preventing suffocation.

[steff bugielski]

Before my kids are born this year i need to prevent this. Last year I had a few kids die of suffocating. At about 3-4 days old I let them play together. All the kids seem to find a corner to nap in. They pile up, cute goat piles but deadly. The one on the bottom falls asleep and they suffocate them. I lost two from my best doe, only does she has given me.
They kid during winter so they need to have friends during the day to keep warm. Any ideas as how to prevent this. They are allowed to go in and out as they wish. Mom are outside and only come in to feed them. I thought of smaller spaces but I am afraid they will not spead out but pile more.

[goatsareus]

wow, so sorry to hear of this. I do not know what to advise. My kids, as many as 12 of them, regularly sleep this way, in a big pile during the day. I have never lost a kid from suffocating this way, but I did lose one, one time when a doe had quads and the doe was laying on one kids' nose.

[Alice In TX/MO]

If they are like baby chicks, then you must provide a warm place for them to nap so that they don't have the need to pile up.

[AnnaS]

They are too cold. I've seen breeders use the following to keep kids warm:

1) Heat lamps wrapped with metal window screen. If the bulb breaks, the hot peices are kept in the screen and don't fire bedding.

2) Heat lamps over metal stock tanks. A "door" is cut in one end of the tank so kids can enter.

3) Someone here- maybe Jim S? had a great suggestion of half barrels with a heat lamp mounted inside.

4) Heat lamps in a concrete area bedded with rubber wash rack mats.

Kid coats can help. One thing I want to try is sow mats. Nasco has them. They are large, waterproof heating pads for piglets.

[goatsareus]

my kids pile to sleep even when it is warm outside. I think they are trying to replicate the only conditions they have ever known, sleeping with another animal.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, but the pile is more spread out if they aren't cold.

[Sweet Goats]

WOW, I am so sorry to hear that. I have never heard or thought about that happening. Sorry, i have NO idea at all. Wait until Vicki answers, I am sure she will have a idea.

[Mrs. Jo]

Depends a lot on what kind of barn/set up you have.

Can you suspend a heat lamp on a chain in the middle part of your pen? Avoiding the corners? Take a wooden pallet, stick a rubber stall mat on it and put it under the lamp. It will soak up the heat.

Or use a barrel with a heat lamp suspended on a chain to the roof. Cut a half moon hole in the bottom and strap it to the wall so it can't be knocked around. Us a low watt bulb in it. (75-100)

Little dog houses also work well and so do straw bales at and angle to each other.

[tiergarten-CO]

less kids per pen.

[chamoisee]

Mine piled and never died except when there was concurrent floppy kid syndrome. However, mine did not pile that heavily. I think you are keeping your barn too clean. Seriously, let a manure pack build up, it composts and will keep them warm.

[oberhaslikid]

I saw a big plywood box built with lid and a hole in one end for the babies to come and go. the light was mounted inside on the lid of the box.This was so the kids had their own space to go nap.They would come and go as they pleased.these were bottle kids.

[steff bugielski]

Originally Posted by chamoisee

Mine piled and never died except when there was concurrent floppy kid syndrome. However, mine did not pile that heavily. I think you are keeping your barn too clean. Seriously, let a manure pack build up, it composts and will keep them warm.

I have never had anyone accuse me of that before.

But it makes sense.

[goatkid]

My kids sleep together and don't suffocate each other. The only time I lost a kid that way was when I had several weaned doelings in a pen. They had their goat house and a dog house in there. We had a windy, snowy night and too many tried to crowd into the dog house. The little doeling in the back suffocated. I would never put a small structure in with the goats such as a dog house or dogloo unless I was sure there was enough room for all the goatlings to sleep with each other without crowding. If I was worries about prized kids suffocating, I'd have less to a pen and be sure there is enough straw to keep them warm.

[steff bugielski]

Well less kids to a pen won't help. They are on about two acres and a very large barn. The kids at night have an area about 10' x 20' with a divider coming halfway out, kinda like a stall with no door. they all pile up usually during the day in which they have full run of the barn.
I will try to leave the bedding in the stalls to keep it warmer.
Thanks