First came the feet. For an hour, that was the whole show: two tiny hooves and their occasional wiggle.

It was nerve wracking, waiting for the rest of the giraffe to emerge.

An hour after the feet appeared, a little nose sniffed into the world, a sure sign that the baby was poised perfectly for its headlong dive to the floor six feet below, Toledo Zoo veterinarian Wynona Shellabarger said.

But to see the dive itself, Dr. Shellabarger and keepers would wait another hour.

When all 111 pounds of baby giraffe crumpled to the floor Aug. 24, the newborn s mother, 4-year-old Charlotte, a Masai giraffe, took a little sniff, then moved away. The gooey baby, now sugared with sand that had been spread six inches deep to soften the infant s arrival, was not on mom s agenda.

Charlotte, who is called Michelle by her keepers, was full of surprises for Toledo Zoo staff. The very first surprise was that she was pregnant at all.

Two weeks before she gave birth, keepers noticed udder development. Before the staff could follow that observation with a pregnancy test, her state became obvious when the animal s vulva engorged a sure sign of impending birth.

It s easy to miss pregnancy in these animals, said Joe Christman, coordinator of the population management plan for giraffes in North America. Mr. Christman is animal operations manager for Disney s Animal Kingdom in Florida.

That s not surprising, he said. Giraffes don t show a lot of signs of being pregnant. They don t get abnormally huge.

Plus, Charlotte was awfully young to be having a baby. At 1,600 pounds, she still has a few years of growth ahead of her.

She got pregnant at 2 years old. That s like the earliest she could get pregnant, Toledo Zoo mammal curator Randi Meyerson said.

No one had ever reported seeing Charlotte breed with the zoo s 5-year-old male Masai, Mowgli.

Initially, zoo staff hoped to help Charlotte past her new-baby jitters, but six hours after the calf was born, staff members put a 3 -foot tube down the infant s throat to give the newborn cow colostrum.

Colostrum is the first milk a mother produces after delivery. It is loaded with antibodies and protective against infection. It is critical that animals receive colostrum in the first 12 to 24 hours of life.

After her first tube feeding, the newborn was returned to her mother.

Charlotte hadn t grown any more maternal.

Every time the baby approached to nurse, [Charlotte] would swing her head at it, Ms. Meyerson said. She d come nose to nose with the baby, but as soon as the baby would get close to her udder, she was gone, until at one point the baby was chasing her around the room.

The staff worried Charlotte would injure the calf, or just plain wear her out, reducing her chance of survival. Charlotte was hand-raised, and zoo staffers think that may have contributed to her absent mothering instincts.

So keepers took over within 24 hours of the calf s birth. Charlotte can still see her infant but no longer has contact with her.

Keepers are working to accustom the newborn to drink from a bottle. Until Wednesday, this was supplemented with intraveneous nutrition.

She s taking some positive strides, but she s been very stubborn, Dr. Shellabarger said.

But it turns out, the new baby likes the color orange. She was so enthusiastic about drinking from an orange bucket, keepers wrapped her bottle in orange tape hoping the color would charm her to the bottle. It s easier to measure the animal s intake if she uses a bottle, and bottle-feeding also ensures the animal is sucking her meals, not lapping them.

She s sucking the milk out of the bucket; she s not lapping it. That s why we think we re so close, Dr. Shellabarger said.

The young giraffe won t be put on exhibit to the public until its condition is stabilized.

Contact Jenni Laidman at:jenni@theblade.com or 419-724-6507.

First Published September 3, 2005, 12:44 p.m.