I recently purchased two goats. A Saanen mama (first freshener) and her doeling (who is about a month old). I love having goats! Since I only have two, I leave them together 24/7, but also milk mom. When it comes time to wean, any ideas on how to do it? Or will mom do it on her own? Could I use Hoegger's tape during the day to keep baby from nursing? Or should I split them up? If I do split them, can I put them back together while still milking mom? I was thinking I would try to wean about 12 weeks, does that sound about right? Thanks for your help!
How to wean baby?
- Thread starter mom4girls
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20kidsonhill
True BYH Addict
Wanted to move this back to the top for you, so someone that milks can try to help you.
We don't milk, we seperate the babies at 8 to 10 weeks, and keep them seperated.
12 weeks sounds like a good age to wean, but I don't know what you would do with just a couple goats and not wanting them to be by themselves.
We don't milk, we seperate the babies at 8 to 10 weeks, and keep them seperated.
12 weeks sounds like a good age to wean, but I don't know what you would do with just a couple goats and not wanting them to be by themselves.
ThornyRidgeII
Overrun with beasties
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I have pulled kids anywhere from 7-12 weeks.. and keep em separated.. some hollering will happen but if not then you have pesky little kids that are now a year old and still try to suckle on mom.. who is allowing this to happen! I have also had a doe that naturally weaned her own kids! guess after a while of having that udder used and abused she said enough is enough and literally kicked em off!
Rebbetzin
Loving the herd life
We don't have any good way to separate the babies from the moms. What we do is tape up the mom and in a few days the kids get the idea. Plus the moms seem to kick them off as they get older.
It is amazing though how much milk they can get in just a few quick "sips"
It is amazing though how much milk they can get in just a few quick "sips"
Ariel301
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I've never found taping the teats to work. I used to have a doe that would nurse herself, so I kept her teats taped, and it confused her enough to stop her from doing it, but if her kid (that we pulled to bottle feed) got in the pen with her, she would rip the tape off, eat it, and then nurse.
You'll want the kid to be at least 8 weeks before you wean. You can either just pull her and put her in another pen all the time, or gradually keep her in a separate pen for increasing periods of time until she's in there full time. It may take several months before you can re-introduce the two, to give the baby time to forget nursing. But...I've had doelings put back in the doe pen six months after they were weaned, and the first thing they did was go straight for their mom's udder. I've found that dairy does rarely will wean their own kids. I just sold a two year old doe that was still trying to nurse on any udder she saw.
You'll want the kid to be at least 8 weeks before you wean. You can either just pull her and put her in another pen all the time, or gradually keep her in a separate pen for increasing periods of time until she's in there full time. It may take several months before you can re-introduce the two, to give the baby time to forget nursing. But...I've had doelings put back in the doe pen six months after they were weaned, and the first thing they did was go straight for their mom's udder. I've found that dairy does rarely will wean their own kids. I just sold a two year old doe that was still trying to nurse on any udder she saw.
The Doe probably won't wean it, although I have a couple does that would wean their kids way too early when I dam raised... I am not sure what to tell you if you want to keep them together.... I would separate them. As someone else already said it will take awhile.
I recently bought some does that were suppose to be dry, the lady was embarrassed when I got them in milk. She said the babies had been separated for 6 months and she hadn't noticed until recently that the babies were nursing through the fence!
I recently bought some does that were suppose to be dry, the lady was embarrassed when I got them in milk. She said the babies had been separated for 6 months and she hadn't noticed until recently that the babies were nursing through the fence!
