How old to wean?

[BlueRose]

Please settle a debate for me. What age do you wean bottle babies? babies on Mom?

[Alice In TX/MO]

At least twelve weeks. Longer if you don't desperately need the milk.

[mary,tx]

I'm shooting for 12 or 14, but I've got to say that my minimum is closer to ten. Sometimes those bucks have just got to go by then.

Also, for me there are a couple of variables besides a bunch of buck kids attacking me when I'm going to the barn. One is, some just seem to grow really faster than others. And with the dam raised ones, some does will wean them on their own shy of that. Others will just never wean them without some help.

[yarrow]

We wean our bottle babies between 16 & 20 weeks..(that last couple weeks it's just a morning bottle)

susie, mo ozarks

[LomahAcres]

Yeah, you're going to get all kinds of answers to this one.

Kids start eating hay and solids at about 2 weeks of age - however their stomaches are not developed enough to properly digest it before 6-8 weeks of age. It can still be risky to wean this early - why most recommended waiting until at least 12 weeks of age before weaning.

Personally - I don't see why the rush. In some cases I understand milk can be costly and hard to come by - but here it's much cheaper to feed 2-3 quarts of milk a day then alfalfa and grain. And you don't see the same health and growth results that you get with milk. Weaning early and you have 1-3 years before your animal is big enough to breed and produce herself. While staying on milk gives you fast enough growth rates to breed at a year of age or sooner.

I keep my kids on milk until they reach about 75-80% of their full size.

If this is a doe I intend to keep in my herd I don't wean before 6-8 months of age, for Nubians this is 100lbs. They are weaned and started on grain and bred a month later.

Now my kinder kids grow faster so they're weaned at around 5-6 months - 80 lbs.

The very youngest I will wean anything is 4 months - these are usually pet wethers or butcher animals that I don't care too much about in growth for the long term - or who will not be used for breeding. They are rarely more then 60-75lbs in weight at this time and growth slows considerably after weaning.


I don't dam raise anymore, but when I did I would only keep one kid on the doe and wean around 8 months - or whenever the doe weaned her kid naturally which was usually between 6 - 10 months.

[mygoat]

Most studies and commercial raisers of both sheep and goats list weaning age at 8 weeks. This optomizes gut development thus allowing for good growth. For the bottle kids/lambs, this lowers cost while still resulting in good growth. The idea is to provide adequate nutrition pre AND post weaning (usually free choice creep grain and hay), and manage parasites - worms and cocci can stunt them.

For some reason, the average goat owner weans no earlier than 12 wks. Most studies and commercial raisers also use less milk to feed them, which when allowed access to creep feed and water, develops rumen more extensively and earlier. Because the kids are getting energy from grain/hay, they require less milk.

If we have extra milk, the bottle kids keep getting milk. It can only help them get to breeding weight by the time they need to, and if it would otherwise be dumped or fed to chickens, then it's not a waste. If we have milk shares, though, then I wouldn't be afraid to wean between 8-12 weeks of age.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I usually wean at about 10 weeks. We dam raise so any does' that stay of course stay on their momma longer.

[hiddensprings]

I wean at 12 weeks. Its what works for me

[dozedotz]

We wean from 4 feedings of milk a day to 3 feedings (as much milk as they want) at 4 weeks of age. At that time they are actually starting to do more than mouth the grain and hay. We use a lambar starting at 2 weeks. At eight weeks we cut to 2 feedings a day of all the milk they want. At about 12 weeks we make the next change. The girls stay on two feedings of about a quart each until they are 7 months old. The boys the same amount until 6 months of age. Near the end we reduce the feeding to just the evening and then drop it all together...but we still visit them at the feeding time for treats and pets. The milk is for calcium and growth...but the feeding time is also for building relationships.

[Donna1982]

I wean at between 5 to 6 months. It was bottles that we fed for years to our bottle babies but now the 13 are on a redneck lamb bar and they get as much as they want 3 times a day right now. I have two groups the almost 2 month old to the 2 month old and then the second group has just turned month old to a few weeks past a month. They all look like bloated ticks half the time but I like my fat babies.

[MDKatie]

I wean at 8 weeks on the dot, for the reasons MyGoat mentioned. Their rumens are fully functioning by then, it saves me time (for bottle babies), and it gives the moms more time to recover (in the case of my sheep) and let's me save money on feeding extra to the moms. In the case of my dairy does, I get all the milk.

There are so many different opinions on this subject, and until recently I thought rumens didn't really start functioning well until 6 weeks, but according to sheepandgoat.com, rumens actually start functioning before that, and they say it's possible to wean earlier than 8 weeks.

I feel that 8 weeks is more than adequate, and have never had a poor result of weaning at 8 weeks.

[BlueRose]

Thank you everyone.