Until the baby goat can digest the grain, it won't eat it. I fed my kids all the hay and grain they would eat until they were a few months old. By having it in front of them all the time they won't overeat. Since I was raising a lot of kids, mine just got fed milk twice a day. More frequent feedings would have been better but I just did not have the time. As I remember it was 20 oz. per feeding and they did fine on it. I have friends that feed their kids free choice cold milk and their kids do really well too. The kids on free choice milk grew faster than mine, but by the time they were adults there was no difference in size. Mine were full size goats, not minis.
mine do eat some but not much and I imagine they learn to eat from older goats when in a herd. Our oldest is two months old I keep thinking three he was born 1-23-17. He completely off milk and eats grains(two part barley, two part oat, one part sunflower, one part calf manna) and alfalfa (when he gets old enough I switch him to hay), hay. Now he eats alot and forages, the girls eat some but not nearly what he does and they mostly prefer milk I am sure if give the chance he would as well since he comes running when I feed the girls.
