What amount should I be feeding a 5 wk old Nubian buck?

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I am currently bottle feeding 20 oz of Purina goat milk replacer 2 times a day, with an occasional 5-10 oz in the late evening if he is still acting very hungery. He has constant access to hay and grain, both of which he nibbles at a little bit. Am I starving him? I purchased him at 3 weeks and they said that 20 oz 2 times a day was what he had been getting. Should I gradually be increasing this? I don't want to overfeed him and cause him to bloat.

Thanks in advance!

-- Sharon in AL (Sharonspaws@aol.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

I am unsure if this cut and paste will work or not, but we'll give it a try anyway!

FEEDING BABY GOATS (NOTE: Rev 3/3/00) WEIGHT (in lbs) 4 x DA 3 x DA 2 x DA GRAIN 5 3 oz 4 oz 6 oz 1 oz 7 4 oz 6 oz 8 oz 2 oz 10 5 oz 7 oz 10 oz 2 oz 15 7 oz 9 oz 14 oz 2 oz 20 8 oz 11 oz 16 oz 3 oz 25 10 oz 13 oz 20 oz 3 oz 30 12 oz 16 oz 24 oz 4 oz 40 16 oz 21 oz 32 oz 5 oz 50 20 oz 27 oz 40 oz 6 oz

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.


That's the amount I feed my kids. They do very well with that. If you feed them too much milk, IMO, they do not start eating the hay & grain as quick because they are filling up on the milk. All kids act starved 24 hours a day! I have a 13 month old human baby that would eat all day long if I put food in front of him. ;-) Your goat should be fine with that amount. :-)

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), February 05, 2002.

Hi Sharon, I got some of the Purina buckets to make Lambars out of. Have you read the directions on it? It says not to overfeed it, it will cause scours! You are to only feed 8 ounces 3 times a day!!!

What a hoot:) My babies would pack up and leave home! We are feeding 4 week olds, 3 lambars a day with 22 ounces of milk in it for each of them, I add some red cell since we pasturise. If you are going to use this guy as a breeding buck, I would suggest you slowly half and half the purina with whole vitamin D grocery store milk, then when you run out of purina use all grocery store milk. 3 bottles, 22 ounce soda bottles will grow him out. The milk in purina is whey, he needs the whole milk protein with the calcium to grow those big bones and body to make him the big guy you will be proud of. I wish Elizabeth from Countryside was on here, she purchased a buckling from me that I put on grocery store milk for her, she didn't have any goats milk yet. Her jaw dropped to the ground when she saw how big he was! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.


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