Tell me about bottle feeding?

[HaleyBugs]

I am getting a boar/nubian cross baby this weekend. She will be about two weeks old, and I will be bottle feeding her. This wont be a problem at all, I can take her to work with me (I work on a farm) and she will be with me 24/7 until she is weaned.

I have owned goats before, but they were all adults. I've never had any babies.

I've heard a lot of opinions on bottle feeding. I've heard that goat milk is the best, but then there is the risk that the milk I buy (If I can find any) could carry diseases from their herd and that could potentially harm my lil girl.

Cows milk from the store, I don't know about that. I know we can drink it obviously but I don't feel like that would be right for her.

Dry powder formula sounds like my best bet. She wont contract diseases and it is formulated specifically for goats but I just read somebody's comment on another website saying that it will kill her?!

So, I do not know what to feed her. You all are experienced so please, tell me what you guys think.

[andabigmac]

First off, Congratulations on your new bundle of joy.

This is what "I" would do. Everyone on here will say differently. If I couldn't get raw milk from a trusted and documented CAE free herd or pasteurized goat milk I would get whole cows milk from the grocery store. I wouldn't use replacer personally. A lot of people have good results with it. She will do great on grocery store milk so don't worry. Add a pinch of baking soda to her bottle every day. I add a tiny bit of kefir or probiotics to their bottles every few days for a week of so then I go to once a week until they're a few months old.

Also, I would get her a goat friend. She will be much happier to have someone to play "look at what I can do" with.

We will also need pictures. Need.

[LoneStrChic23]

No way would I use powdered replacers or formulas made with junk & by-products.

If you can get goats milk, just heat to 165° & hold at that temp while stirring for at least 15 seconds.

If no goats milk, the WHOLE (not skim or 2%) cows milk from the store. I've raised some healthy, vibrant babies on whole cows milk..... It's REAL food, where as replacers & formulas are typically made with by-products of cow's milk....

Don't fluctuate milk temps.... If you decide to transition to cool milk feedings, do it GRADUALLY by lowering temp of each bottle a lil at a time.... Feeding 1 warm bottle, then the next cold can cause stomach upsets.

I add a pinch of baking soda to one bottle per day, & keep out feed, hay, minerals & fresh water to eat at as they chose.

And yes, she'll need a companion close to her size/age.

Good luck

[Alice In TX/MO]

You know about coccidia prevention, right?


Fias Co Farm- Goat Health Care- Coccidiosis

[HaleyBugs]

Thank you guys! I guess I'll try whole milk with baking soda thing. Is the baking soda for stomach aches? I was considering getting two but I thought that might be too much to handle, I guess I'll have to now D I'm so excited!

And yes I've heard of coccidia prevention and I figured I'd go to TSC and find everything goat related, read the labels, and get whatever she needs.

[LoneStrChic23]

Dunno about your TSC, but mine is poorly stocked in regards to coccidia meds & dewormers.

Here is a list of coccidia meds with PROPER doses (label dose is rarely correct):

Different Cocci meds and doses

And a list of dewormers & doses.... You'll need to grab a "white" wormer for things like stomach worms (tapes) & a "clear" wormer for blood suckers like HC:
Worms/Wormers

Since you only will have 2 babies, I'd grab a tube of Quest Gel (for blood suckers) & a tube of Zimectrin Gold (for tapes). Will last a bit, both are very effective & dose volumes are small, so easy to administer.... Dosages are in the link I posted

Staying on top of parasites & using a strict coccidia prevention program will benefit you in the long run giving you hardy, healthy adults who carry no intestinal scaring from being over burdened by parasites as babies.

[HaleyBugs]

Thank you so much!

[CaliannG]

On powdered milk replacer:

The cheap stuff contains bunches of by-products that upset the stomachs, and cause them to not digest it. Often, it contains animal (from butchering, rather than from milk) fats that will *mess up* their digestive tracks, not to mention that, once you open it, all sorts of bacteria start to immediately flourish in it, and those bacteria often cause sickness and death in baby goats.

The expensive stuff is very good, contains all the right things, and a goat kid will flourish on it. However, there is the cost...it comes out, once you have mixed it, to over $5 a gallon!

So, if we don't have the goat milk handy, most of us go with plain, store-bought, whole milk as the least expensive, safe option. It's not as good as fresh goat milk for the babies; but even the expensive replacers are not as good as fresh goat milk for them.

Whole milk from the store and the expensive milk replacers are about equal in suitability for a goat kid, and the whole milk is cheaper.

