Rejected by her mother, one-month old dwarf Cameroon goat ‘Lilo’ has adopted a chicken as her new mommy at Crocworld Conservation Centre.
“Lilo was born on 17 August with a twin brother,” said Crocworld Conservation Centre manager, Martin Rodrigues.
Dwarf Cameroon goat females usually have between one and three kids per pregnancy.
“This is the first time we have seen a mother reject her offspring. She gladly accepted the male, however the female was rejected.
We kept a close eye on developments and noticed Lilo was being butted away by her mother whenever she went to drink from her.
We also noticed that Lilo was following one of the large chickens that shares the enclosure with the goats and she has adopted this chicken as her mother.
Management took the decision to remove Lilo from her mother as she was not caring for her and we have hand-reared her since day one.”
Martin and tour guide, Caleb Rowberry took turns to take Lilo back home with them after work to nurse her back to health by bottle-feeding her every two to three hours.
She weighed just over 1kg when she was born and now weighs nearly 5kg.
“She appears to be thriving, but she is still being bottle-fed by Crocworld staff, although solid food has been introduced to her diet as well.”
Lilo now spends most of her time during the day with the rest of the dwarf Cameroon goats within the centre’s animal farm where visitors have the opportunity to meet her.
