bottle feeding..

[Stacy Adams]

How do you go about feeding those newborns 20 oz of colostrum? do you use one bottle and keep reheating it? a bit at a time? I have some in my freezer, but it hasn't been heat treated, should I heat-treat it near the time the first kid is due and then keep it in the fridge? then milk out some colostrum for the next kid? Not having any two-legged kids, this bottle thing will be new to me... AAAK!

[Tracy in Idaho]

I would heat treat it earlier, cause if you wait till the last couple days, it's a guarantee you're going to ruin it. If you do it earlier, at least you'll have time to get more from someone else if you do.

That is exactly what I do. Each kid has one bottle of colostrum with their ID# on it. They get that until it's gone, which is the first day. I warm the colostrum in hot water in the sink rather than microwaving it too. Dunno if it really matters, but it makes me feel better, lol. Milk gets nuked on occasion.

I always try to breed the old girls to kid first. They have the best "stuff"! MaryAnne literally milks out gallons of colostrum, so I go out several days before she is due and milk some out of her so I can get a head start.
That didn't work so well last year, when as soon as I was done milking her, she went into labor! LOL. So then I had kids to deal with and STILL had to heat treat!

Last year in the kidding frenzy -- I had something like 5 does kid in one day -- I ran out of ready colostrum. So, at 11 pm at night, there I was at the stove. Got distracted at a critical moment and made pudding So what to do? I dumped it in the blender, added a bit of store milk, and we were in business. LOL. Not a one of those kids had any bad reaction, and all grew up just fine!

Tracy

[Stacy Adams]

I wouldn't re-freeze it again, would I? how long will it stay good in the fridge after the thawing and heat-treating?
I tried to get breedings so that Rain would be first, but alas, that didn't work out..

[Tracy in Idaho]

I've always understood that you could refreeze it again after you heat treated it. It's not going to last that long in the fridge 4-5 days or so?

Tracy

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

I would defrost it now while you have time...yeah like everyone has time 3 days before Chirstmas Heat treat it, and then refreeze, a whole lot better than having to heat treat it as she kids. You could then milk the doe after she kids and heat treat some of her own fresh colostrum for her kids and the next.

This is the first time (due to a freezer dieing) I will be going into kidding season with NO colostrum, NONE! I am also going to milk out a few of my older girls before they kid, just 2 or 3 days before their due date, so I am not heat treating a tiny amount as kids scream in the back ground!

Since your goal is 2 ounces per pound of body weight, all of my kids need 16 ounces in the 12 hour period. Most of mine have drank that much in their first 2 feedings, but I also want that whole 22 ounce bottle down them, their second bottle is any 12 to 36 hour colostrum I have left from the year before (none this year) then right onto milk.

You don't want to blend pudding up very often, it's fine in a pinch but try to get some other colostrum into them, once it's heated and turned to pudding it no longer has immunity left in it that can be absorbed...oh it's calories, and gives the stool softening effect that colostrum does, but no immunity. It's the same with the myriad of colostrum substitutes out there, they are all chalked full of calories, give the diarrhea effect to get that meconium going through the gut, but alas do not impart immunity, and we know just what hot house flowers baby goats and lambs are at birth. As near sterile as you can get, it's amazing we don't have higher mortality, why colostrum is such a big deal. Vicki

[Tracy in Idaho]

Yep, they did get some more good colostrum after the pudding was used, but when you're desperate, you're desperate <G>

I'll be out milking old MaryAnne again this year ... hopefully she doesn't go into labor as soon as I'm done like she did last year! I don't even think I had time to get out of the pen before she started up!

Tracy

[Sondra Peterson]

I freeze it either in the baggies for platex nursers 4oz or freeze in icecube trays and then bagged up 11 ice cube = aprox 1 oz so is easy to thaw and no waste.