Quote:
Originally Posted by KermitWC
I was not sure if I should wean him since he can not go outside.
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When goat kids drink milk from a bottle, the milk goes through a special tube called the "esophageal groove", from their throat, directly into the abomasum, or the fourth stomach, where it can be easily absorbed. Goat babies are designed this way because if the milk goes to the rumen, or the first stomach, it will curdle and block digestion, mess up the acid balance in the rumen, and cause them to get sick and die.
However, between the ages of 7-11 months (varies by individual goat), the esophageal groove starts closing up, eventually becoming completely shut altogether. Without it, ALL food and water goes directly to the rumen. This is, of course, completely natural in goats, as by the time they are that old, their dams are weaning, or have weaned them, and they don't need a groove to the fourth stomach, and having one could be dangerous if regular food, like grass, leaves, nuts, and bark, were accidentally shunted into the fourth stomach.
What this means for you is that you will HAVE to wean him eventually, and he is getting close to the age where it will become an absolute necessity for his life. He needs the time to get his rumen working, and have the proper bacteria and yeast working in there, to help him digest his food, *before* he is taken off the bottle, or his condition could suffer. It is therefore pretty important that you start weaning him now, and get him transitioned to a completely solid food diet. What if he is one of those goats whose groove closes up at 7 months old, and there he is, starving because his rumen is impacted from curdled milk, and his system isn't set up for a diet of purely solid food?
So, research a good feed regimen for him, and start replacing bottles with solid food. Were I you, I'd start the first week with replacing his midday bottle with beet pulp.
~a look of sheer horror passes over Caliann's face~ OMG.....ummm....you ARE giving him access to hay, right? I just looked back over your posts, and you mentioned 3 bottles a day, and giving him grain every day, but you never mention hay....
If you are not giving him free access to hay ALL day, please start doing so NOW. You can REALLY hurt their digestive tracts it they don't have something with long stems (at least 1" long) to help them digest grain and beet pulp.
If you are not giving him hay, the very first step is getting it to him. I cannot stress enough how seriously important it is to get hay to him...and a BIG dose of goat probiotics to get some beneficial bugs in there and start his digestion.
Ummm, Alice, do you know any links or anything about what to do about a 6 month old kid if it hasn't been given access to hay and has a *completely* undeveloped rumen? Just in case Kermit's answer is "No, we haven't been giving hay"? Is there any way to get the rumen developing and correctly within a month or two so that he can go to solid food before that groove closes up? That isn't an issue I have dealt with.....
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