# Need help with bottle baby.



## crazy4cochins (Mar 22, 2010)

My goat Gracie had her 4 babies a week ago and nurses the 3 babies just fine but hates the other baby. This baby cries all the time for Gracie and tries to sneak in and nurse on her when the others are allowed to. Momma head butts her away.
I tried rubbing moms colostrum  on baby and she still hates her 
I am trying to bottle feed her and I have the pritchard lamb nipple (comes out to fast) even with the tiny hole she acts like I am gagging her. She still just wants to nurse on mom. I am so scared she is not going to make it. I can only get in a few swigs at each feeding. 
 I read that thats fine for now but does anyone have any suggestions on how to get her to nurse better? Can I put baby rice  ceral in the bottle to thicken it up??
I also have a black rubber nipple that is for goats but I have the same problem that the milk comes out really fast for her. 
Ohh yah and she still hops around and plays and the others play with her and snuggle. I just feel bad because mom hates her.


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## ksalvagno (Mar 22, 2010)

Try a human baby nipple. If it doesn't come out enough, you can poke the holes bigger or cut an X into it. You will just have to keep working with her on drinking the bottle. There just isn't any other choice if the doe is so against this little one.

Good luck with her.


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## cmjust0 (Mar 22, 2010)

My advice would be to try an old-school glass pop bottle....the big, thick ones that required a bottle opener...and one of these nipples.

Pre-heat the bottle in hot water and make sure your milk's at least 105 before you pour it into the bottle.  The thick glass will hold the temperature of the milk for a surprisingly long time, allowing you to duke it out with the kid a lot longer before you figure out it may actually be rejecting cold milk...which is a normal reaction, at which point you have to start all over and heat it up again, blah blah blah.  Not fun.

Bear in mind that the nipple I'm talking about simply has a hole in the end of it...  There's no check valve, ball valve, flutter valve, etc...nothing fancy.  There's literally nothing to restrict flow except backpressure, sorta the same way your chicken waterer doesn't just dump right out when you flip it over...and also why your gas can slows to a trickle, then takes a big "breath," then dumps gasoline all over your lawn while you're trying to fill your mower.  

With a glass bottle, though, they really have to work to get it to come out..  It won't just pour out, trust me.  Very often you'll find that you have to take the bottle away for a few seconds and let it 'breathe' before giving it back to the kid.

Also, when you bottle feed, let the kid get good and hungry and see if you can get it to tuck its head up under the back of your knee while you're sitting, effectively blinding itself to the bottle, then just stick the bottle in its mouth.  Sorta simulates being up under the doe, not to mention they can't see to say "Hey, that's not my mama's boobie!"

Helps sometimes.

Once you get the kid used to nursing a bottle, it's easy enough to switch it over to a 20oz plastic soda bottle of milk, 3x/day..  These nipples fit those, too.


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## Mea (Mar 22, 2010)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> My advice would be to try an old-school glass pop bottle....the big, thick ones that required a bottle opener...and one of these nipples.
> 
> Also, when you bottle feed, let the kid get good and hungry
> 
> Once you get the kid used to nursing a bottle, it's easy enough to switch it over to a 20oz plastic soda bottle of milk, 3x/day..  These nipples fit those, too.


I've been quite surprised at how even very 'new' kids will take the grey nipples.  When the Pritchard and the black ones don't work... quite often the grey ones will.

  I also make "mother goatie" noises to the babies to get them going. Sometimes gentle stroking along their sides seems to mimic the attention of the doe. ( sometimes... othertimes it distracts the kidlets  :/   )


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## Ariel301 (Mar 22, 2010)

The method I find that works for getting stubborn kids to take a bottle is this. 

Sit on the ground with your legs extended in front of you. Put the kid between your knees, facing away from you. Sort of hug your knees against it so it can't squirm around as much. Then you wrestle the nipple into the kid's mouth. This part isn't so fun for you or the kid, unfortunately. Use one hand to hold the kid's mouth around the bottle so it can't get away, and lay the other hand flat over the kid's head palm down, sort of blindfolding it. Once I can get a squirt or two of milk into a kid's mouth this way, they usually get the idea and start eating. It may be a struggle for a few feedings before they learn that the bottle is food and you don't have to wrestle with them. 

Also, if you're going to bottle feed this one as its primary food source, you may have to get it completely away from mom. If it is getting in to eat from her every now and then, it makes it much harder to get it to accept a bottle. They get confused about multiple food sources, and would prefer to eat naturally than from a bottle--and they can be so stubborn they would rather go hungry trying to get food from mom than turn to you. I've got a little buckling that way right now--mom does not want to let him eat, but he fights me over the bottle until he chokes himself. I gave up on bottle feeding him, and now I just restrain the doe on the milkstand while he gets his fill that way--you can try that too, if your doe is making enough food to feed this one too. She may be rejecting him because she knows she can't feed four.


