Is this normal practice? Very disturbed today at auction

[asher]

I do not have goats (yet), but love them. My aunt hopes to get some soon and I hope to "enable" her to get some.

Anyway, we went to a small livestock auction today. Before it started, someone brought a large pet taxi to the front table and I suddenly heard this baby crying over and over. So sad.

You guessed it. Not a baby. Three teeny tiny very young kids. They were being bottle fed. My aunt commented, they can't be very old at all.

Someone brought them over to show my kids and she said "Look, the umbilical cord hasn't fallen off, yet. Know why? They were born last night!" This was an unheated barn/auction, these poor things just wanted to be warm and fed and with a mama (or someone to hold them, not be showcased for an auction).

I have to admit that I cried hearing the babes crying and was so tempted to bring them home, but not being equipped for goats and having four children as it was, I didn't think I had enough time that they deserved.

So I am curious if selling kids that young is common practice? I am hoping they were selling out of neccesity, but from what I heard, it wasn't because they had lost the mama and couldn't care for them or anything.

[harplade]

the youngest I've seen at our auction here in La is 3 days. That's the way they do it here. It's usually the dairy farms and they're selling the bucks.

[asher]

This was two bucks and a doe (?). From what I saw (they didn't say, BUT...) it looked like they had planned to sell the entire herd today (I think they were pygmys) and she just happened to kid last night rather than waiting for the auction and it seems they wanted to sell seperately than all together. Just what it looked like. I don't know for sure, but they sold a LOT of Pygmys today that looked just like these babies so...

[mygoat]

Baby goats being bottle fed can easily be in a new home and away from mother at a day old. It's not mean or cruel. In fact, bottle babies are the way I plan to go from now on, because they're friendlier and 1. easier to place in homes and 2. easier to place in LOVING homes. And if there was more than one in the taxi, most likely they were plenty warm. Even one in a solid walled pet taxi probably would have been fine. Many kids are bottle raised, taken from mommy so she never sees them, for CAE Prevention, which is something most do.

Oh, and be wary of goats from auctions. They can have or be exposed to many bad diseases through auctions. Your best bet would probably to find a smaller hobby/show breeder in your area and go that route.

Good luck with getting into goats! This forum is probably a really good place to start.

[asher]

Thanks ~ this is all new to me. I won't be buying goats from there. I only *almost* did because I felt so bad for them and wanted to love them and take care of them. LOL Mommy instinct! That's exactly why I handed my dad my bidding card, too. LOL I know my limits and although well intentioned, I would not have had enough time to care for them and I knew it.

By the point the goats came in, my aunt and I were already having a hard time with things because some idiot shoved tom turkeys (alive, barely) in small coolers without air holes and said "Ah, they're fine!" and stuck them up for sale (i.e they'd be sitting in the coolors for at least 3hrs. Thankfully the auctioneer brought a big wire cage out and put them both in there. They could at least stand up and breath in it.

Not a good day for the tender hearted. I guess the goats cries just got to me because it sounded so much like human babies crying and it made me want to comfort them. This was the youngest I have *ever* seen kids IRL.

[asher]

Adding ~ isn't colostrum important for new kids to get or no? If they are less than 24 hours old, would they have gotten colostrum already, enough to help them? (I only know of breastfeeding CHILDREN at this point, not KIDS. LOL)

[mary,tx]

The colostrum issue would have been my only concern. Actually, I'm impressed they came out in a pet taxi, and not just run out on the dirt.
If three little goats were snuggled in there together, I expect they were plenty warm. It's not like a mama goat lays on her babies to keep them warm. They just snuggle up together.
I'm sure they sold them separately in the hopes of bringing more money. They do that with calves, too.
mary

[asher]

Mary - I didn't see them even stand once so not sure they could have run out there. LOL

Unfortunately, two went together and one of the bucks sold seperately. Thankfully the woman that got him went and got a blanket immediately and was carrying him all wrapped up cuddling him in her arms so that was a relief to see (and it wasn't crying any more. )

I really had no idea this was common practice. Hmmm..I learn something new every day with live stock!

(They each went for $12-16 so not sure if that's better than they would have done with mom or not.)

[mygoat]

Most likely because they were born the day before, they would at least have gotten bottles, so I would GUESS that they were fed colostrum by then, if they were knowledgable or caring folks at all. That would be something to ask about, however.

[susieM]

Over here, baby goats are roasted at the tender young age.

[goatkid]

I've heard there are breeders of dairy goats who drown buck kids at birth if they aren't pre ordered. My friends and I can't bring ourselves to do that. We wether all unordered bucklings and sell them for pets or meat. Some are sold off the farm and others are sent to auction. I once bought a bottle baby doeling under a week old from an auction. She was from a herd my friend knew was clean. She went on to become a champion and, at 5 years of age, is healthy, continuing to test negative for CAE. It was good of the sellers of the Pygmy kids to keep them in the crate until they were sold. That way, they were protected from being exposed to disease. I don't normally buy any animals from auction. I send the ones I want to sell with a friend so I don't even get tempted. We stopped selling at one auction after my friend saw one of the auction people mishandling the goats.