HELP!!! Two new baby goats and Mama doesn't want them

[chickylou]

Help me if you can.

My Nigerian just delivered three goats. It was a traumatic birth. The first and second baby came out OK, but the third got caught, head to side and two feet coming out. It didn't make it after a lot of pushing and I finally had to go in there and readjust to get the baby out. We had a vet on the phone and he walked me through it. WOW! That poor Mama goat.

Anyhow, she refuses her babies. She looks like she might even stomp on them and avoids them.
We have them in the house and they are very hungry. I milked her colostrum, but we don't know how to feed them.

Please help me...They are hungry, but they don't take to the nipple and bottle well.

Does this take a long time? When do they get it? Any pointers?

How often do I have to milk for new colostrum?

Thanks so much!

 

[The Egg Bandit]

I had an emergency like that - I milked mom into a cup and used a cleaned old syringe to suck up the milk and inject it into baby's mouth. It wasn't the best option, but saved the kid in a pinch. I'd keep trying to get mom to accept them. If you can find the placenta, rub it on the backs of the goats, and on mom's nose - she might accept them then. Either way, I'd keep trying to get them to nurse from mom. Unless you want the hassle of a bottle baby. It'll be a pain, but just keep holding the babies up to nurse. It worked for me, when I had a reluctant mother. I now have the problem of trying to get mom to wean the kid, LOL.
Good luck, and keep trying.

 

[chandasue]

I used human baby bottles (8oz size) and cut an X in the nipple to make it a bit easier for them to drink. At first I had to squeeze the bottle to sort of squirt it in but they figured out what to do fast. They don't take much at first, 2-3 oz 4x per day for the first couple days but by the end of the week they'll be up to 5 or 6 oz 3x per day and soon after 8 oz. Watch the poops-if they scour cut back on the milk a little bit. Either give them her milk or whole cows milk, don't do the replacer (so I've been told).

Edit: Colostrum is just for the first few days, then it starts looking more and more like milk after that. Hunger is a powerful motivator in getting them to eat. Keep trying though.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

our mini rejected her babies as well. we had a full sized gal in milk and we let the babies nurse off her when she was on the milk stand. we also got them to bottle feed...as chandasue said, hunger will help them along. just like any baby see if you can get a little milk from the bottle in their mouth.. then they should start to suck, you might have to force the nipple in their mouth and squeeze a little bit.

when the momma tried to stomp them - even on the milk stand - we gave up trying with her. she was nutty for a couple days then turned into a great milker

we were lucky and found a buyer for both babies in a day- the woman had experience will bottle goats. it worked out really well for everyone.

good luck!

 

[The Egg Bandit]

I'd give them a shot of b-complex, too. And a dose of Nutri-drench.

 

[goat lady]

I got a doe that was 10 days old and just pulled off the momma. It took her about 4-5 days before she would just go after the nipple when you came out with her bottle. Now she is like a mad woman. It does take a little while, but keep at it. I put the pritchard nipples on Dr. Pepper bottles. I also have always used whole Vit. D milk from the grocery store. Hope that helps.

 

[ksalvagno]

You need to milk at least twice a day. The first couple of milkings is the heavy full colostrum that you need to get into the kids. After that there is some colostrum but not the full strength.

 

[glenolam]

do a search on this site for feeding bottle babies - there's a bunch of good pointers on there with relation to how many times/day how much at each feeding, etc. The most important thing right now is to get that colostrum into the kids. if the kids don't "get" the bottle yet, take a syringe or something like that and drench them.

I read your other post and if she's as traumatized as it seems she might not accept her kids at all. It will depend on how much you want to try to have them bond. If you would just rather keep the kids to ensure they survive, then look up bottle feeding. If you would rather keep trying, make sure you're milking mom twice a day and giving that milk to the kids. She might take to them if they smell like her milk.

 

[chickylou]

Thank you!

It's worked out. Mama decided to want them, but needed recoup time after a hard birth.

The female hasn't figured it out so we milk the goat and bottle feed her three times a day.

This is quite the learning process, but we have 5 healthy and vibrant little Nigi/pygmies.