With Diva showing no change by weight tape, we have taken a different tack. This afternoon, enlisting some help from Joe (who can lift 70 pound animals), we tried the old "weigh the dog" trick, where you weigh yourself on the old bathroom scale (digital), then weigh yourself holding the animal.
By the old digital scale, Diva weighs 67 pounds. Less than her calculated weight from December. At this point I can't factually say that she has lost weight. Using two different methods leaves a large margin for error. However, we can assume that she may be starting to lose weight, or at a minimum has not gained. . At her next check in, we will ditch the weight tape and use the digital scale again. We can start getting a more finite idea of her actual weight, whether she is gaining or losing.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate what are plans are for this doe. She will be maintained as a normal part of our herd, until she begins to show signs of suffering. The whole point of letting Diva go this long was to show the faulty logic behind the statement I have often heard of "I've never seen a problem." I'm am trying to show, that it took until 8 months of age until we started to think we might be seeing the first signs of an underlying issue.
Normally, ALL of kids are not retained in a herd until this age, those kept were selected for replacements, Wouldn't it be great if we could keep all of our kids until a year old, then only keep the best.
By the old digital scale, Diva weighs 67 pounds. Less than her calculated weight from December. At this point I can't factually say that she has lost weight. Using two different methods leaves a large margin for error. However, we can assume that she may be starting to lose weight, or at a minimum has not gained. . At her next check in, we will ditch the weight tape and use the digital scale again. We can start getting a more finite idea of her actual weight, whether she is gaining or losing.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate what are plans are for this doe. She will be maintained as a normal part of our herd, until she begins to show signs of suffering. The whole point of letting Diva go this long was to show the faulty logic behind the statement I have often heard of "I've never seen a problem." I'm am trying to show, that it took until 8 months of age until we started to think we might be seeing the first signs of an underlying issue.
Normally, ALL of kids are not retained in a herd until this age, those kept were selected for replacements, Wouldn't it be great if we could keep all of our kids until a year old, then only keep the best.