# question on bottle-feeding pics on page 2!



## oxdrover14 (Apr 24, 2011)

i started breeding boer goat last year and my does just gave birth i go 2 sets of twins a boy-girl pair the boy duramax has a white body and a brown head and the little girl allison has a white body with brown head and rear end shes beautiful and the other two are solid chocolate brown just like mom i am interested in bottle-feeding was originally gonna use whole milk but i did the math and it would cost almost  $400 per kid! so im thinking about land o lakes does match ive heard a lot of good things about it what's your recomendation?. the reason i bottle-feeding is to be friendly because these babys are gonna be in my herd and the mothers are gonna go they are so unfriendly and i want friendly the two that were raised on the mothers  last year are friendly but not  quite as much as i would  want. how do i get them used to the replacer im gonna keep  them on mum for 3-4 days to make sure they get a good start so how do i transition them to the replacer from mothers milk


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## PattySh (Apr 25, 2011)

Congrats on your new kids! I would not put them on mom then try to bottlefeed, I would use the bottle right off it will be much easier on the kids. I've used Land O Lakes and cow's milk (whole milk from the store). The whole milk babies grew much better, very comparable to raw goats milk babies, and never had loose stools. The formula baby's had digestive issues. The whole milk babies never had diarrea, not once. How long are you keeping them on whole milk, $400 sounds awfully high. I personally would not use formula again.


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## Roll farms (Apr 25, 2011)

At least start them on whole milk.  After around a month you could (if you wanted) switch them over to milk / formula mix and eventually to all formula if you want.

BUT...unless I'm wayyy off on the math or you found a cheaper supplier...

Doe's Match cost 60$ for 20# pail.

It takes 6 oz  (at .37#) to make one quart of replacer.  You'd get 54 quarts out of that 20# pail...which works out to 13.5 gallons.

If you buy your milk 'cheap' (WalMart or Aldis) for around 3.00 per gallon, you could get 20 gallons for the same price.

If you use whole milk, it'll take (average) 1/2 gallon for the first 60 days. 
3-20 oz. bottles per day.
That'd be 30 gallons, or $90.00.  Then as you wean them, it'll be another 8 gallons (roughly) at $24.00.

My math says whole milk will be $114.00 per kid.
Replacer would be $167.00.

And I would get them on the bottle as soon as possible, if you just *can't* milk the colostrum from mom to bottle them with, then pull them at 24 hrs.  They can't absorb / get any good out of it after that, so leaving them on her for 4 days will only make the switch harder.


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)

you know that makes sence i was sttupid and figured the price fromthe  gas station near bye thanks for the help


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)

do you have a reccomended feeding chart?  i will try to post some pictures later today!


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 25, 2011)

I buy my milk replacer in 25# bags, at $38.80 per bag. It's a good, all-milk protein replacer.  I am only raising 2 kids on it this year, and I just bought my second bag on Saturday.  The kids are 5 weeks old.  I expect I'll have a little left over at 8 weeks when I wean, or maybe I'll feed until I run out of replacer, so maybe 9 weeks.  

Let's just say for math's sake that each kid will use 1 bag of replacer, so each kid will be about $38-$40.  Whole milk is $4/gallon here, so replacer is WAY cheaper for me.  

I love this replacer, and I've never had a single instance of scours or bloat on it.  And most importantly, the kids are growing great.


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## Roll farms (Apr 25, 2011)

For maximum growth, (which is what you want w/ boers) I try to get them up to 3-20 oz bottles as fast as I can....usually by 2 wks of age.  GRADUALLY increase their amts. daily until you hit that.

I generally feed them 3-6 oz feedings of colostrum the day they're born, then 3 8oz bottles on day 2, 3 9oz bottles on day 3, etc.  Just give them a bit more daily until they max out at 20oz per meal.

I feed them at 8am, 2pm, and 9pm.  Feeding too often can increase the likelihood of FKS, they need time to digest between feedings.  

(Mamas feed them smaller amounts more often to prevent that problem-but I see no reason to be chained to a more frequent schedule...).

They get 3 20oz bottles a day until 8wks, then 2 a day until 10 wks, then 1 a day and weaned at 3 mos.
I put hay in front of them immediately and start them on a goat creep feed at 2 wks.

Aggie, what's your ADG and what breed are they?  
What brand of replacer is it?
How much per feeding do you give / or, how much per day, total oz.?


