Never in it too long to learn something new...bottle baby

bloogrssgrl · #1 04/04/14, 08:09 PM

Hi all. I haven't posted in a while but I do still read here fairly often. Just thought I'd share this in case anyone can use the idea at some point.

I have a bottle-ish baby. Not a complete bottle baby, but her two big brothers just shove her out of the way so she doesn't stand a chance. And if I try to give her time alone with mom (or with only one of the brothers), the excluded brother squawks so much that mom isn't interested in anybody getting a meal.

So, yeah, bottle baby.

However, this baby HATES the bottle. I've tried every trick in the book and she just. Does. Not. Like. It.

In a moment of desperation, I picked up a box of (human) baby oatmeal and a jar of pumpkin/apple baby food. I use the milk, cereal and pumpkin/apple and make kind of a ... slurry for lack of a better word. The baby loves this! I put it in a shallow dish and she just kind of slurps it up.

There it is. Hopefully someone else at their wit's end can use the idea.

Word to the wise though - those long-eared variety goat babies WILL get their ears in it. And they WILL shake their heads and send it flying all about. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Awnry Abe · #2 04/04/14, 10:28 PM

Editing this post to say "Sorry!"

Don't you hate it when you post something genuinely useful, then someone who totally misses the point posts something like:

Have you considered pulling one of the others instead?

(I hate it worse when I'm the one that totally missed the point)

Good tip. I've struggled with getting some kids rolling on the bottle. You can't have too many tricks up your sleeve.

Goatsandsheep · #3 04/04/14, 11:32 PM

I thank you for the tip. I taught my smallest lamb triplets to be milk thief. I would tie up a ewe that had a single and let the smallest triplet nurse a few times a day. Had one that learned to nurse thought the fence while the ewe was eating. She was to busy eating to care who nursed. After they got out of the lambing pens, the lambs would still sneak drinks from the ewe I put them on.

bloogrssgrl · #4 04/05/14, 07:00 AM

Goatsandsheep, she will nurse off the mother when the mom is getting her grain in the mornings and evenings - I put them alone in the stall together and mom is too busy eating to care about the boys protesting - so I know she's at least getting a good drink then. But that isn't nearly enough to hold her throughout the day. And, of course, this doe kidded before any of the others by two weeks so I didn't even have another doe to work with.
This baby was already starting to nibble at the hay but, compared to her brothers, she was really falling behind growth wise. The poor thing would just stand around all hunched up and shivering. Even though we have a heat lamp available in the stall, she naturally wants to be where the other goats are. And, as luck would have it, we're also having a chilly rainy stretch, so she's been spending the nights in our house.
On the bright side, the extra care seems to be doing the trick - she's energetic and has a nice little belly on her.

badlander · #5 04/05/14, 07:35 AM

If you can get her on the bottle at all try an old trick that we used to use in the OB Nursery where I started my nursing career. Occasionally we would have these little line backers born, you know, 12-14 pound newborns. They were never satisfied with straight formula for very long so we would mix rice cereal with the formula, then we would enlarge the opening of the nipple so that the slurry would just flow through with little suction on the baby's part. Worked every time. The nipple will still occasionally plug. If it does, just make it a little bigger.

With all the fiber, has she had problems with loose stools?

bloogrssgrl · #6 04/05/14, 08:29 AM

badlander, no loose stools so far - teeny little beans like God intended. : )
My initial intention was to try to feed it to her through the bottle but I was going to see how she liked it first buy using a syringe without the needle. I figured if she hated it there was no sense messing with the bottle. Her nose found the dish before I could refill the syringe and I realized I was making it more difficult than it had to be. She was happy enough to eat right out of the dish.

Cygnet · #7 04/05/14, 09:10 PM

If you can milk mom, you may find she'll drink milk out of a bowl too. Or you could try a bowl of cow's milk.

She probably needs more calcium and phosphorus than she's getting from the mix you described. If nothing else, add a good portion of milk to your mix.

I had a 240 pound pack wether who was weaned at 2 weeks when his mother died, and his previous owner could never get him going on a bottle. He learned to drink milk from a bowl, however, and grew up to be a strapping big boy.

Weirdly, I had no problems training that same wether to drink water from a 2 liter bottle when we were hiking. He also would drink beer (in small amounts) and loved pepsi straight from the bottle! LOL.

bloogrssgrl · #8 04/05/14, 10:29 PM

I've been using cow's milk for the mix I've been feeding her and making it very soupy - more like somewhat thicker milk rather than watery cereal. Today when I put her out with the other goats, mom showed no interest in her at all. I was able to hold her while she ate her grain again so the baby could get a drink but it looks like that is going to be the smaller portion of her diet from now on.
I'll give a try with straight milk from the dish and see how she does with it.