Show us your pets!

I have a mini zoo going on at my house, so bear with me as I post their pictures!

The first picture is of my oldest cat Shiva, she is almost 6 years old and a purebred Snow Bengal that we got at a shelter.

The second picture is my 2nd oldest kitty whose name is Brahma, he's almost 5 years old and a purebred Bengal.

The third picture is my youngest kitty, his name is Colbert (he's the black one, and that's Brahma off to the side), he'll be 4 years old on my birthday (we got him from a shelter, he was born sometime in May, but we didn't know the exact date, so we gave him my birthday!).

The last picture is of my dog Megatron with his brother. Megatron is the one on the right (we don't own his brother). He's almost 10 months old and a purebred Great Dane, He's 3 feet tall at the shoulder and 120 pounds currently with a little over a year more of growth to do.

I've really enjoyed looking at all of your guys' pets, keep 'em coming!

-Jessica

Megatron is the most awesom-est name I've ever heard for a Great Dane! LOL!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oxysback

Megatron is the most awesom-est name I've ever heard for a Great Dane! LOL!

---

I totally agree! Love it!

These are the newest editions to our family:

http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...chicksmall.jpg

We had five of these girls born on Valentines day or the day after (or overnight...). The one picutured here is Una since she was the first born. She's only a few hours old in this photo.

A few more -

This is Maggie - the supermutt:
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...aggiesmall.jpg

And Cooper - he's growing like a weed!
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...oopersmall.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oxysback

Megatron is the most awesom-est name I've ever heard for a Great Dane! LOL!

---

))) Yes Megatron sounds awesome:D

Hi! I'm Nala, I turned 15 in January, and I'm currently driving my Mom crazy with my finicky eating.

Nala is beautiful.
She's had a long wonderful life! I only hope that I can give my guy's the same.

I'm going to be fostering this guy (hopefully, anyways, I don't have him yet and things never seem to come through for me with dogs lately). His name's Jake, he's got bad genes with his hips and knees and had an operation on one of his hips.

If all goes as planned, I'll have him next week.

http://photocache.petfinder.com/foto...09760-1-pn.jpg

Two more new additions to our ever-growing family -

This is Skylark and Pepper (Pepper is the all black one). They are Nigerian Dwarf girls who are as sweet as they look!

http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/newgoats.jpg

ooh! my dream one day is to have a property large enough to have a hobby farm and first on the list would be a goat (or two!)

do you milk them, or do you keep them as pets? I've read a little bit on the amazing benefits of goat's milk but apparently it has to be raw, as in unpasteurized. I doubt I'll be able to find anything unpasteurized here. And I honestly can't stand the taste of goat's milk *sigh*

Oh, we milk them. Well, we milked our Alpine doe, these two have not yet been bred for the season. Our goal is to time the birth of goat babies to be end of August, so we will be breeding Skylark at the end of March. We will have fresh milk for our consumption about two weeks after that. Pepper will get bred about the time that Skylark births so that we can enjoy fresh milk year round.

Yes, raw milk is wonderful. And raw goat milk is delicious as long as it's fresh and processed correctly. When it ages, it gets 'goaty' and I agree...that is some nasty stuff! ;) When it's fresh, it tastes pretty much the same as cow's milk. In fact, it tastes better and to be honest, I'm not really a milk drinker and yet, I will drink this. Goat's milk can also taste 'goaty' when fresh if there is a buck in close residence or if super clean procedures were not used in processing.

Alpine's have a milk that is about 2.5 - 3% butterfat. Nigerian Dwarfs have a much higher butterfat content that can be as high as 7%!! (for comparison, whole cow's milk is 4%). We will be making cheese, butter, icecream and of course, milk (that has been skimmed - I can't drink 'thick' milk ;)). Plus, I can't wait to have babies on the farm again!

talk about ignorant, here I'm thinking you can milk a goat without her being pregnant :p How long will they milk for? And how do you process the raw milk for consumption? Is there a site or a book that will answer all my questions? ;)

Quote:

---

I'm going to be fostering this guy (hopefully, anyways, I don't have him yet and things never seem to come through for me with dogs lately). His name's Jake, he's got bad genes with his hips and knees and had an operation on one of his hips.

If all goes as planned, I'll have him next week.

---

Badger if you were in the U.S. and indeed were fostering Jake....I would take him. What a cutie pie. What is the prognosis for him given his genes and joints?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by badger

talk about ignorant, here I'm thinking you can milk a goat without her being pregnant :p How long will they milk for? And how do you process the raw milk for consumption? Is there a site or a book that will answer all my questions? ;)

---

They usually stay in milk until it's time to kid again and then you'd want to give them a couple of months off before birth to build up their strength. The Nigerian Dwarfs will give milk almost all year if you don't dry them off for kidding (or so we've been told).

Actually, there is a great site for goat info - www.fiascofarm.com We learned a lot from Molly and a lot from both trial and error and from frantic google searches in the middle of the night. ;)

The book Natural Goat Care by Pat Coleby is also highly recommended. We have it and have read it - great stuff.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by badger

I'm going to be fostering this guy (hopefully, anyways, I don't have him yet and things never seem to come through for me with dogs lately). His name's Jake, he's got bad genes with his hips and knees and had an operation on one of his hips.

If all goes as planned, I'll have him next week.

http://photocache.petfinder.com/foto...09760-1-pn.jpg

---

What a cute dog. What kind is it? It almost has a Dane like face.

I haven't met him yet, but I'm fostering for a pit bull rescue so he's at the very least a pit bull cross. His personality sounds very much like the dog I used to have (a big goofball who loves everyone and everything he meets) :D

I'm not really sure what his prognosis is. He got his one hip done, and in a couple of years he'll likely need to get his other hip done. I'd imagine he'll be on glucosamine and chondritin and anything else (hyaluronic acid, maybe?) to help his other joints.

***

thanks for the info on the goats, GLC!