momma goats

[small farm girl]

My nubien goat just had twins two days ago, her udder is full. when should i milk her out?

 

[SA Farm]

There's really no rules about when you can start milking your does, but I don't start milking until day 3 since for the first couple of days the doe will be producing colostrum. Mind you, it's always a good idea to have a bit of colostrum frozen for emergencies!
You can start separating the babies at night as soon as you're ready to and go ahead and start once a day milking. When they're weaned you can start milking twice a day.
For some great info check out: http://fiascofarm.com/goats/milking.htm#yield

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Very interesting! I didn't know you could freeze colostrum! Looks like most of the antibodies are preserved but the white blood cells are killed in the freezing process. Still seems to be pretty effective though!

 

[H Diamond]

It's not really recommended to seperate kids until they are two weeks old. Before then, they don't eat enough at each feeding to go that long overnight without eating. (Kids eat much less per feeding and do it much more often when being dam raised)
As to when to start milking her.... if she is making more milk than the kids are eating right now you can and should milk the excess. Does produce milk on a demand basis, so milking out the excess will help increase production. And a random note, each doe is different, but most don't start having good tasting milk until at least a week fresh.

 

[cassie]

Most breeders of registered purebred dairy goats separate the kids at birth. If they are on a CAE prevention regimen the kids are never given raw goat milk or colostrum. They are fed only heat treated goat colostrum or cow colostrum and then get pasteurized milk. Kids do just fine on twice a day feedings.

 

[H Diamond]

Most breeders of registered purebred dairy goats separate the kids at birth.  If they are on a CAE prevention regimen the kids are never given raw goat milk or colostrum. They are fed only heat treated goat colostrum or cow colostrum and then get pasteurized milk.  Kids do just fine on twice a day feedings.

That's an entirely different topic. I assumed that the thread starter was meaning when should she start milking her doe and that she was leaving the kids on her as well. If they pulled the kids at birth, then I hope they have milked the doe long before now.
I raise registered dairy goats (along with some grade/market crosses), so the practice you mentioned is not new to me. That being said, new kids would never only be fed twice a day. Their little bellies aren't capable of holding all the milk they need in one day in just two feedings. You would stunt them.

 

[cassie]

That's an entirely different topic. I assumed that the thread starter was meaning when should she start milking her doe and that she was leaving the kids on her as well. If they pulled the kids at birth, then I hope they have milked the doe long before now.

I raise registered dairy goats (along with some grade/market crosses), so the practice you mentioned is not new to me.

That being said, new kids would never only be fed twice a day. Their little bellies aren't capable of holding all the milk they need in one day in just two feedings. You would stunt them.

I didn't read the post as carefully as I should have. The poster should milk the doe if there is any milk. Kids may or may not take it all. If she has left the kids on the doe and then plans to bottle feed later, good luck!! A lot of kids do not take kindly to the change. Some will switch right over, but a few would rather starve, One thing you can do if you plan on leaving the kids on the doe for a few days and then switch to a bottle is to give a bottle right after the kid is born. Then it will take a bottle later with no problem. As for stunting kids by feeding twice a day, you won't. If I still had my goats I could prove it to you. When I had my dairy, my kids got fed twice a day. The exception was very small kids or preemies. They got fed more often. Most commercial dairies feed their kids twice a day. A few may feed three times, but twice is the norm, and their kids grow up to be big strapping does anyway.

 

[H Diamond]

That's interesting! I'm curious as to what breeds and how much you fed each feeding? You can message me if you want, don't want to hijack the thread, lol. Always like learning what works for others!

 

[small farm girl]

Thanks everybody for your answers they helped me out. my doe has lots of milk, and ive been reading my goat book too. i left the babys on her, they are two weeks old today. now i just de-horned them yesterday, and they wont come anyware near me. im hoping they will forget all about it in a couple days. any advice on how to coax them into trusting me again?