Response to baby goats

Pat, I also (as Jim stated above) heat treat colostrum and pasturize milk, I also bottle and Lambar feed because the kids are tame and eaisly handled: But since you wanted other ways of doing it. You can let the kids nurse period. You can let the kids nurse and empty the udder morning and night for house milk, at about 3 weeks, unless the doe has a very large milk supply, most kids can clean up all of the milk a doe has. So to get any kind of family milk, take the kids away from her at night, milk her in the morning for yourself, leaving a little for her kids, they will get to nurse all day. Another great way is to have her nurse for 24 hours, then pen her babies next to your milk room. Bring mom in to be milked, let the kids nurse her on the milkstand and then you empty her out. I would do this at least 3 times a day for the first week, but then you can go to 2. This makes for very tame kids because you handle them every day to take them to be nursed. By the time they are 3 or 4 weeks old they come running and jump up to feed. This is a nice way also, because you can control the weaning and since they really don't know who their mom is you can let them nurse anyone you want. We do a couple of bucks this way every year and call them "Udder Emptyers" we use these on those first fresheners of ours with too little of teats to hand milk. Works great! The small amount of time that it takes to bottle feed for 12 weeks, is a very small percentage of a does life. When you think of her life as a whole, being tame when feet triming, kidding and milking time comes, I prefer to bottle so that we don't have a goat rodeo during these times. Vicki McGaugh

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