April still preggers.

[Laffy Kat]

That poor giraffe momma. She looks miserable but remains poised and classy. I'd be going to pieces at this point.

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. poor thing

she's been in that tiny space way too long. I feel sorry for her.

[Laffy Kat]

4. They keep opening the door for her to go outside...

But she chooses to stay in. They have to wait until Oliver (the father) is inside and they try to let her out. Even though you see Oliver and April nuzzling, the specialists are afraid that he will either try to rough her up or mount her. Giraffe bulls do not share in the raising of their calves and can be unpredictable. In the wild, though, there is usually another female accompanying the mom for support and to help ward off predators. She may be lonely for a giraffe sister.

[Kimchijeon]

2. Sheesh that poor thing

That must be just excruciating!

[MiniMe]

3. A 150 lb baby that will be 6 ft tall when born

Can't imagine carrying something like that around. Ouch!!!

[csziggy]

5. Tonight she's kind of waddling and holding her tail out more.

And for several days she's had her ears back much more than forward.

When I used to check my pregnant mares those were signs they were getting closer. Waddling means the pelvic muscles are relaxing to let the baby out. With my mares, I would check their milk - when it got really sticky or it was dripping, that meant the baby was coming in less than two days.

I've noticed in some of the vet checks they've tried to check April's milk and she wouldn't let them.

I wonder if giraffes calve at the same time as mares foal? Most horse foals are born between three and five in the morning - late at night after the dew settles and the breeze is less so the scent of the birth carries less.

[Laffy Kat]

6. I knew that about horses, that they are notorious for delivering in the early a.m. hours.

The giraffe calving I've watched on line have shown some wild giraffes delivering in the daylight, although I've also seen some giraffes in captivity that have calved in what looked like nighttime. I just don't know.

[csziggy]

7. Well, although most of our foals were born in the early morning

I have photos that prove they foaled often enough during the day for me to catch them in the act. I think I might have photos of as many as six foalings in the daytime out of the several dozen foals born here. The kicker was the year we had two mares foal two days in a row. Another memorable time was the night two mares foaled less than an hour apart. At dawn the foals were with their birth mothers. By nine AM when the vet got here to check the mares and foals, the babies had switched mamas and stayed with their adoptive mothers until they were weaned.

Some day I have to get those photos posted online...

The bottom line is that the mothers will have their babies when the time is right and there is not one damn thing we can do about it but wait!

[Laffy Kat]

8. Switching mammas! You gotta wonder why that happened.

The animal world is so full of mysteries. I think I'd be a nervous wreck waiting for mares to foal. Hats off to you!

[csziggy]

9. After they bagan testing Quarter Horses for DNA they found it was common

For foals to switch mothers, at least in herds with mares foaling close together. It's just that no one realized it until they could do genetic testing*. It takes a few hours for the foals and mares to completely bond. With two mares that are good friends, they may not stay apart and the foals can end up with the wrong mama. I even had one mare adopt several other foals whose mamas were tired of nursing - at one point she happily let up to five foals in the pasture nurse off her. By that time they were all eating grain and not getting much nutrition from the milk

*AQHA had to start testing because one of the most popular Quarter Horse stallions during the 1980s turned out to have a serious genetic defect that lead to some really bad results - look up HYPP or Equine Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis Disease. Once they required DNA testing they found all kinds of interesting things - the switched babies was the most innocent and least harmful. It turned out a lot of people who had paid for their mares to be bred to some high priced stallions did not get foals related to those stallions.

I'd stuck to the foundation bloodlines rather than breed to the most popular so I never had that problem, plus most of the time I had my own stallion and did my own breeding. But it did make the cost of genetic testing cheaper so I could prove to the vet that the foals had switched - she didn't believe me even though I had pictures to prove it!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. She's lying down now. I thought they gave birth standing up?

[Laffy Kat]

11. All the ones I've seen online where standing up.

It makes for a four-foot drop for the calf. You wonder how they survive the birth. Maybe she just wants to get off her hooves for a while. I sure would. It's got to be hard to get back up.