Bottle feeding my baby goats question - Page 2

i dont fully wean untill 12 weeks...i like them to get a GOOD start and goats tend to take a while to wean naturally.

my schedual with my girls is going along these lines

3 bottles untill 7 weeks old (8am, 3pm, 8pm)

at 6 weeks i cut them down to 2 bottles (8:30am, 7:30pm)
at 9 weeks i will be cutting them down to 1 bottle in the morning

and at 12 weeks they will be cut off from the bottle.

i dont mix milk and water because i want them to get full nutrition from the milk they are getting (ive also known goats bottle fed water who later REFUSE to drink out of a bucket)

ive known people wean as young as 6 weeks, others 8, but the general "rule" from the names i trust is to let them go a little longer on the bottle to get a much better start.  especially dairy does.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinkfoxfarm 

i dont fully wean untill 12 weeks...i like them to get a GOOD start and goats tend to take a while to wean naturally.

my schedual with my girls is going along these lines

 

3 bottles untill 7 weeks old (8am, 3pm, 8pm)

at 6 weeks i cut them down to 2 bottles (8:30am, 7:30pm)
at 9 weeks i will be cutting them down to 1 bottle in the morning

and at 12 weeks they will be cut off from the bottle.

i dont mix milk and water because i want them to get full nutrition from the milk they are getting (ive also known goats bottle fed water who later REFUSE to drink out of a bucket)

ive known people wean as young as 6 weeks, others 8, but the general "rule" from the names i trust is to let them go a little longer on the bottle to get a much better start.  especially dairy does.

I heard that too, with the putting water in the bottle. Seems like a silly way to get them to drink unless they are sick or something. I have left a bowl of water in with my two kids, and from the first day I had them (one was two weeks, the other nine days when I brought them home) they'll run over between play sessions to take a sip of water.

we dont do it to get them to drink water all our bottle kids are drinking water on their own  by the time they are a week old. we do it to give them the satisfaction of nursing, but at the same time most loose interest in the bottle of water after a few times, and start to wean them selfs lol

everyone does it differently, do what you want to do, what feels right to YOU :)

Here is a great article by Roll Farms on the sister site Backyard Herds:

So you bought a baby goat...now what?

This article lays out how to bottle feed through their entire feeding time (3 months by her schedule) as teaches you how to wean over that time.