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## cmjust0 (Mar 23, 2010)

Mea said:
			
		

> I've been quite surprised at how even very 'new' kids will take the grey nipples.  When the Pritchard and the black ones don't work... quite often the grey ones will.


I know, right?!?  Exact same experience here..  We've tried several different types, but there's something about that simple gray nipple that just _works_.


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## Roll farms (Mar 23, 2010)

I've found the older (softer) they get, the easier they take to them, too...the one I start our babies on is stained orange from sitting overnight in a bowl in the sink w/ spaghetti-sauce water (my daughter did it...) several years ago.  I've bleached it and the stain just won't come out.
When we sell babies, they go w/ a nipple.  A couple times my husband has grabbed the old orange one (probably thinking "Get this disgusting thing out of here.) but I always grab it and give them a new one instead.  
It's like my....security nipple.


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## chandasue (Mar 23, 2010)

I tried the pritchard and had no luck either. I sent DH out to get baby bottles and cut X in the nipple. Worked MUCH better.


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## KinderKorner (Mar 23, 2010)

Check the pritchard nipple, did you cut the top off of it? Its easy to make the hole too big if you stretch it when you lop it off. Put the kid under your arm and hold the kids face with nose up. You have to feed in this position to get the milk into the right stomach. It may feel as if you are extending his neck too far but if you look at how kids feed, they are really bent. After a few feedings it should be catching on and stand to drink by itself.

 Is she a first freshener? 4 babies are probably too much if she is. Maybe even if she isn't. It hard for a doe to produce enough milk for 3 or more. I hope you have other does in milk that you can 'borrow' milk from to suppliment them.

If baby doesn't seem interested, you can drop a few drops of liquid (people) B-complex vitamins and get that down. This increases appetite. 

Good luck with the Quads
Lisa at Kinder Korner


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## warthog (Mar 23, 2010)

I used ordinary baby bottles and nipples, can't get much else here, and cut the cross in the top.

Then I did much the same as Ariel301 posted, the first few days were a struggle, then it was OK.

Good luck.


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## crazy4cochins (Mar 24, 2010)

ok I have questions now .
I have been collecting the colostrum from my other doe and giving it too my baby.
1. she doesn't seem hungry when I go to feed her(you think she'd be starving)  Is colostrum more filling than milk???
2. I was out checking new momma and baby when I noticed that Gracie FINALLY let baby nurse for about 1-2 mins !!!
 Last night they were born on 3-15-10. Is this because she thought that baby was too weak at birth???
This baby is now named Gretchen and she is wild and crazy, so I am confused should I now stop feeding her or just give a little of the others does milk to her.
I was giving her col. out of a syrige you you for human kids she just hates trying to have me feed her.
4. Do does come around and except the  rejected baby??
Thanks to all for your help.


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## crazy4cochins (Mar 25, 2010)

This morning I went out to check and My little Gretchen(bottle baby) snuck up on the other doe and nursed on her for a good few mins. I kept feeding the doe so gretchen could keep nursing. Then the real mom Gracie acted annoyed and tried calling Gretchen away form the other doe.lol. 
Is this normal?? It's like now it's whoever walks by and gretchen see's the chance to nurse she's going to do it.


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## ksalvagno (Mar 25, 2010)

It sounds like your little one is finding ways to get milk. I would save the colostrum and not bother feeding it anymore. Maybe stop trying to feed her and see how she does. Just keep a close eye on her.


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## crazy4cochins (Mar 25, 2010)

That's what i think i will do for a few days. She has lots of energy and is somehow able to sneak in on any momma who is close.lol.
She can't be suffering too much today she jumped up on my back when I was sitting down petting her brother


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## AlisonJ_SFW2 (Mar 26, 2010)

Glad to hear that Gretchen is doing okay.  Sounds like a smart little goat!


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## crazy4cochins (Mar 26, 2010)

Thanks I think she's going to be ok, she was soo funny last night kinda sneakin up on her mom while she was feeding one of her favorites. My DH and I were crackin up. And if she gets on "someone" she nurses like crazy.lol.poor baby 
thanks everyone for all the advise. This goat rasing thing is stressful but worth it.....


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## Ranch Girl (Mar 26, 2010)

What we do if the nanny doesn't like the kid is somebody holds the nanny's head and then somebody else helps the kid nurse.


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