Bottle vs. Dam raising goats

[cassie]

They should be mother raised any messed with daily to make for well rounded, people friendly goats. Bottle babies tend to be obnoxious when the get older. And bottle baby males can get down right dangerous when the get 2-3 years old.

Bottle raised male goats can get downright dangerous when they get 2-3 years old? Really? I raised dairy goats for over 40 years and for many of those years I had a commercial dairy. Because of that I had contact with a lot of bucks, both mine and other people's. ALL of my bucks, and all of the bucks of the breeders and dairymen I knew, were bottle raised and none, repeat none, of these bucks were ever aggressive or dangerous and many of the bucks I handled were a lot older than two or three years. They may get obnoxious but not dangerous. They may blubber at you, rub on you, pee on you, and try to mount you, but not attack you. The only bucks I ever knew, and I can count that number on one hand, that were aggressive were dam raised and not socialized when they were young. I bottle raised all my bucks, handled them, and taught them basic manners when they were babies. Every other breeder I have ever known, and I have known a few, did the same. Now bottle raised bull calves are a whole different story entirely. They can be very dangerous.

As for whether to bottle raise or dam raise your kids, it is up to you. Bottle raised kids will bond to you. Dam raised kids require a lot of socialization. My bottle raised does as a group were not obnoxious and were not difficult to manage as adults, but personalities do vary. If you are selling these kids for 4H projects, you might be better off to bottle raise them, but as I said, it is up to you. Just be sure to give the kids their CD/T shots.

 

[Gray Farms]

Bottle raised male goats can get downright dangerous when they get 2-3 years old? Really? I raised dairy goats for over 40 years and for many of those years I had a commercial dairy. Because of that I had contact with a lot of bucks, both mine and other people's. ALL of my bucks, and all of the bucks of the breeders and dairymen I knew, were bottle raised and none, repeat none, of these bucks were ever aggressive or dangerous and many of the bucks I handled were a lot older than two or three years. They may get obnoxious but not dangerous. They may blubber at you, rub on you, pee on you, and try to mount you, but not attack you. The only bucks I ever knew, and I can count that number on one hand, that were aggressive were dam raised and not socialized when they were young. I bottle raised all my bucks, handled them, and taught them basic manners when they were babies. Every other breeder I have ever known, and I have known a few, did the same. Now bottle raised bull calves are a whole different story entirely. They can be very dangerous.

As for whether to bottle raise or dam raise your kids, it is up to you. Bottle raised kids will bond to you. Dam raised kids require a lot of socialization. My bottle raised does as a group were not obnoxious and were not difficult to manage as adults, but personalities do vary. If you are selling these kids for 4H projects, you might be better off to bottle raise them, but as I said, it is up to you. Just be sure to give the kids their CD/T shots.

Your experience with bottle raised adult bucks was been much different than mine then. That is why I said "can" and not "all/always".

 

[AltonaAcres]

I know a 4-H family, and they have 4 dairy goats. 2 were bottle fed, they are VERY obnoxious, are constantly bleating and jumping for attention, won't stop chewing and pulling on your clothes. The other 2 were raised by their goat moms. They are slightly skittish, but they were raised on a large farm, so didn't get enough attention. If there was a good balance, you could go either way.

 

[cassie]

I know a 4-H family, and they have 4 dairy goats. 2 were bottle fed, they are VERY obnoxious, are constantly bleating and jumping for attention, won't stop chewing and pulling on your clothes. The other 2 were raised by their goat moms. They are slightly skittish, but they were raised on a large farm, so didn't get enough attention. If there was a good balance, you could go either way.

The problem may be not so much that they were bottle raised is that as 4H goats they are treated as pets whereas in a herd situation, like I had, they are not.

 

[BeeandThistle]

I wish i could help, but i am also a new goat owner with the same question. Hopefully someone will answer your question!
Good luck, my fellow noob!

Thank you! You as well!

 

[BeeandThistle]

Also if it is her first time you need to watch close. Make sure she doesn't have trouble delivering them. Make sure she cleans them and gets them up. Make sure she has milk and will feed them. If she rejects the kids or doesn't have milk then you'll have to bottle feed them.

Daisy is 4 and I was told that she was a good mama to her previous kids. She lets us touch her belly and is so sweet- she’s clearly been handled and milked before.
Viola is due at the end of April and it is her first time.... a little nervous about her. She’s a little feisty as well- sweet overall but doesn’t like to be touched on her tummy. Vet said that there were at least two babies in there!

AB5E8B6F-6B58-4C4F-8AF6-F2B5ABA7A8C5

• BeeandThistle
• Mar 12, 2019
• goat

Our feisty Viola!

 

[BeeandThistle]

Bottle raising will make the kids needy, loud, and sometimes less healthy. Its also lots of work bottle feeding the kids, in addition to feeling cruel when you take the newborns away from their mom. If you let the doe feed them, just be sure to handle the kids and practice having them in a show collar, and they should be just as sweet as a bottle baby!

That may explain why Daisy doesn’t like being left in the pasture with her herd buddy Viola. She bleats and runs frantically around to find a way back to me.
She’s still a sweetie nevertheless!

 

[cassie]

Bottle raising will make the kids needy, loud, and sometimes less healthy. Its also lots of work bottle feeding the kids, in addition to feeling cruel when you take the newborns away from their mom. If you let the doe feed them, just be sure to handle the kids and practice having them in a show collar, and they should be just as sweet as a bottle baby!

Just a comment. Kids are often bottle raised for health reasons. If a breeder is on a program to prevent and eradicate CAE and/or Johnes, leaving the kids on the mothers is simply not an option. The kids must be removed immediately after birth.

Bottle raising does not necessarily make the kids loud or needy. Mine never were. I think it has more to do with the way the kids are handled rather than whether or not they are bottle raised. Also, if you are unsure whether you want to bottle raise your kids or leave them on the mothers, it is a good idea to give the kid colostrum from a bottle right after it is born. That way you can make sure the kid got that all important colostrum. Then you can allow it to nurse. That way if you decide later for any reason to pull the kids and bottle raise them they will take a bottle. Otherwise they may not. I have known kids to starve themselves to death rather than take a bottle.

 

[Farmgirl47]

Bucks that are bottle raised CAN be obnoxious, but many times it is because of how they are handled. They need to be taught to respect their caretakers from the get-go. If you let them jump up on you, "play" head butt with you when they are 2 weeks old, they are going to continue that as 2 year olds, at 150+lbs. Bucks need boundaries.
But aggressiveness can also be a genetic thing, which is why I cull bucks that aren't easy to work with and mild tempered.

As for dam raising or bottle feeding, I really don't know which I like better. My bottle babies have almost never been obnoxious. Once they are 2-3 weeks old I switch them over to a lambar (which is out with them from about 7:00am to 7:00pm), which I think helps a lot. But as mentioned above, being needy/loud has more to do with the handling more than the method of feeding.

If you are going to bottle feed, please pull the kids right at birth (don't let mom even see/lick them). If you let her clean them off before pulling them, she has already started to bond with them and there will be a lot of unnecessary stress when you take them away. The doe will cry for them for days.