milk replacer?

[purr]

thank you all so much. I will be buying regular old milk at the grocery store and cream too. How much cream should I add?

 

[cassie]

Most dairy goat milk is about 3.5% butterfat. Store milk is 3.5% butterfat. If you give too much fat you are going to give the babies
the skitters. When I was feeding kids milk from my Jersey cows I sometimes had to dilute it. It was too rich and they just couldn't handle it. Store milk is fine for the kids as is.

 

[cassie]

Just a comment on the replacer formulated for kids. It isn't worth the money. I had a goat dairy for over 30 years and occasionally we had to feed replacer. We found that kids will blow up and die just as fast on the kid replacers as they will on replacers made for calves. Also, the difference in price between the kid replacer and store bought milk isn't much so you are better off just feeding store milk. We found that if we used a premium calf replacer, one with all milk products and 20% fat and 20% protein it worked about as well as anything. Also, feeding half milk and half replacer cuts down on a lot of the problems too. We made sure the kids were up on their entero shots and we made sure we had GasX in the barn. If a kid is going to blow up, it will usually do so shortly after being fed. If we fed the kids first, before doing other chores, we were still in the barn if a kid had trouble and we could treat it.

 

[username taken]

Wow amazing how I've managed to raise several hundred kids over the years on REPLACER. Considering how bad it is for goats.

Last year was the first time I lost a bottle baby ... and that was due to E.coli infection in the brain. Certainly not dietary causes.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

I agree usernametaken I have two boar goats and one pygmy on purina milk replacer and they are doing fine. Tyson is hugh and was a triplet so it can't be hurting him too much. I have never used store milk before I was told the nutrients are all taken out with the pasturizing. The last time I had bottle babies I used fresh goats milk that a friend sells but this time she didn't have any available. I also give my goats probiotics when I change their feed or wean them it helps to keep their stomachs working just right.

 

[natalie1136]

We just weaned 4 bottle babies. They all had whole cows milk from the grocery store. They are all healthy and did great on the milk. 2 of the babies we got at auction. I did give them all probios. I think everyone has an opinion on what to feed. You need to read as much as possible and then decide what you feel comfortable with and do that.

Natalie

 

[SheriM]

I, too, have raised several kids on replacer with no problems. However, there is a difference among brands. A friend of mine used a different brand than I do and lost several kids to bloat, but these kids were very close to weaning age and getting a larger volume of milk per feeding and fewer feedings. That may have been a problem, or it could have been something else they ate. She isn't sure.

I have also used 1/2 and 1/2 replacer and store bought milk with good success.

 

[lilhill]

With four years of raising NDs, when I had bottle babies they got plain old Vit. D milk and the only thing I added to their feeding was PolyVisol vitamins with Iron once a day. They thrived and grew at the same rate as the dam raised kids. Never had a problem with scours or sickly kids.