Getting our babies tomorrow!!! [PICS ADDED!!!]

[Emmetts Dairy]

"goat parent', 'goat ownership'

Thinks somebody should tell you, you don't own them, they own you

Seriously they are wonderful animals, and I hope you thoroughly enjoy them. Good luck.

Sooo true!!!!


Welcome!!! When I had to bottle feed I used the kid replacer from Tractor Supply. Never had issues with scours. But change them slowly if your changing things up, good advice. I would additionally skip the grain with the bucks as well!! Have fun and enjoy your new babies...2 weeks old huh? They are young!! What happen to their Momma???

 

[Dreaming Of Goats]

You are seriously posting this without pictures? lol

 

[BJnMe]

Pictures will be coming soon!!! I have to find the camera...

Well, I found out that even though they were advertised this past Monday as two weeks, they are officially two weeks old today! So, yes, real young! Their mamas belong to someone who has dairy goats, and no use for bucklings. The girl I got them from bought all four babies that were availbale (she didn't want the owner to "deal" with them), but could only keep two, so that is how they came to be on Craiglist.

I think we have found the magic mixture for these little guys. I am using a 50/50 mix of milk and replacer. However, the replacer is only 1/4-strength. I bought it from our local feed store, and it has no plant matter listed on the ingredients list, and is 20% protein, 20% fat.

The little guy, Toby, still does not drink much more than 12 ounces at a time, but he is definitely putting on some weight. Nigel, on the other hand, is voracious! He will drink up to 20 ounces at a feeding if he doesn't lose interest and start playing. We are feeding them three times a day, and last night we threw in an extra bottle right before we went to bed, which was about four hours after their last feeding. That seemed to go over well, so may become the new routine. We will see how it goes.

We are definitely enjoying these guys, and can't wait to see how they grow up! I homeschool our three girls (12, 10, 8), so this is another great experience for them, too - with the added bonus that I have help at home to feed and keep our menagerie that also includes chickens, one duck, our three house cats, and two Flemish giant rabbits (who are kindly sharing their sunroom with the goats until we finish their enclosure in the barn).

I will post some pictures of my boys later this weekend. Thank you to everyone who has offered advice - we love this site!

 

[chandasue]

Congrats and look forward to pics! My son, who's 4 now, has had chickens and goats around almost as long as he can remember. He's FINALLY starting to realize that not everyone in our homeschool group lives like we do, and none of them for sure have goats. It used to be that we'd go to people's houses and he'd ask where the goats were after scanning their backyards.

 

[jlbpooh]

That is so cute! Kids are so much fun. (Both the human and goat varieties, LOL)

 

[Griffin's Ark]

It sounds like you are doing very good with these guys. We get lots of purebred goats via dairy discards. Grade A dairy farms usually have no time for bucklings and quite often get rid of a lot of doelings too. Usually they go to the people that make curry, but I have found that I can outbid their limits and get the best goats to raise as dairy herd replacers or starters. The great thing is that these guys probably come from a CAE free herd as quite often graded dairys are.

My best experience with goats was bottle feeding 4 Nubian boys at one time. It was sheer joy for Tina and I.
Chris

 

[BJnMe]

Ok - looking for some more excellent advice! My boys (Nubians) are now 16 days old and just full of themselves!!! They are taking 12-20 ounces per feeding, three to four times a day. It's amazing to see how much they have started filling out since just last Wednesday when we brought them home.

Their enclosure is about half-way done and I am anticipating them moving out to the barn sometime this weekend. I hope.

So. Questions.

Worming. When is the best time to do this? Now, later? Am I already behind schedule?

Hay. We are offering timothy hay to them, although they only play nibble at it. Timothy hay is what we have for our rabbits, which is why we are offering that rather than alfalfa. What is best for them?

Feed. I have read that we should begin offering this from three weeks until weaned. Regular goat feed? Something special? Free choice or portions?

Anything else I should be doing right now? I keep reading, but keep finding conflicting information. Thank you for all the great advice!!! I found my camera, just need to find the charger, then I will post pics of my boys!

 

[cmjust0]

My boys (Nubians) are now 16 days old
....
Worming. When is the best time to do this? Now, later? Am I already behind schedule?

The best answer to that question is "worm as needed."

Having said that, goats generally pick up worms from grazing larvae-infested grass. At 16 days of age, it's not likely that they've done much of that, so it's highly unlikely that they'd need to be dewormed.