[thaiblue12]

I typed a response yesterday and it was eaten??

I use whole milk from the grocery to raise all my bottle kids, it is easy to get, sometimes on sale for $2 or a bit less, they have never bloated on it and all grew well. I raise two to five bottle kids at a time and sometimes go through over a gallon a day.
I do not trust replacer and have heard of kids bloating and dying from it. This includes a lady I know and warned her not to use it, and she lost one to bloat/entero.

I would see if they have another kid for sale, even if it is a cheap wether kid. Bottle kids do much better with a friend, you do not want to keep the kid with you 24/7 especially after week 2.
They get quite bouncy, into everything, eat or put everything in their mouths, can scale a baby gate with ease. They can be pee pad trained in a day, but poop they do that where ever when ever it strikes them. The older they get the worse it gets in trying to keep them contained. It also takes them longer to intergrate with the herd if they are house raised.

I take mine out daily to play, nibble, eat dirt and etc. The older goats get use to them and they love being outside and doing goat things. Also if they are a single they scream when you are not in sight, do not have a snuggle buddy to sleep with and will scream about that. My family called my first ever single bottle kid, my personal alarm, she screamed everytime I left even if others were home, screamed when I was in the shower and etc. So a week after I got her I bought a bottle wether. Funny I sold her and he is still here 4 years later

I would get a second kid or you might end up sorry you got a bottle kid especially at night when you are trying to sleep.

[mekasmom]

If you have to buy milk then just get whole cow milk from the grocery store. Stick it in a baby bottle and stick it in her lips. She will learn to love it.
Have fun. Baby goats are so much fun to raise. You will enjoy it.

[FrogTacos]

I never kept my bottle babies in the house. No reason to! I pen them up at night so I can ensure they are safe, warm, and dry, but let them out during the day with the rest of the herd from about 2 weeks on. They have all done fine with that.

Also recommend the whole cow milk. Mine maxed out at 4, 20oz bottles per day.

[PaulNKS]

Here, whole milk in the store is now at $4 per gallon.

If you use a milk replacer, I would only recommend the goat kid milk replacer from Purina Mills. The kids do great on it.

I have no doubt kids do well on store bought milk, but I would worry about the level of nutrition since most vitamins and minerals are removed during the homogenization process.

I usually have goat's milk if I must bottle feed, but I also keep a bucket of milk replacer in case I need it. I also always keep frozen colostrum for the rare problem kid.

[CaliannG]

This is the ingredient list for Purina Mills Kid Milk Replacer:

INGREDIENTS:
Dried whey protein concentrate,animal fat (preserved with citric acid, BHA, and BHT), dried whey product, lecithin, calcium carbonate, dicalcium phosphate, L-lysine, sodium silico aluminate, DL-methionine; citric acid, calcium propionate (preservatives); ethoxylated monodiglycerides, propylene glycol, choline chloride, ferrous sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, cobalt sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, folic acid, ascorbic acid, Vitamin B12 supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, niacin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin A supplement, Vitamin D3 supplement, Vitamin E supplement, artificial flavor.

********************************

Let's look at the top four ingredients.

Dry whey protein concentrate. This is a by-product from making cheese. Most of this will come from cow's milk. All it is, it the whey left over from cheesemaking, that has been dehydrated. Therefore, it has been pasteurized before the cheese-making process (As per food industry ISO), then heated again for dehydration.

Animal fat (preserved with chemicals). This is rendered fat from a rendering plant. Since it does not specify WHICH animal, it means it is a conglomeration. Whatever didn't meet USDA inspection for human consumption goes to the rendering plants. Road kill off of the highways go to the rendering plant. Euthanize pets from kill shelters go to the rendering plant. All of these things are basically melted down, the fats extracted, chemicals to preserve the fats added to it, and it is then put in your kid's milk replacer.

Dry whey product. This is even less nutritious than the whey concentrate, since it is whey that has been processed to remove more fat, and THEN dried.

So, the only actual MILK products in this formula are from whey, which has already had most of the vitamins and minerals removed from it in the cheesemaking process, THEN it is processed even more, which damages more vitamins and minerals, as well as the enzymes milk has in it. THEN rendered animal fat is added from God-knows-what, along with chemical preservatives. Then, to replace the minerals and good stuff that has been taken out of the milk, they add a bunch in sulfate bonded form.

Milk from the grocery store has been heated for pasteurization, and run through a machine with tiny nozzles to homogenize it. That's it. No chemicals added to preserve it, no fats and proteins taken away to make something else. No sulfates added that will inhibit uptake of other minerals and vitamins.

