil' Miracle |  |
Lil' Miracle is another one of our registered does. She is almost identical to her brother. She has
brown eyes, is black with two little white spots on her head, one that the horn has poked
through and is hard to even see, but she is now starting to get a frosted muzzle.
How Miracle got her name....once again, her mama Minxy had problems kidding. Last year, she lost a doeling due to malpositioned birth. So, this year, first kid comes out with no problems. But second kid is reluctant to come on out and play. We had to go in after it. Since her bubble appeared to have busted several minutes before, we "assumed" baby was probably dead. Her head was turned backwards and had to be repositioned. |
| Minxy is so tiny herself, we just could not get her second baby out in a timely manner - we pulled, we tugged, we probably even said a few choice words.
Again, assuming she was dead, we knew that baby had to come out one way or another. Once she finally plopped out, we couldn't believe she was still
breathing. But our thoughts turned to she probably had brain damage, lungs full of gook, not going to make it anyway. Wrong, on all accounts. So, guess
what? Another house baby. Since she could not stand up on either front leg (she would scoot around everywhere backwards), and we had been having
this extremely cold weather, we (the humans) couldn't stay at the barn to hold her up to nurse every time she needed to ALL night long. So we call her our
little Miracle. She is as healthy as any of other goats, except where we tugged on her leg. Quite a bit of nerve damage was done and she is not going to
fully recover. At this point, she still has her leg intact, but is walking on the first and sometimes second joint. The vets do not think it will get any better
from now on, but will cause joint problems down the line, will cause excessive wear and tear on her left front leg and will eventually cause other problems.
We worked with Missouri University at Columbia to this point to monitor and treat her leg issue.
Of course, being the youngest and the only girl in the house as one of the 5 bottle babies has its advantages. At only one week old, she was already spoiled rotten. What will she be at 6 months? She is about 3 weeks younger than the other bottle babies but she can hold her own with any of the other house guests! Well, she is pushing that 6 months old and I can tell you what she has become....she is a more-than-spoiled-rotten little girl that we (mostly me!) picks up and carries around because she is as stubborn as her mama Minxy and older sister Peanut. (Remember how they would stand and try to out scream each other, seeing who would give in and make that first move?) I guess she is doing the same thing, only she thinks I'm the mama. She stands there and screams until I go after her. Although her story is a sad one, she has the lung capacity of all the goats put together. Just wait until it is feed time and you will hear her - 3 counties away! She is very demanding and sure of herself because she knows she gets what she wants. I guess we have created a monster! | ||
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(Penny's) Baby Girl | This little gal still doesn't have a really good name, but considering she hangs out with
Baby Jr. as much as she does her own mama Penny, I thought "Penny's Baby Girl" is an
appropriate name. Normally I just say Baby Girl and of course, 15 other goats all
answer to that name. She does not have waddles but has those blue eyes that look at
you with such love - she is just adorable.
Her personality is very calm, sweet, loving - until it comes to grain or petting. She doesn't want to miss out on either one so she's in there routing just like everyone else. |
| DareDevil (DeeDee) |  |
It took me a while to decide what to name DareDevil, or DeeDee for short, but once she
started climbing into every hay manger we owned, it was obvious she needed to be
named DareDevil. Since that wasn't such a girly name (although I think she might be
considered a tomboy), we decided to call her DeeDee. She even went from one stall's
hay manger, through the stud wall into the next birthing stall (they only have the half
walls between that are solid), bounced off the floor and back into that stall's hay manger.
This was when she was about a month old! Looking back at old pictures, I finally
realized, she gets this from her mama Maggie. I found a picture of Maggie who is on top
of the large hay manger because we had a round bale of hay next to it. So I guess it's
"like mother, like daughter" for these two.
Dee is now living with her new family the Bades and I'm sure she will get all the attention she demands. |
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EarBob (Bobbi) | I finally figured out a name for this little darling. Since I can't call her DareDevil (that one's already taken), and I had wanted to call her EarBob or BobEar or something because she has one waddle hanging from her ear, the other hanging from her neck, I finally decided to just name her EarBob and call her Bobbi for short. She is another one of our half Nigerian/half possibly Alpine/Nubian does, but she has just a slender build and has legs that just won't quit. She's not as bad as DeeDee about climbing into or onto everything, she's just more selective. She jumps, flat footed with no running starts, into the "big" hay manger. From the ground! When I moved the milk stand into the birthing stalls for milking mama, she gets up on the half walls between stalls, then the shelf. She even taught her big brother Trouble to do this. |
| My girls all love to be brushed and do NOT like taking turns. Most of them have to be pushed away in order to brush someone else. They also love treats of any kind. You could probably get them to turn cartwheels just to get a treat. |
| We do reserve the right to maintain kids for our own breeding program. However, just because a goat isn't listed on the "For Sale" page does not mean is won't be sold. See a goat on another page that you have an interest in, contact me for more information. |
Contact Us! Itty Bitty Critter Farm
Gary & Sandra Howell, Irondale, Missouri
(573) 749-0099
Thank You for looking at our animals.
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