How do you raise your babies?

[OneFineAcre]

first, i have lamancha dairy goats and i treat them totally different from the meat goats I've had so right now I'm just talking milkers. i use to raise everything on bottles then as the herd grew i switched to lambars but for the last couple of years i have gone to letting the kids nurse and at about 2 wks of age i separate them at night and milk mom of a morning. now that i live alone i don't need as much milk and this works for me. that way if something comes up and i can't be there i just leave the kids with mom and don't have to worry about them. and yes you can get them to take a bottle after they have nursed, the younger the easier but if they are hungry and the milk is warm they will learn quickly. i have taught month old babies to take a bottle. since a lambar nipple is much harder than a regular lamb nipple i usually start them out with the softer one and when i am ready to switch them to the lambar i will put the lambar nipple on the bottle for a day or two to get them use to the feel of it and to keep the bottle tilted so they would get use to sucking longer to get their milk since they have to suck thru a straw to get the milk out of a lambar. just remember you have to be as stump headed as they are sometimes. @OneFineAcre you can get toltrazuril (baytril) at horseprerace.com

horseprerace.com is where I got the toltrazuril. The address on the website is in Panama.
But, the product was shipped from Florida. Not sure how that works.

 

[goats&moregoats]

I had two born in late Feb this year, they were tiny at 1.5lbs and 1lb each. It was extremely cold that time of the year. Don't like heat lamps in my barns. I let them nurse from their mom for two days, keeping the barn door tightly closed and adding extra bedding. Then I brought them to the house and bottle fed them for 6 weeks. At that time they were eating hay. I took them back to the barn and continued to bottle fed twice a day for 3 more weeks. Then once a day for the last week. Decreasing the amount each feeding. Once I saw both drinking water and eating grain, I stopped the bottles all together.

The babies born early May were left to be dam raised. I have since sold those. however I found them to be very skittish. Hazel was way over protective of her little one. However, she is the one that broke her leg, so due to a whole lot of day to day handling she is much calmer around people after six weeks. I had to keep her in a wire dog kennel in the barn near mom, but protected.. I had to tie Hazel out in a dry patch away from the others several times a day to let the baby feed.

I believe I want to try bottle feeding all of next years babies. We will see. I work part time and DH is disabled. So I think we can do it. However, I want the babies in the barn this time around.

 

[goatgurl]

horseprerace.com is where I got the toltrazuril. The address on the website is in Panama.
But, the product was shipped from Florida. Not sure how that works.

thanks for the info. onefineacre, i never looked beyond florida

 

[newbiekat]

OFA- How long would you treat for coccidia? You mentioned "we would treat again once every few weeks" but at what age did you treat till? I think I wanna stick to the DiMethox, we bought the 40%, but don't know how often to treat, how long to treat, how much to treat, etc... Also, that's good to know that another breeder believes that they do become more resistant, I hope that's the case... Do you supplement feed knowing you are crowded? That's our issue right now, we know we are a little crowded, but we would rather supplement than sell.

goatgurl- how soon do you put them on the lambar? Do you pull them right after birth? I would love to bottle feed, I just don't have the time to feed every few hours, I work during the day. Up till now, they have been dam raised then at 2 weeks I separate at night to milk in the morning. Also, what if you miss the birth, do you just pull them as soon as possible?

 

[goatgurl]

newbiekat- i let them stay on mom till the colostrum is done because i want them to get a good start, 3-5 days depending on mom then switch to a bottle for 2-3 days just to get them use to nursing something besides mom and as stated i start them out on the softer lamb nipple and then switch to the lambar. remember some of them will take right to it and some of them will clamp their mouth shut and scream bloody murder and they may have to miss a meal before they get hungry enough to eat. in the 30+ years I've been doing this i have never had one that wouldn't switch when they have no other choice. and i use to work 8-12 hour shifts too so i know about limited time and i am sure someone will gasp when i tell you that after they were on the bottle i only fed them twice a day. definitely not every 2-4 hours. if you can stay home and have the time to do that that is wonderful, but i was a single mom and had to work so it was before and after work for my babies. i made sure they had fresh water, creep and hay in front of them all the time but the bottles only came twice a day. nothing could make a hard day at work better any faster than apen full of baby goats! good luck

 

[Fullhousefarm]

We raise and show dairy goats. Lamanchas and a few Nigerian Dwarfs.

