pulling goats for bottling, and milking dams for the first time

[Bug n Flock]

We have 5 goatlings born the 3rd and the 4th to 2 dams(triplets followed by twins).

Finally have the stand built

Finally got milking machine delivered


Any tips? Going to pull the babies and milk out the moms in a few hours. I have done a lot of reading, spoken extensively with other goat people, and have bottle raised plenty of other animals before. But I am just nervous.

 

[Cyprus]

Have you stand trained the moms yet? How old are the kids?
Older kids tend to reject being switched to a bottle.
How much milk are you hoping to get the first milking? Separating overnight will allow their bags to fill.

 

[cassie]

How long have these kids been nursing their mothers? If it has been more that a couple days you may have trouble. Some switch right over and others, particularly Toggs will starve themselves to death first.

 

[Farmgirl47]

How is it going @Bug n Flock ?

If you want to bottle feed, it is usually best and less stressful on both sides to pull the babies right at --or soon after-- birth.
It may be very difficult to get them to take the bottle now since they are going on 3 weeks old, but it could be done.

I have always share-milked with mom and babies, meaning the kids ARE dam raised, but (starting at 5 days old) I separate the kids during the night for a full 12 hours, milk the mom in the morning, then let the kids be with mom for the rest of the day. It works very well, and after a few days everyone gets used to the routine.
Once the kids hit 2-3 months old and are getting big, I usually separate the kids 24/7, but let them nurse on mom 2x a day. They are fully weaned at 4-6 months old.

Contrary to popular belief, dam raised babies, if well socialized, can be just as sweet as bottle babies. I know by experience.

 

[cassie]

How is it going @Bug n Flock ?

If you want to bottle feed, it is usually best and less stressful on both sides to pull the babies right at --or soon after-- birth.
It may be very difficult to get them to take the bottle now since they are going on 3 weeks old, but it could be done.

I have always share-milked with mom and babies, meaning the kids ARE dam raised, but (starting at 5 days old) I separate the kids during the night for a full 12 hours, milk the mom in the morning, then let the kids be with mom for the rest of the day. It works very well, and after a few days everyone gets used to the routine.
Once the kids hit 2-3 months old and are getting big, I usually separate the kids 24/7, but let them nurse on mom 2x a day. They are fully weaned at 4-6 months old.

Contrary to popular belief, dam raised babies, if well socialized, can be just as sweet as bottle babies. I know by experience.

How friendly dam raised kids are depends a whole lot on how much socialization they get and what breed they are. One thing a person can do if they are not sure whether they want to dam raise or bottle raise their kids is to give the kids colostrum from a bottle right after they are born. Then you can leave them on the doe, but if you need to bottle feed in the future, the kids will go ahead and take a bottle. Most people wean kids at between eight and ten weeks of age. I have known kids that have been left on the doe a week or so that will NOT take a bottle no matter what you do and who have literally starved themselves to death. One thing that is worth a try is to put the doe on a milk stand. Put the kid on the stand with her, and when the kid reaches for the teat put the nipple from the bottle in its mouth instead. It takes patience and coordination, but sometimes it works.

 

[Bug n Flock]

Hey guys

Sorry, I am awful about replying to posts in a timely mannar. 2/5 switched to bottle effortlessly, flawlessly, brilliantly. 1/5 is a total momma's girl and is a completely different kid in the house vs in the barn. In the barn she is outgoing, playful, friendly. In the house she is hateful and terrified... kind of reminds me of a poorly socialized chihuahua, lol. The last two fall somewhere in the middle. They are ok on the bottle, not great, and they are not as upset as the little one with blue eyes.

They are Nigerians or Nigerian Pygmy crosses. We bought the dams(Nigerians) already bred off craigslist from some urbanite who had done the same and kept them for only a couple of months. Whatever, their loss our gain right.

We are doing something similar to your suggestion. Babies in the barn with moms during day, in the house getting loved on and bottled overnight. Milk moms in the AM, and then put babies back with them. Thinking about keeping the 2 who are doing so great on the bottle in the house full time, but maybe not. During the day we are in the barn more than the house anyway, so they would get more attention out there from us anyway. Plus having the social and health benefits of being with mom and co... but there are 5 babies and 2 moms. Keeping the 2 in the house full time makes sure they don't bully the others away from moms during the day and then eat like piggies from the bottle at night too. Hmm. Lots to consider.

Meanwhile, we still haven't tried the milk! Greedy babies get it all either direct from mom or thru a bottle. Supplementing the bottled goat milk by mixing it with whole fat vit. D cow's milk.

Anyway, I have goat business to attend to so I'll check back in later.

1 of the moms is not bad to milk and gets better each time we do it.

The other is a total nightmare and we will be culling her from the herd after she stops lactating. She obviously hates it. If that changes, fine, but we don't want a skittish animal that hates being milked in our dairy herd.

 

[cassie]

Congratulations!!! You seem to be doing everything right. The doe that has a fit about being milked will probably calm down. Most of them do. Not all, but most. However, I had one Nubian that hated to be milked. Didn't matter if it was by hand or machine. She didn't even like to nurse her own kids. One day I went out to do chores and found her standing there contentedly chewing her cud with a 250# calf on each side vigorously pumping away. Go figure. As for your babies, be sure to give them their CD/T shots, sooner rather than later.

 

[Bug n Flock]

So don't wait till 30 days to vaccinate them? We also have tetanus antitoxin on hand we got when we were trying to decide what to do with the buckling. He is still intact, but we do have the antitoxin and the materials to band him if we decide to do that. Any thoughts on that one? There seem to be as many people in favor of early castration as there are for delaying to try and prevent UC or whatever it is that the wethers have issue with some times. We don't think we will use him for breeding since we have 2 bucks already(blue eyed spotted tricolor Nigerian buck, and a lovely young pygmy buck for when we want to breed some kids to fill the freezer and freshen the does rather than breed straight Nigerians), but if he doesn't sell we would totally be open to keeping him around as a wether. I think we are too attached to him to send him on a one way vacation to a colder climate if you catch my drift.

 

[cassie]

When I had my dairy I vaccinated my kids the day they were born and then every three weeks until they were three months old. I lived in an area where entero was very common, maybe because of the pH of the soil. If I had waited 30 days to vaccinate my kids, I would have had a lot of dead kids. The multiple vaccinations had to do with the interference of maternal antibodies.

 

[cassie]

As for castration, I banded my buck kids at just a few days old but then my buck kids went for meat. If I had been raising them for the pet market or if they were destined to be pack animals or something I would have waited a bit. Bear in mind that some buck kids reach puberty at astonishingly young ages. Castrating early is less stressful on the kid. I refused to sell kids for pets because so many pet goats ended up with a miserable life. I had full sized dairy goats. That may not be the case for Nigerians. One of the most important things a person can do to prevent UC is to make sure the animal has access to plenty of clean fresh water at all times. I have known people to add a little apple cider vinegar to the water. I don't know if it helped but it couldn't hurt.