Cow's milk for replacer

[sixstrothers]

Can you feed whole cow's milk as a milk replacer for new born goats, of course after they get the colostrum?

Lori

[DocM]

Yep.

[susanne]

is the cow tested negative for johne's ?
than yes you can feed colostrum and milk from a cow to goat kids.

[HappyFarmer]

I've never bottle fed a goat before. Your answer brings up a question.

Are the powdered milk replacements, colustom's, etc from tested animals, and if not is there a chance a disease can be passed along to a bottle fed goat through the powder? Do the bags say they are from disease tested stock, or is this something that is regulated?

I'd like to be prepared in the event I ever have to bottle feed.
Thanks for any responses.
HF

[goatkid]

I've never read anywhere on the packages if the milk product in replacers is from tested animals. Powdered replacers are just nasty stuff. Babies frequently scour from it, can bloat easier, and just plain don't thrive as well. Whole cow milk is the best in the absence of goat milk for kids. If you are using the colostrum from the kids dam and then feeding a replacer, I'd use whole pasteurized cow's milk.

[moonspinner]

Unless this is a CAE positive mom, ideally, if you could milk her for a bit and mix her milk with the cow's milk, then gradually switch over to it entirely.

[TerryJ]

I feed my brown swiss milk to the baby kids all the time...make sure you dilute the cow's milk about 75% milk, 25% warm water...the cows milk is too rich for the baby goats...they will get diarrhea. My kids grow great on it.

[DocM]

I have a bag of land-o-lakes replacer here and nowhere on the label does it say anything about testing of the animals. I don't feed it to my 4 legged stock, I sprinkle it on my hen's mash. That's about the only thing I'd do with replacer. I'd sooner pay $4 a gallon for grocery store milk for my kids and lambs. I rarely bottle feed, only bummers and total rejects. If I don't have enough goat's milk, the dairy nearby will sell me cans of milk cheap. They are certified so their animals are tested. I would venture a guess that replacer comes from certified dairies.

[Michael W. Smith]

Yes. This past Spring I ended up with 5 bottle babies. My father has fed his beef calves with milk replacer, but he was always complaining how expensive it was and having to mix it up.

Luckily, a dairy farmer lives less than 2 miles from my house, so I was able to get raw milk from him. $1.50 / gallon!!!!! And when he had cows that had just had calves, for a few days I was able to buy the cow colostrum for $.75 / gallon until the cow was giving normal milk again!!!!!!

I fed the milk whole and had no problems with the kids at all.

Try to find a dairy farmer in your area. I'm guessing you might be able to buy raw milk directly from him. Milk that is better than the garbage they call "milk" in the stores, and at a cheaper price.

[Helena]

Whenever in the past when I have needed to buy the milk replacer for my kids..I get the lamb or kid replacer. If there isn't a difference I wonder why they sell it. I'm sure there is a reason..perhaps the they need a "richer" milk as kids. I would check into it before givng and possibly having sick kids. I know many have said there is no difference..cut I would check.