We had our first kids born here this year. Beefor that we have cared for exclusively bottle fed newborns for a friend.

For about the first two weeks we leave babies with mom all the time, and milk once a day- or more if mom seems full. Often the case the first few days. Then we separate right before we go to bed, and milk mom in the morning, then they are together all day. At 8-9 weeks with the Lamanchas and 6-7 with the Nigees (we had all bucks this year) we start milking mom 2x a day, but letting babies nurse after shes milked and while we are finishing chores. This made total weaning very painless and easy a week or two later. We keep milking mom at least 6 months total, and are milking one doe through this year so she will be in milk over a year when we breed her again.

Our babies are super friendly, but I have four children playing with them so they get tons of interaction from the moment they are born. They will sleep in your lap and chase you around the yard.

 

[newbiekat]

goatgurl- Thanks! That's great info! I might look into doing that this year!

Fullhouse- That's about our schedule now, but I'd like to look into bottle feeding if possible. Thanks!

 

[goatgurl]

ok newbiekat now that I've told you how i did it for years let me tell how i did it this year. my situation has changed, my mom was quite ill and caring for her took a lot of my time and energy so i left all the babies on their dams and when i wanted milk i locked them apart at night and milked in the morning. i supplemented the smallest of a set of trips but everyone else was on their own with their dams. the kids were by no means as friendly as bottle babies but since i only had 3 doelings i gave them extra attention so they will do ok. and the wethers have grown out nicely and i may not keep them thru the winter before i butcher them. not sure i am crazy about this way of raising babies but old habits die hard. and it was a better choice for me than selling most of my does and having to start over.

 

[OneFineAcre]

OFA- How long would you treat for coccidia? You mentioned "we would treat again once every few weeks" but at what age did you treat till? I think I wanna stick to the DiMethox, we bought the 40%, but don't know how often to treat, how long to treat, how much to treat, etc... Also, that's good to know that another breeder believes that they do become more resistant, I hope that's the case... Do you supplement feed knowing you are crowded? That's our issue right now, we know we are a little crowded, but we would rather supplement than sell.

goatgurl- how soon do you put them on the lambar? Do you pull them right after birth? I would love to bottle feed, I just don't have the time to feed every few hours, I work during the day. Up till now, they have been dam raised then at 2 weeks I separate at night to milk in the morning. Also, what if you miss the birth, do you just pull them as soon as possible?

We treat until they are 4-5 months old. By that time, they should be OK.
But, some people do not do preventative treatment at all. It's all about what works for you. We have had a problem, so we are being more pro-active/aggressive in our approach.
Supplement Feed- up until we just moved we were completely dry lot, meaning ours were strictly on hay. No browse or pasture at all.
But, that can contribute to the coccidia issue too, in that the waste hay get's wet, mix in some poop and you have a prime breeding ground for the coccidia.
You need to keep that waste hay cleaned up.

 

[newbiekat]

Goatgurl- I understand, situation changes the way we do things! I like your idea of pulling the babies, and I was trying to get a feel for how I could do it, because I would love to do it this year. Up till now I have had mine dam raised, with separating at 2 weeks at night to milk in the morning. We would usually milk 1x a day for a few weeks, then up it to 2x a day for a couple months (to increase production), then back down to 1x a day until we dried them up again. But I wanted to try something new this year. We will see how it goes!

OFA- wow, I didn't realize that preventative measures would need to be taken that long. I mean, I understand why, but I guess I just didnt realize what it took. We have one that we took a fecal sample into the vet, and she said that she had stronglcytes(?) and a larger load of coccidia (4 mos old). She suggested treating with CoRid in the water for everyone (she said that if one has it, its possible the rest have it). So that's what we did. CoRid in the water for 7 days (this was 2 weeks ago). But the more I'm reading, the more it seems that CoRid is more of a preventative and not so good of a treatment. Which is why I looked into the DiMethox. I was debating on treating her and the others with the DiMethox next week (3 weeks after the original CoRid treatment). What are your thoughts?

Just some extra info: I have 12 goats (5 of them kids, 4 of them in milk) on 3 acres, pasture. The 4 in milk get grain and rolled corn 1x a day during milking, but everyone else is on the pasture. We are getting pretty thin this year on the pasture, plus with the coccidia in the fecal sample, we are thinking supplementing hay (so we don't have to sell), plus coccidia preventative for next year's kids might be in order.