Weaning age
 

Mrs. H's poll. Please elaborate your why on timing. Thanks!

I want my dairy kids to reach that 100lb mark before winter, seems to help them get through it healthier and ready for breeding at 18mo in good shape. Keeping them on the extra milk for as long as I can does all my goals. I tried weaning them sooner and forcing grain a little more and I was not pleased with the results, they reached the weight, but were FAT and had trouble delivering, had mostly bucks, and singles, if they took at all.

4 months plus. I have a long drawn out weaning because I separate and only milk once a day. I sometimes go out of town. At such times, I can just leave the kids and dams together and not have to worry about milking.

I put other because I usually wean about 10-12 weeks.

I wean bottle babies at 4 months"ish'. If I think they need longer I'll go for a few more weeks. Basically, when I go to the fence with a bottle and they don't come screaming I quit that feeding. Dam raised babies are usually butchered so I let them stay on until butcher time. If they're nursing, great. If not, they didn't lose any weight from the stress of weaning.

Bucklings at three months, which is what I voted on the poll. Doelings may go longer. :)

I bottle raise. Bucks get milk for at least 12 weeks, and at each feeding, I let them fill up on whatever they want.

Doelings, minimum of 16 weeks on milk as much as they want at each feeding.

If I'm not sick of washing bottles/lambars & pasteurizing milk, I'll let them go longer, but the ages above are my minimums.

If I dam raise, it's freezer camp wethers & they stay on mom until butchering at 4-6 months.

This is only my second time with bottle babies. When we did meat goats we just let them wean them when ever. Now with dairy babies we weaned Monkey at 4ish month and the three I have now will be weaned at 6 months. I figure since I have the milk to spare I might as well keep going. I personally enjoy my night time bottle feedings. All three lined up with little tails going 100 miles per hour.

I usually naturally wean. I separate kids from mom during the day starting at 2 1/2 months. They are together all night. By 4-5 months mom starts weaning them on her own usually.

I voted three months because that is my minimum.

However, I will probably do this year what I did last year - keep them on three bottles a day (for a total of almost a half gallon a day each) until they're twelve weeks; then drop them down to two bottles a day. But, because I get more milk than what I need for the house, I will go ahead and keep them on those two bottles a day indefinitely, playing it by ear, depending on when my doe starts to level off.

Last year, I kept them on those two bottles a day until they were almost 5 1/2 months old just because I was getting so much milk. After five months, I started to see a noticeable drop in production and I decided I needed that milk more than the babies did.

Never before 12 weeks on wethers/bucklings - Doelings not before 16 weeks - if they are staying here, I wean bucks at 5 months, doelings at 6 months - I want to see the best growth possible - thus the long weaning times

Makes me wonder if I should continue with the three bottles a day for at least four more weeks, instead of cutting them back to two bottles at twelve weeks. :hrm:

"four months or older" ..... basically if I have the milk, I give them the bucket until they are done with it. I have one doeling 4 months old) that weaned herself off for about 3 weeks, but started back up about 3 days ago.

We work up to 32oz/ 2x per day and bottle feed until at least 4 months. I feel we get better growth and healthier animals with more milk for a longer time. By the time we wean, we have several who are refusing the bottle on a regular basis.

This is only our third year.

The first year we dam raised and, although we have goats from that kidding who are incredibly friendly, it took an incredibly long time to get them friendly. They did grow wonderfully well, at the expense of their dam's udder.

The second year, we bottle raised per a well known beginners guide and weaned at 8 weeks. When we went to fair, the girls that stayed here were significantly smaller than the sister sold to the little boy up the street. The difference? The little boy up the street gave that girl as much milk as she could handle until she began refusing it.

This year, we consulted a wonderful friend and mentor (aka OBF) and decided to feed as close to what she told us as possible. We didn't follow her schedule exactly, but did work up to 32 oz/ 2x per day. When two or more of the girls were refusing the bottle on a regular basis (about 16 weeks) we weaned them all. This year at the fair, our girls were significantly bigger than their cousins (who we sold to the little boy up the street...)

And now you know the rest of the story.

Hmm now I'm wondering if I should have kept them on two bottles a day still. Has anyone see a huge difference with only one bottle at night compared to two a day?

I usually go between 2 and 3 months depending on the size.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but I think the does that get started on solid food and roughage earlier tend to milk better as adults.

Four months or older. I like my kids to be well grown and ready to breed by October of the year they were born. November at the latest. Milk is the best way to get them there, IMO. From the first week they get all they want off a lambar bucket, three times a day. At 2 months, I cut them back to all they want lambar twice a day. Around 4-5 months they usually start slacking off for one of the meals, so I drop it to 1 time a day feeding. When they show minimal interest in that feeding, I drop it all together. Each year the kids wean differently.

