# Bottle Feeding Boer Babies



## JerseyXGirl (Apr 26, 2010)

Saturday I acquired two Boer Babies that a gentleman did not want.  He purchased the momma and the babies were sent home with me.  I'm feeding 4oz every 4 hrs or so but they act like their starving.  I've never owned large breed goats so I could really use some advice if anyone wants to offer.  Thank You

They were born on Thursday.

Here are their pics
Patches/doe






Here is Thor/buck


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## The Egg Bandit (Apr 26, 2010)

I'm a newbie, but I fed my Saanen and Kinder kids every 2 hours the first few days.  They let me know on the third or fourth day when I could cut it back to four hours.

ETA: Those are some cute kids!  Congrats on the new additions!


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## haviris (Apr 26, 2010)

How old are they? Every 4 hours sounds good, but I generally let them eat as much as they want at each feeding.


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## cmjust0 (Apr 27, 2010)

Bottle babies always act like they're starving, so no worries there..

A basic rule of thumb employed by many folks is to feed kids 10-12% of their bodyweight in milk per day, figuring a gallon of milk weighs about 8lbs.  

So, if the kid weighs 10lbs, it needs 1lb of milk...1/8th of a gallon...a pint...16oz.  If you split that into 4 feedings, you're looking at 4oz/feeding.  If you do three feedings, then you'd go 5-6oz at a time.

Kid weighs 20lbs...32oz...three feedings = 10-12oz/feeding.

So on, so forth.

Again, just a basic rule of thumb..  And, no, you don't need to weigh the kid everyday.   You can just sorta eyeball it and figure out that it's growing at about X-amount/day and make adjustments from there.

That said, I actually like to get them to take 20oz 3x/day pretty quickly simply because it's easier on ME.  But that's just me.  Well...me and several others here, I guess.  Going by the above schedule, though, a kid should be 40+lbs before getting 60oz of milk and I can gaurandangtee none of ours are 40lbs by the time they're on 60oz/day.

I guess what I'm saying is...the 10-12%/day thing is, to me, a good rule of thumb for _baby_ babies, before they're able to take 60oz/day..  Once they're up to my "three soda bottle limit"...that's where they stay until they're weaned.


BTW...Your Boer babies are almost certainly part Nubian, with a touch of some other type of Swiss dairy breed in there.  The frosty ears on Patches are a dead giveaway for the Nubian influence, and the roman nose gives way to the dished face of Alpine breeds pretty easily.  Your babies faces are slightly dished.  Possibly a percentage Boer crossed to a Nubi/Alpine hybrid or something along those lines.

Who cares, though.   They're pwitty.


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## haviris (Apr 27, 2010)

My bottle calves ALWAYS act hungry, but my bottle goats only act hungry at feeding time.


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## Roll farms (Apr 28, 2010)

All my kids (meat and dairy) get fed 3x a day from birth on. 
I let them have as much as they want per feeding (within reason) and they generally stop around 6-8 oz the first few days.  By days 3-5 they're taking a 16 oz bottle, and by 2 weeks they get 20 oz.

I like waiting 6-8 hrs between feedings so I *know* they've had time to digest their milk, less risk of FKS or bloat / upset tummy.

They're cute!


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