The owners of a ranch on Vancouver Island have a new and very rare houseguest.
Precious the goat was born at the Maple Heart Ranch on Friday but was immediately rejected by her mother because she is completely hairless.
Owner Conny Rohr said they were shocked to see the hairless bundle emerge.
“(My partner) said, ‘Oh she’s naked, she has no fur!” Rohr exclaimed.
When it was obvious the mother goat was not going to help raise her kid, the couple stepped in.
“Actually it was scary,” Rohr said. “You have to have the colostrum right away, to the baby, they need that within the first half-hour so we milked the mom right away in order to give the colostrum right away.”
Her partner, Gary Rogers has taken on the primary role of caregiver and now Precious follows him around everywhere.
Every three hours he feeds Precious using a syringe “just like a regular baby,” he said.
“I haven’t had much sleep.”
Rogers milks the mother goat in the morning and the evening and then warms that up to feed Precious.
When the couple asked their vet for help they were surprised to learn he had never even heard of a hairless goat before.
“On the Internet, we couldn’t find anywhere else that had these hairless goats,” Rogers said.
They are now documenting Precious’ journey on TikTok under MapleHeartRanch.
“Every day she’s getting stronger and better,” Rogers said. “Every day we’re figuring out how to care for her, keep her warm and dry and see what happens in the future.”
Rohr added Precious is doing “pretty good”, she’s gaining weight, she’s eating and she enjoys being warm by the fire.
They have started a GoFundMe as Precious cannot live outside and the ranch is off the grid so they don’t have easy access to electricity to keep the lights on and keep the house warm.
“Like all our animals, we do the best for (them),” Rogers said. “Our animals come first and every day we do the best for them.
“We help them, they help us.”