Butterfly McQueen's line as Prissy in "Gone With The Wind" goes a long way toward describing a new goat owner's feelings the first time their high dollar doe gets ready to have babies. Goats are pretty good at doing this kidding thing all by themselves but you've gotta' wonder... "What if something goes wrong?". Preparation can, however, lead to a slightly more relaxed goat owner and will probably lead to a healthier doe and kids.

The first piece of information that comes in handy is the gestation period for goats. The average is 150 days. I've included the word "average" on purpose - the normal range is 149 to 152 days.
What this means to you as a goat breeder is that it's fairly important for you to remember when the doe was bred. With that bit of advance knowledge all you have to do is count 5 months, give or take a day or two, and you'll know when the kids are due. There is a gestation table in the Genetics/Breeding section of the boergoats.com Library.

First things, first...
The doe gets pregnant. Well, Duh!.
Write down the date and mark your calendar for the day that she's due.
Follow [This Link] to use the Gestation Calculator.

The feeding of pregnant does is covered in "Feeding Young Does", an article in the Feeding Goats section of the Library. Here is a link directly to the article:

Feeding Pregnant Does.

The preparatory medications for your future mamma should include C/D&T at 15 days before delivery accompanied by a good worming. Valbazen is NOT to be used on pregnant does - we know that it causes abortion in the first trimester and have never used it on a pregnant doe and probably will never try it on a pregnant doe.

OK, Lets get on with it... Select the following pages for more information:
The "Normal" delivery
Dystocia