Why did my goat drink her own milk?????

MaryF · #1 10/03/05, 11:05 AM

Hi all,
new here, mostly lurk, but this happened this morning, and it really weirded me out.
Ive had her for almost 2 years, and she has never attempted to do this.
This morning, after milking, I had turned around to feed something to my calves, looked back, and there was my doe drinking out of the pan I just milked her into. Is this ok/normal/really bad?
Mary F.

bumpus · #2 10/03/05, 11:37 AM

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It won't hurt her to drink the milk, because she likes the tast of it. But I would not let her have the milk, nor would I leave the milk where she can get to it.

If she can figure out where you are getting it from, she could start sucking the milk from here own tits, and now you have a proble of having a goat tha milks herself all of the time.

Now you have no milk for yourself of here little goats.

Milk her and get the milk away from her. Do NOT leave it where she can get to it to drink or smell it !

bumpus
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bumpus · #3 10/03/05, 11:39 AM

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Oh, by the way MaryF welcome to Homesteading Today ! ! !

bumpus
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mpillow · #4 10/03/05, 11:57 AM

I had a good milker that liked a bit of milk so I'd give her some of the leftovers from the day before....about a pint a day....she never self nursed. She also liked beer from time to time

She was always smiling

MaryF · #5 10/03/05, 12:12 PM

Phew! Thank you for the answers to this!! Put my mind at ease here.
And thanks for the welcome too

)
I will watch her, and make sure she doesnt do it again, little stinker.
Mary

Goat Freak · #6 10/04/05, 09:30 AM

Mine juststarted to self suck a while ago, but I wanted to dry her off anyway, and that is all she did, she was running low on milk anyway so it saved me trouble. Other than that the only other time she has ever self sucked was one time when I could not milk her, her udder was swollen with milk, so she releived the pressure her self. Bye.

P.S.Welcome to the site!

AnnaS · #7 10/04/05, 09:48 AM

There's a letter to the editor in one of my old Dairy Goat Journals (1970's) asking people not to feed milk back to their does at shows as it gave people a bad impression of dairy goats. So at one time this was a common management practice!
I had a doe do this too. She was only interested in milk when she first freshened.