Goat owners help with new kids please

[Chirpy]

I am, hopefully, getting very close to bringing home me new baby Nigerian Dwarf goats. I'm getting a wether and a doeling that will be about 8 weeks old.

I hear different ideas on what and how to feed them and would really like to hear from any of you that can help me. What do I need to have here ready to feed them? How much and how often do I feed them?

I have their house and fence ready.

 

[KingsCalls]

Go to GoatTalk.com lots of people there that can answer almost any question you have. I just got 3 new goats myself and I'm in the learning process myself...

 

[carolinacooper]

Hi I have 3 nd's. My local feed mill sells a goat ration that is @15% protien. Mine are doing well on it. I feed each goat one fourth a pound of feed twice a day.I also make sure they have free choice of good quality hay all day.Mine are all full grown now, they ate a little less when they were kids.They also are in an acre of pine trees. They love to munch on the bark, and they don't hurt the trees at all.Hope that helps...Oh yeah, Purina makes a goat feed, also, and a good friend of mine says that a good quality high protien horse feed will also do if need be...

 

[nightshade]

Good luck we just bought three bottle babies two weeks ago One was only a few days old we found out afterword and only lived a week on milk replacer and vitamins. Had a second fall and die after getting hurt. A freak accident. Playing like all goats do yesterday morning in the barn. Third a little girl Lily Bug, is doing great! eatting soild food now on top of two bottles of milk replacer every 4-6 hours. They were probably only a month old tops. If you can get them aliitle older then you are planning, I would greatly advise it. Less can go wrong. When I get more to replace the two we lost they will be atleast a three or four months old probably I will go with full size. But there you can run into behavor problems cause like I tell my hubby it is no differnt then getting a dog that is a few years old. You don't know what it went through before it was yours you just have to do the best with what you got. But they usually straiten out okay after you have them awhile.

For your babies at their age you will want to get a milk replacer that is for goats most feed stores and tractor suppliers will have it. You might want to conciter a vitamin, ask at your feed store what they recomend, ours did a calf paste but they were alot younger then yours. You will want to offer them a good hay and calf sweet feed. Some feed store will mix you a special mix for baby goats but this works fine also. Both you want to make sure are given fresh a few times a day and have open access to 24-7. when they are older you can feed them on a regular time frame twice a day like you wood a cow or a horse. Mos fokes don't grain an adult goat unless it is breed or used for milk. I do though exspecially in the winter when the snow keeps them from forging well. If you ahve an UNWETHERED male you want to by only goat feed made with amonum clorite - not spelled right tell them you need the kind with the little balls in it that keep the males from getting kidney stones. a very serious thing it can easily kill an adult male goat. Your's you say will be wethered so when they get full size if you wish to grain them you can just buy horse sweet feed, get the 10% it will be fine for them.

Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[helmstead]

Our kids get a 1/2 a cup twice a day of the following mix:

2 parts shredded beet pulp
1 part medicated goat chow
1 part whole oats

topdressed with BOSS

Wethers, once grown, get fat quickly and oft don't need any more that good quality hay.

Also be sure to have loose goat minerals available.

Congrats on your new babies!

 

[Chatychick]

I raise Nd goat and I give my bottle babies whole cows milk or half/half I dont use replacer as it causes more problems like scours and dehydration. You have less trouble with them this way. If you get a wether all you have to feed it is hay becaue you need the calciumhos ratio just right or they have a tendency to have Urinary calculi. I have raised bottle babies with great success with cows milk and am feeding 1 in the house right now. When I bottle feed the babies I keep them in the house till weaning time. I know some cant afford to feed them milk all the time but really they dont eat all that much. Yes accidents do happen and sometimes they do get hurt. Goats are herd animals and need a buddy, they seem to do better with a friend. I raise registered and unregistered goats. You can join GoatTalk.com and I am a member there and we help as much as possible ..helmstead, and kings call are members there too...we love to talk goat.

 

[TomOBedlam]

I have four ND babies right now, two doelings and two soon-to-be-wethers. They're right between four and five weeks, and are being bottle fed cow's milk three times a day. They're growing like weeds and the bottlefeeding is awesome for their socialization, too. The breeder from whom they were purchased recommended the cow's milk over the milk replacer for the reasons the previous posters stated.

Ours are just starting to nibble at a medicated goat pellet feed, as well as some hay and grass. They've just been moved outside from their former home, which was a kennel in our living room

. I might offer sweet feed as a semi-treat, but the breeder recommended mostly small feedings of the pellets (any high quality, medicated feed with the proper protein balance will do,) and hay.

I'm going to go join Goat Talk, now, too, see you guys there!

 

[helmstead]

Quote:
I would recommend against this - I know a lot of people do this but horse feed, IMO, is for horses. You really want a complete goat feed that includes Decoxx and, if you can find it, ammonium chloride.

Tom - looking forward to seeing you on GT!

 

[ksacres]

I wouldn't give the little guy any grain, just milk or replacer, and a good quality grass hay. They are finding a correlation between high protein feeds and urinary calculi in wethers. Your doeling doesn't *really* need grain either, unless she's in late pregnancy or lactating. A good quality hay is really all you need.

We sell most of our wethers for meat, so we do grain them until they are sold. They never get old enough to have problems from being banded young or grained. Just a difference of end use.

I have heard horror stories about using replacer-but we have used it many times, and I have never lost a kid on it.

There are many things that can upset a kid's digestive system, like eating too much or too fast, or being switched suddenly from momma's milk to replacer (or to cow's milk). All changes need to be done gradually. I hope the breeder sent you home with milk to transition with, whether you choose replacer or cow's milk.

For our lactating does, we use a 17% goat feed mixed with 9% sweet feed. Contrary to what people may have you believe, higher protein is not always better. Goats are not meant to be processing that much protein. Free choice WATER is the most important, followed by a good quality hay.

We also do not use medicated feed, never have, and don't plan on using it in the future. We don't vaccinate for overeating disease either. But that's a whole 'nother bag o' worms.

 

[TomOBedlam]

ksacres...I LOVE your signature!!!