In a quandary with bottle feeding

[ksalvagno]

Ok, I have a possible problem. I have 2 bottle babies right now. I'm picking up a 3rd one tomorrow. I also have to pull the 3 kids from Dahlia and start bottle feeding them. So I have 2 Nigi's in milk. Shamise just milked out a quart of milk after 12 hours. So if I get a quart of milk each milking that is great. I don't know how much I will get from Dahlia. So I have to feed 6 kids for 2 weeks from milk from the 2 goats. If I can't get enough from them, what do I do? Can I mix some other milk in with the goat milk and then go back to straight goat milk without messing them up? 3 of the goats will be leaving in about 2 weeks. HELP!

 

[Roll farms]

You can mix Vitamin D and goat milk and never miss a beat.

Honest, I swear, I promise...I had to use half goat / half Vita D clear up until Dazzle kidded before I was getting enough to go around.
I was using 4 gallon of store bought milk a week for 3 wks.

If you're nervous about it, start out at 25% Vita D for a few days, then go to half. I used to, but now I just go straight to half and half and they've done fine.

 

[ksalvagno]

Thanks! For a minute I thought I was going to have to find a goat in milk.

 

[Roll farms]

Oh...uh...well, then...in that case...um...goat milk really IS best.

LOLOLOL, sorry gotta do my part to be an enabler....

 

[ksalvagno]

DH would probably want to divorce me if I got another goat. He thinks we have too many now!

 

[freemotion]

I had to pasteurize my CAE positive doe's milk to bottle feed her doeling and I don't know how that was that much different from storebought milk. Ok, it was still better, but still.....I mixed in as much of the other ff doe's milk as I could manage to squeeze out of those tiny teats and mixed it in, and sometimes it was just a small percentage, but I felt that the smallest amount of live milk mixed in would make a huge difference. The doeling grew up just fine and is likely preggers now. She never had any health issues other than that time she ate some poisonous plant and puked all night...still survived.

I have next to no experience with this but wanted to offer some support as someone who also wants to always give my babies the ideal food, even when it is just not possible. It'll be fine, especially since you have access to some good, live, raw milk to add.

On the other hand, an nice lactating dairy doe would be handy......

 

[themrslove]

DH would probably want to divorce me if I got another goat. He thinks we have too many now!

I feel so blessed! My hubby is just about as crazy (if not crazier) about goats than I am! He is the ultimate enabler!
He has yet to ever tell me no.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Shamise just milked out a quart of milk after 12 hours.

That is AWESOME!

 

[jodief100]

Karen, how far into Ohio are you? I have about 30 quarts in the freezer from last spring and can certainly spare most of it. Non pasteurized from my LaMancha doe who I have never tested for anything but came from a farm that raises everything on bottles.

 

[julieq]

You can mix Vitamin D and goat milk and never miss a beat.

Honest, I swear, I promise...I had to use half goat / half Vita D clear up until Dazzle kidded before I was getting enough to go around.
I was using 4 gallon of store bought milk a week for 3 wks.

If you're nervous about it, start out at 25% Vita D for a few days, then go to half. I used to, but now I just go straight to half and half and they've done fine.

Yep, that's what we do here also. No problems at all using store bought milk to fill in the gaps for bottle kids, at any age.