Everyone has a different opinion on all things goat. These essentials are our favorites when organizing our birthing kit each year. In the kit, we will have the following;

Towels → You will always need towels to clean off the babies, doe, and more.
Iodine → Use gauze pads and soak in Iodine and pat the umbilical cord area
Medical scissors → Once you use the floss to cut off blood flow from the end of the umbilical cord to the belly (use the 2-inch rule), use the scissors to cut off the excess
Floss → Use floss to cut off circulation from baby to umbilical cord
Flashlight/headlamp → It can never be too bright! When working in a delicate situation, you must be able to see well.
Lube → If you need to feel the baby inside the doe, not usually required, but if the doe has been in labor for a time without much progress, you can feel the feet and face of the baby to make sure it is not breached.
Betadine → Has the same effect as Iodine, used to treat the umbilical cord after birth.
Scale → To document the weights of the babies after birth and throughout the following weeks
Thermometer → Over the next few weeks keeping track of their temp is essential. Make sure to get their temp soon after they are born.
Baby booger sucker → The babies might have mucus or gunk in their noses. We want them to be able to breathe, so we use this to get fluid out of their noses.
Hair dryer → It is complicated for a baby to survive in the cold while wet. Blow them on low with a hair dryer if it is cold outside.
Gauze pads → These pads are essential for many purposes in goat birthing, but the most profound is to put iodine on the pad and place that on the umbilical cord.
Baby weigher → You will want to weigh your babies multiple times over the next few weeks to ensure they grow.
Dog clothes → We always keep a couple of dog clothing items in our birthing kit. If the babies are too small or do not keep a consistent temperature, we use these to keep them warm.
Formula → Used rarely but needed. Use the formula if momma rejects and you don’t have another producing doe.
Notebook and pen → Always have one of these ready for taking the baby’s weight, temperature, order, sex, color, and name (this will be essential if you plan to register that baby shortly).
Soda bottle and nipple → We use a regular plastic cola bottle and a nipple tip (that spins onto the cap space of the bottle) found on amazon. This can be used to feed the babies formula or milk from the doe, but we mainly use this in the first couple hours to ensure they get colostrum.
Dog pee pads → If we are afforded time and watch the doe give birth, we put a pee pad under her bum, so the mess is not everywhere.
Gloves → We don’t want to contaminate anything.

When assembling our kit, we found it easiest to have a heavy-duty storage container with ‘locks.’ This ensures mice and bugs will not get inside.

We always have our birthing area assembled and ready for the does to give birth. Over the years, our setup has varied but always includes the following.

Fresh shavings/straw → We don’t want our babies cold and wet in pee

Baby hide → Protects babies from the elements, and others does
Fencing with small enough holes so the babies cannot escape
A heat lamp or chicken lamp → We attach a heat lamp to our baby hides so up to 3 kids can comfortably stay warm inside.
Feed, mineral, and water buckets for the doe

In the picture above, you can see a clean, well-organized setup. We loved this setup and would highly recommend it. We only used it for our first litter(s). The space has now transformed into a third horse stall.

This design features everything your doe and babies would need for 2 months. On the far left of the wall, you can see an opening. This opening led out into a private yard for the does and babies. We had three “stalls” with a doe in each. Every stall had grain and water bins with hay and a baby hut. While the “stalls” were small, we had a “hallway” to move about quickly. They would live in this smaller box for about a week.

Once the babies were a bit stronger, we would let them and the does outside for a couple of hours and then bring them back in.

The pens were elongated after a week, so each doe and baby had double the space.

Our setup is constantly changing, we don’t have a designated barn for the goats, so it most likely will keep changing. If you cannot afford to build a barn like us, this is an affordable setup we use regularly.

The setup is nothing fancy. We have a very old children’s playhouse as the shelter. You can find one of them on the Facebook marketplace. We use classic welded wire for most of our goat’s fencing, including this. This pen is about: 20ft X 20ft X 6ft. We boarded up the windows to the playhouse, cut a rubber mat into long pieces, and stapled them to the entryway (sheets for a door make a great windbreaker).

When we put an expecting doe in a pen, we provide plenty of shavings, mount a heat lamp (or a baby hut), provide hay consistently, water, feed, and grain buckets are always full. In the past, we have even had a mounted camera in the house. This pen is not huge but provides space for babies to roam and run.

Does will need extra attention, supplements to boost their immune and more nutritional food. We feed our does sweet feed and alfalfa pellets throughout pregnancy and while nursing, especially in the colder months (we don’t do this in their off-season). We feed in the morning and at night, changing the old food.

You could say we like to pamper our does.

Does should receive supplements of an energy booster, such as molasses (of course there are a multitude of other supplements out there, this is just what we use), after or during birth. There are multiple ways to give molasses; straight molasses, molasses mixed with water, or mixed with water and grain, to create a soup. The doe might not like it one way, so try all of your options. If the birth is long and tiring, give her molasses, she will greatly appreciate it!

Our farm has had 8+ litters of doelings and bucklings over the last few years. We don’t know everything, but we are constantly learning.

We have not had any significant issues, and we are incredibly grateful. So, in that aspect of birthing, I cannot give you many tips, but keep a well-versed kid birthing book at your side; read up on some articles, and when your does are nearing birth, make sure your vet knows and is on standby.

Everyone starts from somewhere. You got this!

Birthing Kit Essentials

Our LGDs & a Little Bit of How-To

The Workshop