My experience is that getting them on solid food early does not require limiting their intake of milk at all. My lambar kids have access to whole oats and roughage/hay from the first two weeks, and are eating, cudding, and foraging by a month easy. They keep it up, grow healthy rumens, kid out at a year old, and they are on milk for the first 4-6 months. I find this way works the best for me.:goodjob:

I wean lambs and kids at 8 weeks. Kids, I bottle raise, and I just don't have time to bottle for longer than that. It's all I can do to make it to 8 weeks. :rolleyes: Drives me batty. I've read studies showing kids weaned at 8 weeks have no ill effects, and some even show much better rumen development since they're relying on solid foods at an earlier age. I don't push for kidding as yearlings, since I like to wait to breed them as yearlings anyways (so they kid when they're 2).

And I also raise them on milk replacer. I'm a rebel like that. I've been super pleased with my results. :goodjob:

Lambar, Lambar!!! If I was bottling my "bottle" kids, I'd go batty long before weaning time too.;)

I let most of the dams wean the kids themselves, if possible. We still get plenty of milk to drink and make cheese and etc., this way and the kids grow very well. It is nice to be able to skip a milking if I have to (like last Friday when our toddler face-planted on the hardwood floor and then got a nosebleed. Head bump, not worrisome. Nosebleed after the fact, very worrisome. So off to the pediatric ER we went. He's fine, btw. Neighbor/barn helper let goats out and the kids were happy to have extra milk that morning).

The one bottle kid that I bought, I weaned at 4 1/2 months because she was well over 50lbs at that point, we were going to be out of the country for a week and I had nobody to milk.

-Sonja

So, do you have an idea just how much milk they're each getting per day?

The reason I ask is because, since I'm only feeding two babies at a time (I used to do the lambar when I had a lot more), I use 20 ounce pop bottles. Since they get three of those a day, I know they are getting 60 ounces each a day.

So, they are now eleven weeks old (today) and I was planning on cutting out their middle bottle next week (mostly for my own convenience), which will still give them 40 ounces each per day, and doing that until they are at least five months old.

By taking away that 20 ounces per day, will it make that much of a difference one way or another? It's a doeling and a wether and I'm not planning on eating anybody, nor do I want to breed the doeling this year (I'm not sure what my future plans are for her since I only need one milker at a time and I have their mother, as well as their full sister who will be bred this fall - at a year and a half).

So, after reading how long most of you all delay weaning, I am debating with myself whether or not I should keep on with the three bottles a day or if it will really matter if I eliminate one bottle. Do they still need a half gallon a day past twelve weeks? I have the milk - I was just thinking it would be nice to not have to worry about getting home to feed them if I get caught in town or interrupting dinner preparations so I can run out and give them that 20 ounces.

I do agree about the growth of milk fed babies, though. The girl who helps me with my hoof trimming had a Lamancha doe last year who freshened (twins) a couple of weeks before my Lamancha doe. My doe had a single doeling and I bought a same age Boer baby to raise with her. My friend's doe got a raging case of mastitis, and instead of bottle raising the babies, she considered them weaned at a very early age. I can't remember how young, but I want to say it was something like five weeks. And even though my babies were a couple of weeks younger, they were twice the size of her babies at three months of age. (Of course, my Lamancha had been bred to a Saanen, so that might have had a little to do with it. LOL)

We bottle feed and wean at eight weeks.

I know that between 7 doelings and one buckling they are sucking down 1-1/2 to 2 gallons once a day at this point. Some days they eat more than others. Soon I will stop offering as I can tell they almost have to be coaxed to come eat.:rolleyes:

At 11 weeks, I would totally cut my kids down to twice a day, and expect them to do well. If I were in your situation, I'd either feed them the 20 ounces twice a day, or judge by their tummies and their hunger, if I should give them a few ounces more per feeding. In the past, I've gone by the individual kid and how they look after feeding.

I simply cannot be around in the middle of the day after the kids are two months old, too many tasks to do! So I know what boat you are in. If you intend to feed until five months or so, I see absolutely nothing wrong with feeding just twice a day.:goodjob: I would have done it at 2 months, so 11 weeks sounds fine to me.

I wait as long as I can to wean to keep from drowning in extra milk!

Thanks.

I think I'll go ahead and continue with the three bottles a day for the next week just because that was the timeline I had already given myself. I will start reducing the amount they get in their middle bottle, though, so it won't be such a shock to their spoiled little systems when I eliminate it all together.

But, it sounds like I don't need to feel guilty or neglectful if I then just give them the two bottles a day until weaning them completely in a couple of months. :clap:

Absolutely. Just be sure you are weaning by size and weight. Anything after three months really should be based on that, not age. A good size, growing well....sure.