HELP! questions about weaning

[miniaussielove]

we have a whether that is now about 13 weeks old. we are trying to wean him. we have him seperated from mom but now her udder is huge! do we milk her? we want her to stop producing milk..as we do not use it for anything. and how long do we keep them seperated from each other?

 

[pridegoethb4thefall]

If you are keepin them both, no need to wean, she will wean him herself.

But you are probably weaning for a reason, so....

You might need to milk her a tiny bit to relieve the pressure to prevent mastitis or udder infection. You could let him nurse her in daytime, and lock him away at night to start for a few days, then gradually start keeping him away from her for longer periods of time.

You can just dump any milk down the drain, into the dirt, or if you have chickens, they LOVE goats milk. You could even consider freezing some in the event you have a doe reject a kid in the future. It can be a good idea to have some milk frozen for unexpected things in the future. Plus, a doe that is used to being milked can be more valuable if you decide to sell her someday.

Im no expert, so I hope some others chime in. I will be having to wean a little guy soon who is sold and I dont want him to be happy on moms milk, then suddenly be getting none, I could use the advice myself. (his sister will still be here, but Ill probably have to milk mom to prevent her getting lopsided, and to keep mom used to being milked).

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I wean cold turkey for the dams. For babies, if they're bottled I'll decrease them slightly, but if they're dam raised the babies get weaned cold turkey too. It's less stressful on the baby if they stay in the same pen and you move mom to a new location, but many times that doesn't work, so you'll need to move the baby out of sight, and preferrably out of sound reach too (but that isn't always possible either). Remove any feed concentrates from the doe (so no more grain if she's on grain, plain grass hay only). You can also do this a few days to a week before weaning. Make sure she still has access to water. Some people remove water for 24 hours, but I don't agree. Give her plain grass hay and don't milk her for at least 5 days. Her udder needs to be full for at least that long to signal to the body that she can stop making milk. After 5 days, you can milk her out if needed, and check for any signs of mastitis. Make sure to dip her teats afterwards. Then her body will slowly absorb the milk left in her udder.

People do things differently, and some decide to milk every other day or every few days, but I've read many articles on weaning and they all say the udder needs to stay full for that length of time (5 days) so the body knows to quit producing milk. If you're still milking her, her body will keep producing.

You'll likely need to keep them separate for 3 weeks or so. Sometimes longer, but you can always separate them again if the kid tries to nurse.

 

[miniaussielove]

i have a question. we have kept the mom and baby seperated for the last week. today we let mom out with the rest of the goats. her udder after we first seperated them was huge, now its not very big. so if the baby tries to nurse again...will she start producing milk again? or will that time we kept them apart stop her production for good? please help i am new to goats

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I am not 100% on this for goats so I am speaking for my human experience. If the demand is presented, a mother's body will usually respond to it, sometimes even LONG after nursing has ceased. If it hasn't been long at all, then I am going to say that she might start producing but probably not in the original quantity.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If the kid starts nursing again after only a week, she'll most likely come back into milk.