Dam raised vs bottle baby

[OneFineAcre]

We bought 3 goats a couple of years ago, who not only were bottle raised themselves, but had each freshened themselves before and had their kids taken and bottle raised. (1 goat had freshened once before, the other 2 had freshened twice before)

All 3 were excellent mothers when they freshened at our place.

 

[alsea1]

That is great to hear. What a relief.

 

[jodief100]

I don't have much experience with bottle babies but I can say I have had a difficult time with milk goats. Every milk goat I buy is a horrible mother. My theory has been that since they are usually bottle raised and have been for generations, there is no selection for mothering ability.

The one bottle baby I had that I kept for breeding was a good mother. I think if the bottle babies are kept in with the general herd they will learn to be good mommies but if all the bottle babies are kept separate they might not.

 

[alsea1]

Hmmm.
I guess I will find out if Elennore has it or not in April or so.

 

[Melanie]

All my kids have been dam raised. I have one that acts exactly how people describe a bottle baby but his dam was an ff and did raise him well but left him alone frequently. I spent lots of time with all of them and they all are very very friendly.

 

[OneFineAcre]

We sometimes do a little of both. We've had dams with quads or trips and we've gotten the littlest on a bottle too.
The thing is when we give them a bottle the others become curious and come around to see what's going on. We've had some that do that and you stick the bottle in their direction and they will suck on it too.

We've experienced something this year that we never have seen before. A doe letting another doe's kid nurse her. Both of Rosemary's bucklings are gone and one of Daisy's kids nurse her and she let's him. Never had that happen before.

 

[hilarie]

My adult does, acquired 2 years ago, were all bottle raised. None of them had any mothering "demonstration", and before I got them, their babies had always been removed at birth. They were, of course, very tame and human oriented (I happen to like that, and it makes milking them a snap). The first year I bred my does, two out of three were allowed to raise at least one baby because they were doelings I wanted to keep. Those goat mamas, without any blueprint to follow, were excellent moms. Their babies, yearlings this year, are very tame and sweet girls, but I have a small herd and I'm able to socialize them a lot as they're growing up. One of them is expecting this summer - it will be interesting to see how she does. She could hardly be better than her dam, who did great on instinct alone. I've no idea if this is generalizable - this is just my experience, which has been a really good one.

 

[hilarie]

We sometimes do a little of both. We've had dams with quads or trips and we've gotten the littlest on a bottle too.
The thing is when we give them a bottle the others become curious and come around to see what's going on. We've had some that do that and you stick the bottle in their direction and they will suck on it too.

We've experienced something this year that we never have seen before. A doe letting another doe's kid nurse her. Both of Rosemary's bucklings are gone and one of Daisy's kids nurse her and she let's him. Never had that happen before.

One of my goat mentors calls that kind of doe a "goat auntie."

 

[Fullhousefarm]

Just chiming in late. I have a goat who's dams have been bottle raised exclusively for at least three generations. She was a great mom with no previous example of motherhood.