1 day old baby worried about feeding right- added pic

[afinney]

Kinda new to goats have 3 adults.......a friend of mine had a doe deliver quads during the night one died and one is so tiny the other two won't let it eat he asked me if I could take it.......my question is how often should she be eating and how much? right now she doesn't take anymore than 1/4 oz... she did get the hang of the bottle pretty easy

 

[Roll farms]

What breed is it?

Right now she should ONLY be getting colostrum.

If she's a pygmy, I'd give her 3-4 oz every 6-8 hrs the first day.
Standard sized, 4-6 oz every 6-8 hrs.

On day two, regardless of breed, all my bottle babies go to 3 bottles a day, roughly every 8 hrs. I use whole milk (vitamin D) from the store if I don't have enough goat milk to go around.

I let them have 6-8 oz per feeding (standard goats) the first couple days, until I'm sure they're eating / pooping / digesting well, then I take them up a little more ea. day until they're getting 3 - 20oz bottles every day...that is usually by 2-3 weeks of age.

Good luck.

(I've found, if you try to feed them too often, they never get good and hungry and 'catch on'....plus I like to give them time to digest to help prevent floppy kid syndrome)

 

[afinney]

she's standard size......should I have bought colostrum replacement for her? I can go get some if she needs it.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

she's standard size......should I have bought colostrum replacement for her? I can go get some if she needs it.

Colostrum "replacers" are never as good as real colostrum and are really only good for supplementing (at least most of the ones you can find easily at feed stores). It'd be best if your friend could milk the doe out and you could pick it up today. Try to get some in her ASAP. The colostrum replacer/supplement will be better than nothing though.

 

[FarmerDenise]

she's standard size......should I have bought colostrum replacement for her? I can go get some if she needs it.

Colostrum "replacers" are never as good as real colostrum and are really only good for supplementing (at least most of the ones you can find easily at feed stores). It'd be best if your friend could milk the doe out and you could pick it up today. Try to get some in her ASAP. The colostrum replacer/supplement will be better than nothing though.

I am new to goats, but everything I have read and my vet said, that it is super important for baby goats to get that colostrom the first 24 hours!!!
The best is from their own mom, second best is from another goat, third from a cow, 4rth from any other source like replacer.

They get immunities through the colostrum.

I got my kids at 6 days old. They had trouble changing to the cow milk. I added about 1/2 ts of live culture yogurt to the cow milk and they handled it better.

 

[afinney]

just to let you all know she's doin great

meet APRIL

 

[freemotion]

Nothing like snuggling with a baby goatie!!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Cute! so nice and snugly