How much milk for bottle baby

[KristinS]

Many of you already helped me out to get little Eli to where she is now (finally drinking properly and feeling happy). I do have one more important question though:

For a little (probably around 2 week old, but not 100% sure) orphan goat baby, how much goat milk (pasteurized) do I feed per day?

(For those that didn't follow my last post, she received milk replacer till yesterday and that gave me instructions on amounts, but I guess it is more concentrated than actual goats milk?)

Is there something like a weight to milk ratio or so that I can follow?

Thanks so much in advance,
Kristin

[kasilofhome]

It will vary ok from 4 oz to 8 oz and still want more.

Plan on feeding about 4 times a day but be ready to be on call for more feedings.

Morning comes and the kid has turned into a vampire and maybe the next feeding too. It might in the next feeding refuse or just fuss do not freak out at one feeding that is short but if two in a row are just sips pay attention.

Say four to six weeks they are more dependable... the will increase the volume and reduces the number of feedings.

Have water they can get too .....but not in and hay too or pellets.

Be on the alert to wobbly hind legs ....stock up on the med chest items caused vitamins b ..thiamine is important then

I just keep lots vitamins on hand.
They can be crushed mixed with coconut oil...and give as need.

I always just look up the amounts when in double...oh the store in the freezer just fine.

Kids are hardly little delicate friends. No two are a like.

[KristinS]

Originally Posted by kasilofhome

It will vary ok from 4 oz to 8 oz and still want more.

Plan on feeding about 4 times a day but be ready to be on call for more feedings.

Morning comes and the kid has turned into a vampire and maybe the next feeding too. It might in the next feeding refuse or just fuss do not freak out at one feeding that is short but if two in a row are just sips pay attention.

Say four to six weeks they are more dependable... the will increase the volume and reduces the number of feedings.

Have water they can get too .....but not in and hay too or pellets.

Be on the alert to wobbly hind legs ....stock up on the med chest items caused vitamins b ..thiamine is important then

I just keep lots vitamins on hand.
They can be crushed mixed with coconut oil...and give as need.

I always just look up the amounts when in double...oh the store in the freezer just fine.

Kids are hardly little delicate friends. No two are a like.

Thanks so much for this, she is only a little over 5 pound now though and seems to be a smaller type of goat, that's why I was wondering if there is a body weight/milk ratio. 4x a day 4 ounces would be 16 ounces, I have read anything from 10% to 15% of body weight online and really want to make sure she gets enough but def don't want to overfeed her.

As for vitamins and minerals I got the Goat nutri drench from our farm store... Any experience with that?

Thanks so much,
Kristin

[kasilofhome]

No no....at that baby goat is more pig than you think.

Offer the bottle and be prepared to see it downed....now I think those baby goats love attention and they know that they will keep you at their beck and call by refusing the bottle or just taking a sip....if it happen that they are truly on a hunger struck they might not be faking... besides reduction of drinking the bottle....you have to look at the over all behavior. Something different is not always good. Ask here when in doubt.

If they refuse the bottle or drop the amount majority AND their behavior changes they the should be checked for what might be medically wrong.

If they seem health and are running around do not sweat the that the are not hungry. It happens sometimes

[mygoat]

I usually get my full size kids up to ~20oz, 3x per day as quick as they'll get up there. I let them pace it from birth. I usually bring a bottle out with more than I think they'll eat, and then toss the uneaten portion back in the fridge when the kid is done. When we cut them back to 2x per day, we usually end up doing a full qt twice a day - we usually have excess milk after we sell off the extra kids in spring that we're not keeping. This is in addition to free choice hay and usually creep feeding grain/alfalfa pellets as well after about 2 weeks of age.

Been a while since I had any miniature bottle kids but I think I got those up to ~12oz 3x per day. Usually decreased it to 14-16oz 2x per day after a while.

I'd personally not feed less than 20% of body weight to young kids that are not on anything but milk. You can back off to 10-15% once they can eat more on their own, but 10% (as I read in the langston kid feeding study) is very meagre rations, IMO. At 20% of body weight, A 5lb kid would need 1lb of milk per day (16oz). Probably 8oz in the am and 8 oz in the pm. Imagine feeding that kid HALF that amount, 8oz per DAY. That can't be right or adequate. (unless I"m doing the math horribly wrong) These rations are supposed to induce earlier eating of solid food and thus rumen development and 'acceptable' weight gain. But in very young animals less than 2 weeks of age, I don't see the point in such short rations as they simply will not eat solid food before that. Generally speaking, a well fed kid is a growthy healthy one.

[punchiepal]

Looking back though some past kid weights looks like my ND's avg about 5# at a week old. At one week we move them to 5oz/3x a day. A week later they get 6oz/3x a day.

Our minis 1st/2nd generation minis are usually bigger than 5# at birth, even the twins and trips so far. At 2 weeks they are eating about 10oz/3x a day.

Hope this helps.

[KristinS]

Thanks so much you 2! I am just sooo worried to overfeed her, but felt a lot better with your advice and gave her 19 ounces in total today (from 6am to 10pm in 6 different feelings... Since she just started eating properly a couple days ago I want to take it slow on her belly).

She still would LOVE to drink more (but again, don't want to overfeed her) and am wondering if and how much heavier she would be if she would not have been without her mum for a while (God knows for how long...) and if she should be heavier than she is and if I should give her a little extra to make up for the starvation time she went through...

What are your thoughts on that (if you have any)

She just did eat 3 little pieces of grain though too

Thanks to you
Kristin

[mygoat]

PERSONALLY, I think as long as the transition is slow, I don't think you're going to overfeed her on whole 'real' milk. I'd decide her ration by how long you want each gallon of milk to last without going below 20% of her body weight per day. I'd also weigh wether or not she's going to be a breeding doe and wether or not you want her bred this fall. Finally, factor in what feeds you have available to you. Keeping in mind the more milk you feed, the less solid food and water they will consume.

Many people free feed milk an they do so from starting from the get-go with free choice milk. Most of the time, it's transition that causes problems. (I think free choice milk is excessive as a ration DOES increase their desire for solid food, and thus increases rumen development - and they use their rumen for a lot longer in their life than they get milk... Plus if you replace the nutrition they get from milk with adequate amounts of grain/hay, the growth is perfectly acceptable to breed spring born doelings by fall, and it's less work and depending on if you could otherwise SELL that milk or use that milk, it's also cheaper to offer grain/hay than it is to feed milk. :P)

Every year I feed different amounts and change feed depending on current market prices of feeds, and how much milk we need for milk shares. How long I feed milk and when I go down to 2x per day feedings depends on milk demand elsewhere - how many kids we have to feed and milk shares. I decrease their milk so long as they're eating other food well or an age that can eat considerable amounts of food (their desire for other food increases if you put them on a milk ration - same goes for water consumption).

[Jay27]

I've always let them eat as much as they wanted from day 1... But I'm feeding fresh goat milk right from their mothers. In the single case where the momma died and I didn't have any others in milk, I fed whole milk from the store. After the first few days (normally I leave them on their dam until they are a few days old), I fed 6am, 3pm & 10pm (just because that's what my schedule allows). Some kids eat more, some eat less, but I haven't had anyone do poorly (knock on wood).