Hay. We are offering timothy hay to them, although they only play nibble at it. Timothy hay is what we have for our rabbits, which is why we are offering that rather than alfalfa. What is best for them?

Timothy's OK. I like timothy for goats, personally. In any case, though, they're getting the vast majority of their nutrition from milk at this point so whatever hay they're eating is kinda like 'training hay' anyhow.

When they start eating hay with purpose, as it were, you might consider something with a little more protein like an alfalfa blend, etc.

Feed. I have read that we should begin offering this from three weeks until weaned. Regular goat feed? Something special? Free choice or portions?

I'm not a huge advocate of feeding out of a bag unless it's necessary, and it really shouldn't be necessary while they're on a bottle. If I feed grain while they're on a bottle, I tend to feed just enough to get them interested so they'll know what it is and eat it later on if it *does* become necessary.

We're talking little tiny handfuls once or twice a day, mostly for them to explore and play around with.

DEFINITELY NOT free choice, though.. Feeding too much grain or incorrect types of grains to boys is a pretty surefire way to find yourself with a case of urinary calculi. Personally, I like to make sure I'm feeding something like alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets to add more supplemental calcium to their diet if I'm feeding very much grain at all. Keeping blood calcium levels high helps keep blood phosphates low, which helps prevent urinary calculi...it's why any decent goat grain should be mixed to have twice as much calcium as phosphorus.

I just don't personally think that's a high enough ratio -- but that's me. I've got my bucks and bucklings on a 50% goat-grain/50% alfalfa-pellet blend w/ free choice grass hay right now. So far, so good -- and one's a former UC case w/ maybe...oh, I dunno...30-40% urethral capacity? He's a dribbler, put it that way. Wouldn't take much for him to plug up, but it hasn't happened since they've been on alfalfa pellets.

Anything else I should be doing right now? I keep reading, but keep finding conflicting information. Thank you for all the great advice!!! I found my camera, just need to find the charger, then I will post pics of my boys!

At 2wks+, they're range for C/D-T vaccination. I usually do mine between 2-3 weeks of age, then again 4wks later (i.e., 1st shot @ 2-3wks, booster shot @ 6-7wks).

Otherwise, use this time to keep reading everything you can and to gather supplies. If I had to make a suggestion on where to start, I'd suggest learning about scours. Investigate the different things that cause scours (dietary, bacterial, coccidia, intestinal worms, etc), and then stock up on what you'd need to treat a case of the different things that may be causing it (stuff like dimethox, pepto, oral antibiotics, electrolyte powder, Safe-Guard dewormer, etc)..

Also, I'd suggest reading up on how to at least *attempt* to diagnose the cause of a scour based on the scour's color, consistency, contents, the goat's general demeanor, etc (green scour + normal goat = dietary... Black, bloody, foul-smelling scour = acute coccidiosis... "Dirty water" scour with blood and mucous = bacterial, usually....etc).

I'm not saying they're *going* to scour, but you're clearly looking for something to do, right?... ...well, there are an awful lot of "MY BABY HAS DIARRHEA!" posts floating around out there which have been authored by some very freaked-out newbie goat owners. It does happen, so that's what I'd suggest boning up on.

 

[Griffin's Ark]

I don't think there is much to add after CM's reply. One thing I might add is the feed you start the kids on should be at least 16% protein and should have Ammonium Chloride (helps dissolve urinary calculi) in it. After they get their major growth spurt (sometime before the end of the first year) you can just about stop graining them. And don't forget the CD and T shots... Enterotoxemia (C&D) is a very fast acting toxin, and once it starts to proliferate in the gut of a goat it is almost a for-sure death sentence. Once a goat begins to scour from Entero, it is usually to late. Their scours will be the most fowl smelling stuff you can imagine and usually you can tell from a few feet away.
Our Nubian bottle baby is now our herd sire and he still thinks he is a bottle baby at 18 months old. That can cause problems with visitors not used to goats as they like to touch and stand on family members and it seems that all two legged goats are family members. Floyd will stand with his front legs on my shoulders to greet me in normal goat fashion and since I did/do not discourage him I can't let him be around non-goat people and I have to warn goat people. Our goats are spoiled, but we also get some top milk production from a bunch of ordinary goats. Happy Cows might be from California, but Happy Goats come from Virginia!
Chris

 

[aggieterpkatie]

About the grain thing, I would offer it free choice until they really start eating it, then I would cut back to rationed amounts. I like it to be available to my kids at all times so they can practice eating it. I change it out every day so it's fresh, and I only offer a little, but they have access to it all the time.