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)

ok thank you. you were a big help!


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 25, 2011)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> Aggie, what's your ADG and what breed are they?
> What brand of replacer is it?
> How much per feeding do you give / or, how much per day, total oz.?


I haven't calculated ADG.  I'll try to get a weaning weight on them this year.  I lost my scale and haven't wanted to spend the money yet to replace it.  :/  These are Oberhaslis.  

I feed Hubbard Lamb and Kid milk replacer (mixed differently for lambs vs. kids).  I can't for the life of me find it on the web, though Hubbard does have a website but all I can find is dairy calf milk replacers.  

I feed 3 times per day.  Three oz of replacer powder gets mixed with 16 oz of water, which usually equals about 18 oz or so of mixed replacer.  When they're at their max (which is now), I'll mix each kid that amount, plus split one between them. Not sure if that makes any sense at all.  I'll do 7.5 oz of powdered replacer, and 5 cups (or 40 oz) of water, and split it between them.  So they probably get about 22.5 oz three times per day.  

I tried getting pics yesterday, but you know how that goes with jumpy kids.  I'll try to get a pic with them drinking so they're somewhat still.


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)

how many gallons do you reccomend i buy? i just called my local walmart and its only$2.49! i was exited


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## Roll farms (Apr 25, 2011)

It'll freeze just fine....I usually buy 10 at a time when I find them cheap and freeze what I won't use before the due date's up.


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## RabbleRoost Farm (Apr 25, 2011)

As long as you're out there a lot of the time with them they'll be tame... I mean, I gentled both my two original goats this way (they were so wild they would freak out if you moved a foot from your position. They stuck to the far fence and bolted if you approached. I had to have several people come help me round them up to get them in the barn for the night at first), and now her kid crawls into my lap to be snuggled and loved. He's dam raised, and though she still won't let me touch her udder, her kid lets me do absolutely whatever I want with him. 
She's still a little "no touch" but I'm happy with the way her kid is now.

I was there after he was born, rubbed him dry and put him in the barn with mom, held him and such. Maybe it's too late for you to keep them on the mom and try to keep them tame, especially if the mom wasn't tamed prior to giving birth, but that's how I did it. Hope it works for you. I know letting the mother raise them is much cheaper and a lot less labor intensive than feeding every couple hours with a bottle though!


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## Roll farms (Apr 25, 2011)

You don't have to feed every few hours.  3 x a day is all.  I'm in the barn at least that many times a day anyway.

And for those of us w/ large herds, it's just impossible to catch / gentle every goat, or give one-on-one attention...mine get that when I feed them their bottles (about 3 mins. per kid) and they're hooked...they think I am the bomb and love me forever..

For me, bottle raising is easy....I think dam raising seems hard.  All the posts I see about "I'm not sure if the kid is eating enough" and "Mom rejected baby", etc.   
All that time spent watching / worrying / helping...pish posh, I say...

To each their own, of course...but don't knock it til you've tried it.  
(Yes, I've dam raised a few...and hated it, worried sick the whole time, I was....*I* am a better mother than most goats...)

Here I am bottle raising 35-50 kids a year and I still have all this time to play online.


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## RabbleRoost Farm (Apr 25, 2011)

Well, true, but I'm not as worried with my entire herd of two goats. 
I have the luxury of not having so many I guess.

I understand where you're coming from though. I wouldn't mind bottle feeding a kid, just as long as I know my does are good mothers. If I were to lose one for some reason there would be no question about whether I would feed them myself or not. I'm trying to breed towards a good motherly stock with lots of hardiness and worm resistance and such, so if a goat isn't a good mom, I would never know it if I fed her kids for her.


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)




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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)




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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 25, 2011)

Here are the best pics I could get.  Hard to bottle feed AND take decent pics. 

Doe
















Buck










They were born on March 15th.  I think they look pretty good.


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 25, 2011)

they look awesome!


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## Roll farms (Apr 25, 2011)

Fine looking kids all around.  Congrats, Oxdrover, those kids are beautiful!

I understand trying to take pics of kids while feeding...I try it all the time.  I succeed only occasionally....:/


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 26, 2011)

Oxdrover, I love the piant kid in the third pic.  And I love the darker red ones farther down.


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## oxdrover14 (Apr 26, 2011)

Me to! I was so exited to get some color for my herd.


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