Bottle Feeding Saanens

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I mentioned earlier that I now have two Saanen doelings that are two weeks old. When I took them to my friends' house to disbudd today (where my other goats are boarded for now) I noted that these girls are almost as big as some of the Nubian 6 week olds! I have them on 8 oz bottles 4x a day. I don't mind the 4x a day part, I have the time now, and I feel it is a little closer to natural (they were on their dam until 5 days ago). Am I feeding too much or ? They are just so much bigger than Nubians I have bottle fed at this age. Thanks, Julie

-- Julie (okwilk213@juno.com), April 01, 2002

Answers

Hi Judy, I have Saanens and they have big kids. My husband does disbudding for several people and our babies were larger than theirs and most of them are Nubian ,Boer and crosses. I bet your two little doelings are precious , there is something about those little snow white saanen kids that reminds me of little angels hopping around. Good luck with your babies.

-- sherry in Arkansas (chickadee259@yahoo.com), April 02, 2002.

Hi Julie, we now have Saanens but used to raise Nubians and ship milk to a cheese plant. Now we just enjoy them. Saanens are the largest of the dairy breed. Our Saanens are huge compared to the Nubian kids we used to raise. As for feedings we begin at 24 hours old to feed three times a day and increase slowly to 16 ounces per feeding per kid and that would total 48 ounces a day over three feedings.

The other thing that makes a difference is the number of kids per birth are yours singles or twins? Our Saanens tend to have singles or twins, where as our Nubians tended to have more multiple births. I believe this is the norm.

Sounds like you are doing something right since they seem so growthy. Enjoy them.

-- Michele (gcsaanens@aol.com), April 02, 2002.


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