Rearing Kids. 179 



the excretions to their natural form shows that the purging 

 is over. Obviously much green food must then be avoided. 

 Nor should the kid be allowed to eat heartily of dry 

 stuff or grain if it can get at what older goats have, 

 under the notion that it wants " feeding up." The 

 stomach after diarrhoea is excessively delicate; if it is 

 overloaded the kid will cease to eat, become distended, 

 and die, the digestive system having stopped altogether. 

 A tiny allowance of grain say half a gill of bruised 

 oats at a time twice a day, or a little broken biscuit or 

 bread, with hay, is quite sufficient after the binding 

 drinks have been left off. Green food should be gradually 

 reintroduced, the great principle of feeding after diarrhoea 

 being a little at a time. Remember also to keep from 

 damp and cold night and day. If the droppings are 

 black, hardish, and pointed at the ends, instead of round 

 and fairly moist, as they ought to be, confinement of the 

 bowels and indigestion are indicated. A very young kid, 

 however, on spring grass and linseed-tea is not likely to be 

 constipated. 



Ejcercuefor 



It conduces greatly to the well-being of a kid if it can 

 be permitted to have free exercise, though on grounds that 

 are only protected by hedges this can seldom be allowed, 

 for these little animals, in whom the mischievous pro- 

 pensity of their kind is inherent, soon find out where 

 their favourite food is located, and either by jumping 

 if the obstacle be a low wall or insinuating their small 

 bodies through the slightest opening, should it be a fence, 

 rapidly make their way thither. Tethering of course may 

 be adopted, but it should be avoided if possible for 

 goats at this early stage of their existence. When prac- 

 tised, however, care must be taken that the tether be 

 fixed free of all obstacles, otherwise in its gambols a kid 



N 2 



