Bottle feeding baby goats

[bock]

We got two goat kids today! They are so cute and doing pretty well. The doeling is 1 week old, and the little whether-to-be is 2 weeks old. I am reading to give 10-12 ounces of whole milk 3X a day. However, I was told by the breeder that we should be feeding them 20oz 3X a day. The lady at TSC used to bottle feed large numbers of boer goats, and said she only gave them 3 ounces at each feeding; 3X a day. I really don't want to hurt them, and I am really at a loss as far as what to do. If they already had 40oz. today, should I still give them dinner? The tales of blat and floppy kid sendrome scare me. I am already so attached, and I just want to know what is best for them. Thanks for the help.

 

[bock]

Thanks for the chart! We called the breeder and she actually feeds about 15oz 3x a day. We have the Storeys guide to Raising Milk goats and an FFA goat book. The two goat leaders, the books, the breeder, and almost everything I have read says not to feed milk replacer. Supposedly it can cause floppy kid syndrome and bloat. Our 4-H leader, who we talked to today, says only to feed whole vitamin D cows milk from the store, or goats milk. I was going to add buttermilk for probos and extra fat, but she said whole milk was enough. Also, I bought some goat nutri-drench, but I am not sure if I should use it or not.

The male baby pees a lot! But at least his poo was well-formed marbles, not diahrrea. Wheh! However, the girl hasn't peed in about 30 minutes. Thanks for the help!

 

[dixiegal62]

The best replacer milk I ever used was a gallon of whole milk with about 2 cups poured out, then add one can of evaperated milk and one cup of whole fat buttermilk. I've raised goats for years on this .

 

[kysilkies]

First goat for us, he's just under 3 mths old now, we got him at 2 wks and have bottled fed him since. We've used replacer the whole time, no issues, always had pellets, baking soda, hay, a mineral block and water available to him. Raised in house like puppy!

House trained in about 4days just walking out door, now he knocks, head butts door, when he wants out and back in.

Spoiled rotten! He's a Nigerian Dwarf we named Piccolo.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Are there any numbers of guesstimations on let's say out of 100 replacer fed goats what % would die? Is it closer to 1:5 or 1:10000?

I have raised all my kids on replacer, none have died. It's as simple as following directions and being smart enough to know how to do so. If you don't follow the directions, don't measure stuff out, don't use the correct temperature of water, don't mix it well enough, you might have troubles. If you can read and measure you can feed milk replacer without any troubles. It also pays to buy a good quality one made for goats as they are basically powdered goats milk.

Just because someone claims to have done everything and knows everybody doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. Why would they make a product that kills, there's no profit in it. Follow directions, it's as simple as that.

 

[Epona142]

Whole milk is perfectly fine.

In fact, I would advise AGAINST replacer, ever. Kids just don't do as well on it as they can do on whole cow's milk.

 

[shadowpaints]

we have always fed our bottle babies whole cows milk from the store after they get the colostrum that we milk from the dam. they do fine on it, we lost so many when we started out because we fed the milk replacer, that we decided cows milk was best!

bottle babies are so much fun, and so stinkin cute too!

 

[lacy111693]

I know it's a bit late, but no UniMilk. Use cow's milk!! And be careful with pygmies and other small breeds! The feeding recommendations are NOT the same as a normal sized goat. Most people over feed. It is better to give too little than too much. My 5 week old Nigerian dwarf is drinking 3.5 oz 3 x day. Working our way up to 4 oz and plenty of hay. He's perfectly content and we have had no bloating or scours problems.

 

[cassie]

He's adorable, and very smart. I'm glad to hear another kid successfully raised on milk replacer. Unfortunately the bad rumors of replacer being deadly persist. When used according to directions it's a wonderful product. I like not needing to buy gallons of milk constantly. He's a very lucky goat.

The statements about replacer sometimes being lethal are not unsubstantiated rumors. They are based on experience. Sometimes replacer works out just fine and the kids thrive on it. Sometimes it doesn't and the kids scour and some may suddenly bloat and die. I think it has more to do with individual metabolism than anything else. How do I know? I raised goats for over 40 years and for many of those years I had a commercial dairy. I have raised literally hundreds of kids. Some of them I raised on replacer when I was short of milk. I have used both a premium calf replacer and those fancy replacers formulated just for kids. I personally didn't find that it made that all that much of a difference. I am glad replacer worked out for you. But don't assume that because it did that the people telling you it can cause problems are wrong. Someone who is raising large numbers of animals is going to see things that a person raising just a few will never see. I would suggest to anyone using replacer keep some Gas X on hand. If a kid is going to bloat it will do so within about 20 minutes or so of being fed. If that happens, Gas X will deflate them promptly. The other thing is to make sure you give your kids a shot of CD/T to help prevent tetanus and entertoxemia.

 

[cassie]

Are there any numbers of guesstimations on let's say out of 100 replacer fed goats what % would die? Is it closer to 1:5 or 1:10000?

There isn't because there are too many variables. For one thing, the quality of the replacer makes a big difference. I would never feed the cheap replacer to anything. The replacer I fed was 20/20 meaning 20% protein and 20% fat with all milk products and the kids did as well on that as anything else. It was a replacer made for calves. I did try one of the replacers made for kids once. I didn't do it again because that replacer cost at least as much as milk and in that case why not just feed milk?

If you really wanted to do a reliable study you would take maybe 100 kids and feed half of them milk and half of them on replacer. Actually, I have done that and I can tell you had a lot less trouble with the milk fed kids. Some kids do just fine on replacer and if you are only raising five or ten kids you may never run into kids that can't handle it. If you are bottle feeding just one or two kids you are a whole lot better off to just feed milk. The only reason to feed replacer instead of milk is because of cost. With just a few kids that really isn't a factor.

The bottom line is that they are your kids and you can feed them what you like. You pays your money and you takes your choice.