Goats AT Auctions!!!:)

[muscovy94]

HEy everyone I have a question. I'm going to texas this summer and will be going to first monday trade days. They are supposed to have a TON of animals, including goats. we are looking for a very young baby goat so we can bottle feed it (a bottle baby). What i'm asking here is, do auctions usually sale bottle babies? Or do they sale babies that are big enough to eat on thier own?

We are wanting to buy a very young goat so we can bottle feed it. We want to buy a bottle baby.

Thanks.

 

[Dorothy1324]

i think it depends on the day the auction we have here had bottle babies some times other times not.

 

[ksalvagno]

You may also want to consider visiting local farms and see if they offer bottle baby goats. With buying from a local farm, you could also get the support you may need if you are new to goats. It is amazing all the little things you need to learn and don't learn it all from books.

 

[nightshade]

Here they normally sell the babies separate from the mothers at the sales. They would have to come in with the seller saying that they must be sold together for them to be.

 

[Roll farms]

When you buy at auction, you're usually not able to ask if the kids' have been vaccinated, if the parents are healthy, etc. If it's really young and didn't get colostrum, it can die w/in days or hours and break your heart.
You can probably find a local breeder who sells bottle babies and be safer knowing the kid's background.
JMHO...

 

[mekasmom]

I go to goat sales (auctions) dozens of times a year. You rarely see very young goats there, and they are usually sold with the nanny. Your best bet would be to get a pregnant nanny and take the kid off her to bottlefeed right after birth. I even milk out the colostrum rather then letting the nanny feed the kid. You can then decide whether the nanny is tame enough for you to handle or whether she should be resold. You do see a lot of 2-3mo old billys at auctions, but it is to late to bottle feed them. They are usually very wild because they were kept on the nanny until she was ready to be milked or rebred. I have seen them sold for as little as five dollars a piece in a group. They usually go to a meat dealer.
Auctions are a good place to find good prices if you know very much about goats. The downside is that not all the goats are healthy, so you have to be able to pick out a decent animal that is fairly healthy with a good temperament. Some goats do have issues that make them more suitable as a meat animal rather than a herd member. I just pass those up to go to the next person. Remember you want good temperament. Some health issues are easily fixed (worms, lice, etc), but you cannot fix poor temperament and social skills. If a goat never learned any human imprinting as a young kid, you can't change that when they are older. They will always be more fearful and wild then a kid who learned early to like humans.

 

[muscovy94]

What is this colostrum I keep hearing about?

 

[lilhill]

It is the thick, yellowish, first milk produced by the female after she gives birth (parturition). Colostrum is rich in energy, protein, vitamins and minerals. Most importantly, it contains maternal antibodies that help protect the newborn from disease pathogens during the early part of its life. Ewes and does only produce colostrum for about 24 hours (plus or minus a few hours) after delivering their offspring.

 

[Scout]

It'd be best to buy from a local farm. One of my friends around here just give's the bummers away IF ya let him know ahead of time ya want one, if ya dont act fast he'll put 'em down, he says he's to old to deal with 'em like he used to. So the point is, put an ad in the paper your interested in a PAIR of bummers (dont get just one, they really dont do well on there own, and if ya only get one and it does live, it'll be a down right PEST!!! Trust me...) Get out to the farm and look at how they care for there stock, make sure ya ask how old the babie's are (very important, if they dont get colostrum within a half hour or sooner after birth they will die, no way around it, and that powdered colostrum's a huge joke, its absolutely worthless. It'd be best to get one that's about 5 days old, if they wouldn't have got enough colostrum they usually wouldn't have made it to that old, from then on its smooth sailin... Oh, and also that powdered milk usually aint no good either, I've had some luck with it, but unpasterized goat's millk's the best, if not, just get the whole cow's milk from the store, it aint the best but it sure beats that powdered nightmare... and it's a lot easier on the wallet.

That bein said, I'll tell ya what I'd do if I was you... I'd purchase a TAME (very important, not only would it be so much easier to catch her and milk her, but the kids'll watch how she acts around you, they'll pick up on fear awful quick) preggy doe, wait til she kids, pull the kids off her, milk her, and bottle feed 'em that way, that way they'd have the colostrum they need and you'd know exactly how much they got, and then the good milk after that, and you can drink the extra milk, aint nothin wrong with that LOL. Now when the kids are weaned, you could either keep the nanny, sale her or butcher her, dependin.

 

[haviris]

I'd find the closest goat dairy I could and buy from them, they are usually fairly cheap and they haven't been exposed to the bad things auctions goats may have.