3.5 week old bottle baby goat..kinda.

[hunterjumper999]

I just became the owner of a little female goat

She's 75 % boer and her mama is a Keiko( ? spelling?)

She was doing well till two days ago when mama was found down in the field.

My friend brought her to me yesterday morning ... she had not nursed overnight and im unsure if my friend got her fed before bringing her over.

she had nibbled hay ect.

she is pooping and peeing well.

I've gotten MAYBE 20 oz ( plus hay) into her since yesterday. This includes struggles with the bottle and syringe feeding her.

she will drink SOME from a bowl but not when it cools down.

Shes active and VERY vocal.

My milk goat would probably accept her at this point but she ( the milker) is having some scours right now so I dont want to put them together even tho i know they are from eating the scratch that i put out for the chickens.

A few questions


SOME food is better than none right?
Today i've gotten about a 1/2 bowl of slurry of goat grain and milk replacer mixed with my goats milk. she's eating vigorously.


I'm tending to lean twards the fact that mama was sick. possibly not producing a ton of milk for her. . . so she was eating less than she would be normally. So she's not hungry.

I DID feed her a bowl of milk at 5 am today and she drank maybe a 1/4 while i was at class ect. I took it away after and LET HER GO HUNGRY till a little while ago when she ate the milk mixture. she is still peeing and pooping.

am i doing ANYTHING right?

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
She's still alive, sooo....yeah, apparently.

If I were you, I'd set out grain, hay, and water, and I'd try my hardest to get her to accept straight goat's milk from a bottle. If you don't have enough goat's milk for that, my 2nd choice is a storebought whole cow's milk+buttermilk+evaporated milk recipe*. After that, just straight whole cow's milk. Feeding a slurry of milk and grain and replacer sounds to me like something that might lead to dietary scour.. When they're little, milk goes one place and solid food goes to another by virtue of a little thing called the esophageal groove.. The groove closes when they nurse, allowing the milk to bypass the rumen and go directly into the abomasum.. Where a slurry would go...no clue, but if it's being syringe fed or they're eating it from a bowl, it's probably going into the rumen.

As for getting a fighter onto a bottle, one thing I've found that helps a lot is using a thick, old-school glass soda bottle. Preheat the glass by filling it with hot water and leaving it to sit until the bottle feels warm on the outside.. Glass is an insulator.. If it's already warm when you pour the warm milk in, the milk stays much warmer for much longer and gives you more time to fight it out with the kid.

Next thing I'd suggest are these nipples from caprine supply. You can also get them from Hoegger's goat supply.. I've tried several different types and have had the most success with these.. I've heard the same story from other folks when I mention them...they work.

You might try hiding her eyes when you bottlefeed her, too.. Sometimes it's the sight of your hand and the big contraption of a bottle that freaks them out.. I've had to sit on the edge of a chair with the kid on the floor, then sorta guide the kid up under the back of my knee to where just their nose is poking out...then kinda just cram the nipple in their mouth. It kinda mimics nursing up under mama, where the kid's head would normally be crammed against mama's belly.

Good luck with her. She's a doll.

* the recipe I use is:

Start with 1 gallon jug of whole cow's milk from the store. Pour 2-1/2 cups (20oz) off the gallon. Add one can of evaporated milk to the jug, then top the jug back up with whole cultured buttermilk. Shake.

 

[lockedhearts]

I am raising 2 LaManchas and I have found that sometimes they just are not hungry. Especially when my boys get their feelings hurt or something is out of routine, they seem to not eat as much for a feeding or two.