# Need Help with new Lamancha



## Melanie (Jun 4, 2014)

Well yesterday I went to a farm to look at a goat in milk and I had to bring her and her twins home!!! She was so sweet and her twins were to cute!!!  I knew when I purchased them she was very thin and her hooves needed attention.  This is my first full size goat and I bought her for milking.  She is very patient and let me work on her hooves for about 30mins. yesterday.  I also wormed her yesterday.  She had several imbedded rocks in her hooves so it took quite some time.  I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on things I can do to help get her.  Also I realize maybe I am being a worry wart and bigger goats are just shaped different then my round pygmy and nigeran dwarf goats.  So I am willing to listen to any suggestions on how much or little weight gain she needs.  I am currently feeding her 3cups of Dumor pellet goat feed, alfalfa pellets, and shredded beet pulp, mixed in equal parts,  2 times a day.  She gets free choice: hay, manna pro goat mineral, baking soda and browse.  I plan on doing her hooves weekly to get them back to where they should be. We named her Eva.  Any suggestions on things to help her gain weight, if needed, would be greatly appreciated.

   

Had to show off her adorable 2 week old buckling and doeling.  Orien is the black buckling and we plan on selling him when he is old enough to leave Mom.  Cicily is the tan doeling and we plan on keeping her.


----------



## cybercat (Jul 15, 2014)

I am also in East TN. Go to your Co Op. They have the best goat food.  Get her on their Goat Milk enhancer #93446. This is made for our goats here in TN. Also get hold of their loose mineral called Supreme Goat Forage-Master mineral #96216.  They also carry alfalfa pellets. The numbers are what they are ordered by. All Co Op here use the same numbers.

I only feed my goats CO OP grain. My are only 4 months old so they are on their goat starter. We forage ours also and I do not feed hay at this time. Mine a growing great at 66 pounds for my males and 61 for females.


----------



## Melanie (Jul 17, 2014)

Thank you for the advice.  She is currently already on all of those things because I buy from the CO-OP now, she refused to eat the Dumor grain.  She has gained a lot of weight and muscle already, I am very pleased with her progress.  She gets 3 cups of grain, 3 cups of alfalfa pellets, and 1 cup of shredded beet pulp 2x a day, I gradually worked up to this.  She has been seen by a vet and checked out healthy other then her weight.  I have wormed her, copper bolused her, gave her selineum and vitamin E gel, and I have trimmed her hooves weekly to try to correct.  She could not or maybe would not stand up or jump on anything when I first got her and now she is standing to reach trees and yesterday she jumped onto one of the play things I have out for the goats.  I can not wait to see the improvement in her coat from the copper.


----------



## OneFineAcre (Jul 17, 2014)

The best thing you can do for her, is wean the kids as soon as they are old enough, and then dry her off.
I don't know how long you had wanted to milk her, but the best way you can get her condition built back up is to dry her off.

How old is she?

Are you planning to breed her again this fall?


----------



## Melanie (Jul 17, 2014)

We are new to milking and did not really have a time frame.  We will be fine with drying her off so her condition can continue to improve.  The seller did not give a lot of info but according to her teeth she is 2-3 years old.  Supposedly her second kidding but first time with kids on her.  I do not plan on breeding this fall I will not be breeding until I get a bigger fenced area and a new goat house which should be next year.  The current fencing and goat house will be the buck pen.  All my does that kidded were purchased bred.  Next fall is my target for being able to breed.  All my goats need time off from being bred as with my other goats that kidded two were bred back to back and one was to young to breed so I planned on letting them take a year off.  They were accidently bred, the buck escaped.  The young one had a really hard time keeping her body condition.  She was bred at 7 months old and weighed 60lbs when I got her and she was 4 months pregnant.


----------



## OneFineAcre (Jul 17, 2014)

OK.  Well then not knowing what your milk needs are then here is at least a suggestion if you are not going to breed her this fall.  Wean the kids when you can at 2-3 months old.  Those kids look great, so obviously she is putting out plenty of milk.  If I was concerned about building her condition up I would at least go to milking once per day after the kids are weaned. You would still get some milk, but would be "taking' less from her so that if you continue to feed her well then she should build some condition.  I would then at least give her 6 months dry to get better conditioned before I bred her again. This is at least a suggestion you should consider

Depending upon what your milk needs are, then the sooner you can dry her off, and the longer she is dry, then it will be easier to condition her.

We have Nigerians so it is different, but here is a personal experience.  We bought a bred doe from a fairly well known breeder. It was her second freshening.  She kidded with quads and got about as skinny as you will ever see a ND.  When we registered the kids, ADGA contacted us to make sure the dates were correct because she had kidded with triplets 7 months before that.  She had 7 kids in less than a year.   We dried her as soon as we could and gave her a well deserved break. 

If your doe is 2-3 years old she has many productive years left.

Oh, and see if she will drink goats milk.  Our doe was a bottle baby and would drink milk readily from the trough on the milking stand.


----------

