kid milk replacer?

[username taken]

there is absolutely nothing wrong with replacer. I have literally raised hundreds of babies of all species and breeds on replacer.

But, I would use NurseAll

http://www.mannapro.com/nurseall.htm

rather than Sav-A-Kid

 

[cassie]

Throw out the darn replacer!! For a couple goats it just isn't worth it. The only reason to ever use replacer is for economic reasons. It sure isn't because it is better for them. Some kids tolerate replacer just fine but others will blow up and die on it. BTW, I had goats for over 45 years. At one time or another I have had a hobby herd, a show herd, a pet herd, and a commercial dairy. Milked about 100 does. So I do know whereof I speak. Plain old cow milk from the store works just fine.

 

[username taken]

sorry, I'm gonna disagree.

I have NEVER seen any animal die from being fed GOOD replacer - calves, kids, lambs, foals, piglets, kittens. And as I said, I have raised hundreds and hundreds over the years.

I raise orphans for a LIVING. So I do know whereof I speak.

Now as you said, replacer most of the time is cheaper than purchasing cow milk for human consumption from the store. Yes, thats correct. Now why should it matter if you have 2 or 20 or 200 kids to raise? Call me stupid, but even when I have only two or three on the bottle, I still want to raise them in the most economical way. And if your two options are cows milk from the store, or replacer, the choice is simple.

Now, if you can get excess milk from a dairy, or produce your own milk, 90% of the time that works out cheaper than the replacer and cheaper than buying milk from the store. At various times I have had both dairy goats and cattle for raising orphans, but the majority have been raised on replacer.

The key with replacer is not to get the cheap stuff. You need something that is at least 20:20 protein:fat. I personally use one that is 28:21.

http://www.probiotec.com.au/Probiotec/page.aspx?pageId=e58f768e-f8af-4af5-aa30-c7db29d5011c

I use the green

 

[cutiepieacres]

I too have had issues with replacers, even had a kid die when we first started out, we did buy the best available at the time.

With my bottle baby pygmies I give whole cows milk with cream added since pygmy goat milk is so rich. I have not once had scours, even switching babies from moms milk which I feed for the first week straight over. No tummy aches and they grow great.

The whole cows milk is what works for my babies and I trust it 100% to keep my babies growing, but do whatever works for you and your kids.

 

[quiltnchik]

I just finished bottle raising a Barbados Black Belly lamb and had him on Sav-A-Lamb from day #1. He did get a touch of scours on day #2, but by day #3 it had cleared up. He got scours again at 3 weeks of age, when he started eating his first grass; again, it cleared up by the next day. The guy who owns him (at the farm where I board my horses) still has him on the Sav-A-Lamb and he's much larger and healthier looking than his siblings that were raised with their mother (he was a triplet and was abandoned by the ewe). He's 5 weeks old now and is doing wonderfully.

I really don't understand the problem with replacer. Cow's milk is made for baby COWS, while replacer is made according to the needs of the individual species...

Just my .02...

 

[cassie]

Cow's milk is made for calves, true. But the requirements of a baby goat and a baby calf are not that different. Cow's milk and goats milk are roughly the same butterfat. I can tell you from personal experience that kids do very well on cow milk and calves thrive on goat milk. Ewe's milk is much higher in fat than goat's milk or cow's milk therefore lambs need a much richer milk. The trouble with milk replacer and kids is that while some kids can tolerate the stuff some cannot. They will bloat and die with no warning. I have had kids blow up and die on the pricey kid milk replacer too, so when I had my dairy and had to use replacer for economic reasons I just used a premium calf replacer. It was cheaper and did just as well. I also kept a supply of GasX in the barn and made sure the kids were up to date on their CD/T shots. The price of some of those kid milk replacers is such that it is cheaper to feed whole cow milk from the store than the replacer, and the kids will do a lot better on the cow milk than they will on any replacer.