Limited milk

bengelbarts · Jan 25, 2016

My husband and I raise boer goats. We are just finishing the first half of our kidding season, and have had a really good month. With that being said, over the past few days, I have noticed one 2 week old baby looking somewhat different than all of the other kids. She often stands hunched, does not interact with the other kids and moms, and just generally looks "sad". I watched her with her mom today, and although the kid looks like a healthy weight, it is apparent that mom is trying to wean her. I have not had this happen before, and am wondering what my best course of action is? I am not opposed to bottle feeding--I have two on bottles now, but I know that at two weeks of age, this may be difficult, if not impossible. Help!!

cassie · Jan 25, 2016

Can you catch the mother and make her stand while the kid nurses? Is she drying off? You can try supplementing with a bottle, but I haven't had much luck in converting two week old mother raised kids to a bottle. Is there someone in the area that has dairy goats? Maybe you could borrow one and see if the kid will nurse off of it. Sometimes if kids won't take a bottle they will drink warm (almost hot) milk out of a small bowl. There used to be some milk pellets called Foal-Lac or somesuch. It was made for orphan foals but you might be able to get the kid to eat it. I don't know if it is still available or not. If you can get the kid to eat you have a pretty good chance of raising it in spite of early weaning.

bengelbarts · Jan 25, 2016

We have moved mom and kid back to a nursery pen. We are thinking there might be too much action in the larger space. Plus we can really watch. I appreciate your help, and will try suggestions, if quiet pen doesn't work

Limited milk

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bengelbarts

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cassie

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bengelbarts

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