Bottle feeding my baby goats question

My baby goats Charlie and Grace will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. I have had them since they were 1 week old and have been bottle feeding them. They are eating hay and goat feed but I am still giving them their milk replacer 4 times a day.

I know they are old enough for me to start weaning them from the bottle, but does anyone know the proper way to do this. They get a bottle first thing in the morning, one at lunch, one at dinner and one before bed. I was going to cut out one of the feedings during the day but not sure if this is the correct way to do it. Should I just decrease the amount they are getting at each feeding. I am giving them 9 oz per bottle and they look very healthy and happy and they are very loving as well.

Any help would be greatly appreaciated! Here is a picture of them from about 1 1/2 weeks ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flgardengirl 

Just wanted to say your goats are sooo cute!!

Thank you flgardengirl. I think they are too, but I am supposed to think that. But they are just so sweet and lovable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Domestic_goddess 

They should be weaned between 8-10 weeks old, make sure they have free choice hay and water. You start at about 6 weeks, taking away one bottle feeding each week....by week 10 you can take away there last bottle. By then they will be eating hay and feed and no longer in need of the bottle.

Good luck, they are so cute!

Thank you Domestic_goddess

I have cut one bottle feeding out last week, this week I will take one more away and that will leave them with a morning bottle and an evening bottle.
So maybe by about the week mark they will almost be weaned. Bad thing is is that I am going to need to buy another bag of milk replacer to get me through. I didn't want to buy a whole bag to use for a short time, but I will if I need to. Thanks again!

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowpaints 

what we do, is by the time they are 3 weeks old they are on  2 bottles a day. one am one pm

 

 at 6 weeks we cut the amount of  milk the bottle in half (for big goats they are getting a 1 liter bottle 2x a day) and add water and gradually decrease the amount of milk  till at 7 weeks they are  only drinking water. so, once they are only on water, we switch to just one PM bottle (this is also when we move them out of the back yard in with the other young  goats then at  8 weeks,  we gradually decrease the amount of water in the bottle. by nine weeks they are weaned !  we do feed a  4 way mix, and keep a protien block available at all times.

I am a little behind schedule then. lol but I have never had to feed baby goats before and I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to stop. But they are starting to get pretty rough with the bottle and knocking it out of my hand and just being little kids. lol... I will hopefully have them weaned by 10-11 weeks maybe even 12 weeks. They enjoy it so much to cuddle with me before and after feedings, it kinda makes me sad to stop, but they need to. They are eating food and hay daily so I know they are going to be just fine. Thanks again!