When Shadow Valley filmed one of its does, Lacey, giving birth, the resulting footage was simply magical. Her newborn fawn was as cute as can be. However, as the camera continued to roll, something startlingly different emerged. Shadow Valley Whitetails is a farm based in Rivesville, West Virginia, and specializes in the breeding of white tail and piebald deer.
Founded in 2000, the farm is the first facility of its kind to focus on such breeds, and it prides itself on its top quality bloodlines. The key to Shadow Valley’s success is in the efforts staff go to in socializing their herd. Fawns are bottle-fed, resulting in calm, healthy adults that are less likely to become stressed in working environments. The Shadow Valley team are so proud of what they’ve achieved, in fact.
that they document daily life on the farm on their various social media channels, which include Facebook and YouTube. And given the adorable nature of their work, the farmers have scored plenty of fans online. Indeed, on YouTube alone, the farm has clocked up a staggering 2,416,513 views in just over five years. But most of those views were of one single video. When you see the content matter, though,
it’s not hard to see why. The video follows a white doe named Lacey, who has just birthed a beautiful brown fawn. However, it soon becomes evident that her labor isn’t over just yet. In the clip, Lacey lies on the ground with her newborn fawn licking it clean after its delivery, and the doe and her child bond for a good few minutes. The deer’s first tender moments of motherhood are cut short though. That’s because she’s about to deliver another baby.
As the first fawn begins to suckle, his mom births another baby with minimum fuss. In the video, the little one’s feet emerge first, closely followed by his nose. Then with a few long pushes, the tiny deer arrives fully into the world, where he is greeted by his twin. However, while the two brothers might share a birthday, they couldn’t have looked more different. You see, while the first fawn was brown with white speckles, the second was completely white.
The amazing video comes to an end just as the brown fawn starts to find his feet. Meanwhile, the little white baby remains on the floor, crying out for his mama, who responds by coming to clean him. But the little one remains as vocal as ever. In the second video, Lacey continues to lick her baby’s clean as she eventually reveals her second-born snowy white fur in all its glory. Under their mom’s guidance,
The two fawns soon look presentable and are ready to take their very first steps. Then, in a third video of the fawn’s first moments, the cute twosome are introduced to more members of their herd. The brown brother shows himself to be more outgoing than his sibling, running off to explore his new surroundings before being summoned back by his mom. And the next time we spot the brown deer, he’s come over to inspect the person behind the camera.
He then enjoys a quick fuss before finally returning to his mother’s fold. However, he doesn’t stick around for very long and soon darts off on another adventure. Needless to say then, Lacey would have her hooves full with her two lively fawns. In the wild, fawns stay with their moms for around a year before making their own way in the world. It’s likely, however, that Lacey’s pair might have been sold off before that time was up.
And Lacey’s beautiful story started some time before the video was made. Yes, the female deer will have fallen pregnant with their babies up to 10 months before their birth. Doe’s usually give birth to one or two fawns and triplets are rare. Interestingly, after their birth, young deer usually hide in long grass for up to a week when they will be ready to graze alongside their mom. In fact, the first 20 minutes of a fawn’s life is potentially the most crucial.
During this time, the baby must stand up so it can escape predators if needed. And while the fawn finds its feet, the mother will lick it clean of any scent, just as we saw Lacey doing in the video. With that in mind then, it appeared that Lacey was shaping up to be a perfect mom to her twins. And when the video of her giving birth appeared on YouTube, it soon went viral. In fact, as of August 2018, the footage had clocked up more than 2.2 million views.
And judging by the comments the video has attracted, people couldn’t get enough of the cute deer family. OMG! Lacey is such a beauty! Gushed one YouTube user. Love that gorgeous white coat and her fawns are so cute. Thank you for sharing. Meanwhile, another person said, I am so glad people like you make effort to film and post things like this. Thank you so much. I’ve seen a few animals born, dogs and cats.
and horses and cows and a few others on film like this, but never deer until now. So it seems that the video of Lacey and her fawns brought joy to many of the people who watched it, and fans of the footage will more likely be happy to hear this wasn’t Lacey’s only go at motherhood. Yes, in 2014, she gave birth to two more babies, and once again, they sported different colored fur.
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