Oh, and both come from the same milk. Cow's milk. So it isn't like the replacer is giving the extra goodness of goat milk, or even sheep milk. The difference between the milk "products" in the replacer, and whole milk from the store, is that the replacer has had the milk fats and proteins taken out of it.

Oh, and the most common cost for an 8lb tub of Purina Mills Kid Milk Replacer was $29 and some change. But say you can get it locally for $25 for an 8lb tub. The mixing directions say to mix 1.5lbs of replacer with one gallon of water. At those numbers, that means an 8lb tub makes 5.3 gallons of milk replacer. So, basically, if you spend $25 for an 8lb tub, you are paying $4.69 a gallon for milk for baby goats.

That seems to me to be more than a gallon of whole milk from the grocery store.

[Awnry Abe]

I bottle fed using whole cows milk because that's all I had at the time. Well, not true. I had milk replacer formula, but it was like turning on a scour faucet every time I tried to work a little in to the rotation.

I will warn you. If a normal goat gets under your skin, a bottle fed baby will get into your bones.

ETA: I suspect Paul is correct about the nutrition. The pair that we bottle raised hit weaning age significantly smaller than their classmates. But they have finally caught up, some 7 months later.

[ozark_jewels]

If you have access to RAW cows milk from a healthy cow(do not go pulling it out of just any bulk tank!), bottle kids do the best on that, next to raw goats milk.
Be sure its a HEALTHY cow.

[HaleyBugs]

You guys have all been VERY helpful, thank you so much! I'm going to ask around a few dairy farms around me and see if I can get some fresh milk from them, if not I'll buy it at the store.

[ozark_jewels]

Be careful asking at dairy farms, Johnes is out there and dairies are the most likely place to pick it up. It is passed through manure and raw milk.
Better to find someone with one or two *healthy* home milk cows.
Not that all dairies have sick cows!! I am partners in a dairy, there are some very healthy dairies out there!!
But with larger numbers come more problems. Just the nature of things.
Ask your vet about people with home milk cows locally. Where are you located?? Maybe I could help.

[MDKatie]

I feed milk replacer with GREAT results and won't even consider switching to whole milk. No way. I feed a good quality, all milk protein (no soy) replacer. The kids grow well on it, and it's actually cheaper than whole milk. I did the math somewhere on another forum once, but can't find it. It's not only cheaper, but it's way more convenient to mix as well. There's no heating of bottles, just mix it with warm water. And there's not trying to fit multiple gallons of milk in the fridge, or running to the store every few days for more milk.



Tens of thousands of calves are fed milk replacer and do great on it! And MANY MANY goat dairies feed milk replacer and to very well on it! IMO, most of the issues from milk replacer come from incorrect mixing, incorrect feeding amounts, or poor quality replacer. I have no idea why people think it's the devil.

[thaiblue12]

Originally Posted by CrownRanch

ETA: I suspect Paul is correct about the nutrition. The pair that we bottle raised hit weaning age significantly smaller than their classmates. But they have finally caught up, some 7 months later.

I do not agree with that. All my bottle kids get whole cow's milk and none were stunted or grew slowly.
One of my does had quads early this year and I pulled the two tiny doelings and let her raise the other doeling and buckling. The two bottle raised girls were larger then the sister for a while, now they are pretty much the same size.
The Nubian wether I raised on whole cow's milk weighs over 275 lbs, he was never slow to grow

I would not use all those ingredigents, or animal by products on my goat kids. I have raised lots of bottle kids on whole milk and have not had scour, bloat or other issues with it.
It also depends on how much and how long you feed them. I bottle till 3 1/2- four months old.... yes after a month I am ready to wean them since they end up driving me batty but I keep going

[HaleyBugs]

Susie is doing great guys! I picked her up last saturday night, she had a little trouble converting nipples from the ones they used to what I used but as soon as she figured it out, she started chewing and sucking on everything. She is on whole milk now and growing like a weed.

She is SUPER sweet, she takes naps whenever I lay her down on her blanket and wont get up until I ask her to. She follows me everywhere and cries when I'm out of sight but then she'll run and find me and give me the "Oh gosh I thought you died!" face :] Right now she sleeps in a crate in my room with no problems, she is also almost 100% house trained! She's great in the car, (I've been taking her everywhere) and in the office at work.

So, so far I haven't needed two, thankfully! Here are some pictures :]