Here I am with another problem

[dunroven]

Boy it seems like this year all I am having is problems. Makes me so mad!

I have a mother goat who has 2 very nice little does. The one is so soft and fluffy, she's like a cotton ball; however.....

She is the one who I worked with last night because she is constipated. Okay, got that problem solved. NOW, she won't grab onto mom to eat, AND mom won't stand still for us to put her on her, AND she won't eat from a bottle.

Mom is about half wild and WILL NOT tame down, after 4 years of living here, I still can't pet her and after feeding her pretzels, which is her favorite treat of all time.

It is taking 2 people every 4 hours to literally lift this goat onto a milking stand, and get her head through the holder and into place, then one person has to hold her body still, otherwise she tramples you and the baby, PLUS if you get in front of the stand, she delivers a quite nasty bite!

The baby FINALLY eats for a very short time, and then lets go and won't grab on again! I'm afraid this girl is going to retire from babies although she throws absolutely beautiful babies and her babies are not of her same tempermant.

HOW CAN I GET THIS BABY TO EAT and the mother to hold still while she does, without it taking an absolute wrestling match?

[CookingPam777]

I don't know. You could hog tie her and get her a muzzle. Then all you have to woory about is getting the baby to suck.

[HappyFarmer]

Put a dog collar on her, tie her close to a fence or pole, and watch she doesn't get you with her horns. Lift one hind leg up and back, while she's leaning on the fence or pole for support, wait for her to struggle until she finds it's useless, put the kid on the teat. Keep trying with the kid until they get it.
HF

[manygoatsnmore]

Do you have a helper (sounds like you do from the first post)? We have had a few, um, reluctant milkers. They would kick, jump, and stamp all over the stand, doing the goat flamenco. What worked for us was to have one person stand behind, squeeze the hind legs just above the hocks and hold on tight! This puts pressure on the tendons and makes them stand relatively still. The other person milks and does it as quickly as possible! As long as the goat is standing well, we ease up on the pressure - if she starts to dance, the pressure is reapplied. After a while, the doe gets the hint and eventually settles down to business. Since your kid isn't sucking long enough, I'd just milk her out and bottle the baby - who will eventually figure out the bottle holds good things, too.

[Bearfootfarm]

Pen them in a SMALL pen until they bond. She wont get used to nursing if she can keep walking away, and she will get harder to handle the more you wrestle with her.

[dunroven]

The baby is the problem here. The mother is used to nursing. This is her third kidding. She raises babies just fine. She will nurse her babies and tries very hard to get this baby to nurse. The problem is, this baby won't nurse and she doesn't like being handled by humans at all, not even those who are trying to help her baby nurse.

We did finally have a modicum of success last night. We put her up on the milking stand and got the baby to eat some (which we have tried before). Then we put them back in the pen, and the baby went for it, so we'll just have to see how today works out, but who knows.