Stupid Goat, Emergency?

[DellaMyDarling]

Looks like I may have found a home for the trio, sending them off to a small all wether herd. Sounds good to me, hoping it works out.

 

[chickens really]

Looks like I may have found a home for the trio, sending them off to a small all wether herd. Sounds good to me, hoping it works out.

Trio to an all wether herd? Momma is a Doe..

 

[DellaMyDarling]

She is NOT a dairy goat and can barely produce for 2 babies, let alone 3, so she's not even a good breeder goat. These boys may need to be pulled and put on bottle if her production doesn't increase.
In farm terms, she's a completely useless doe. Her genetic line should not continue. Responsible breeders cull animals that do not produce as they should so that more poor quality animals are not produced.
An all wether herd protects her from breeding ever again and keeps her with two familiar faces. Wethering her boys prevents their line from carrying the same genetic faults. Goats require goats, they don't need specific sexes to be happy.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Okay okay. Let's cool down. No matter whether we agree on opinions or not... in the end none of the goats were killed/ hurt in the end. One can own them for any reason as long as in the end we're not killed because they don't fit the needs No need for anger and insults
I don't agree with all that OP thoughts but the goats found a new home to grow healthy

 

[Birdsong 82]

Now when I look at this post I feel silly. I guess the post I was referring to was deleted

 

[cassie]

She is NOT a dairy goat and can barely produce for 2 babies, let alone 3, so she's not even a good breeder goat. These boys may need to be pulled and put on bottle if her production doesn't increase.
In farm terms, she's a completely useless doe. Her genetic line should not continue. Responsible breeders cull animals that do not produce as they should so that more poor quality animals are not produced.
An all wether herd protects her from breeding ever again and keeps her with two familiar faces. Wethering her boys prevents their line from carrying the same genetic faults. Goats require goats, they don't need specific sexes to be happy.

Just a comment. You don't have to pull the kids. You can offer the kids a bottle to see if they will take it. They probably won't and that would be true whether you pulled them off the doe or not. A lot of the time kids that have been on the doe will NOT take a bottle no matter what. If you think they need more feed you can set up a creep so they can get into it to get grain but the doe cannot. Just a thought.

Your goats are very lucky. In my herd they would have most likely been converted into goatburgers.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Just a comment. You don't have to pull the kids. You can offer the kids a bottle to see if they will take it. They probably won't and that would be true whether you pulled them off the doe or not. A lot of the time kids that have been on the doe will NOT take a bottle no matter what. If you think they need more feed you can set up a creep so they can get into it to get grain but the doe cannot. Just a thought.

Your goats are very lucky. In my herd they would have most likely been converted into goatburgers.

So far so good on the boys at least. Every time I check on them, bellys are rounded. They've got nice fats on their bones. They have clearly been growing so I have only weighed twice.
Little girl I have weighed a bit more often. She's steadily gaining but does not have nice cushion to her. Her mother is a very light, petite, not meaty goat so I'm hoping her thin build is an indication of genes and not more poor health on top of rough start. She's now up to 3oz 5 times per day. 3.5oz made her belly really tight, not just rounded, so I scaled back down to 3.
Nearly out of donated goat milk so will likely need to move to store bought something. I read whole cow is better than a goat milk replacer? Store goat milk is hard to find here.
She is exceedingly attached to us humans. I brought the brothers inside to play a few times and she's starting to "get it". Bringing her out to their pen remains too hard on her, just cannot handle the cold on top of feeling abandoned. Going to see what tiny sweaters I can find so that hopefully she can be transitioned outside and be a goat, not lap pet.


I concur, that many a goat herder would cull a "failed" goat such as her in such a manner. I cannot argue with it. If I ran a very large herd, as it seems you have, I may have the ability to do such. These goats are far too much like pets for us, but I cannot afford pets that cannot produce as well. Some days I regret the family dog lol. I don't agree with farming babies, nor should her particular genetics continue, so she's gotta go. Selling the trio gives us a little investment money for something else, be it a replacement, improving structures on the farm, or even saving for feed cost.

 

[cassie]

You really don't need goat milk. Kids do fine on cow milk. When I had cows my kids got cow milk and the calves got goat milk. That way I didn't have to pasteurize milk fed to the kids. I was on a CAE prevention program and CAE is transmitted to the kids by feeding raw goat milk. Both the kids and the calves did fine. There is a formula made for kids that has been posted here many times. In case you missed it, here it is. Take a gallon jug of whole cow milk from the store. Pour off about a quart. Add to the jug a can of evaporated (not sweetened condensed) milk and a cup of buttermilk. Add enough of the milk you poured off to fill the jug. Shake it up a bit to mix and that's it. This formula is primarily meant for mini goats and Boer goats because these breeds produce a richer milk than the average dairy goat but all kids do well on it. Or, if you don't want to bother, you can just feed plain old homogenized milk from the store. Either of these are better than replacer because some kids cannot tolerate replacer and that includes the fancy expensive ones made for kids. They may scour, or worse they can blow up and die. If you have some concerns that your orphan is not digesting and assimilating her milk as well as she should, you can get some live acidopholis (sp) culture and add it to the milk. You can get it at the health food store and I have found it in the health food section of some of the larger supermarkets. It comes in both liquid and freeze dried forms. I preferred the liquid and it is in the refrigerated section. The culture might help but in any event it can't hurt.

By the way, even when I had my dairy I had a few pets. They stayed around until they died of old age.