Milk Replacer Scare?

[norcal]

I just went and read a couple of the goat linked websites that you all provided. And now I'm freaked out, they both said DO NOT feed your goat "milk replacement" formula, it will KILL your goat. ??

Why would they sell this stuff, saying it's for goats, if it's going to KILL your goat? Hubby is going to freak out at me if I throw $20 in the garbage. I've been feeding it to my babies the last week, no ill effects. ??

 

[helmstead]

LOL It won't kill your goat!

Milk replacer can cause scours, and is generally more difficult to digest than real milk. I recommend simply using whole vitamin D milk from the store with Poly Vi Sol (.5 cc daily). If you have a skinny kid, you can use half and half until you get their weight up.

 

[Rence]

I personally don't like formula milk (for animalees or humans) but if that's what you have, that's what you have.

I give them Jersey milk

 

[norcal]

I don't have access to cows milk, and I don't have $3 a gallon to spend on milk for them. They seem to be doing fine, no diarrhea, and Teeny is doing better. I think that's without competition for the multi-nipple bucket w/ the other 20 kids. ?? I guess we'll watch for weight gain and signs of diarrhea.

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

Personally I have used milk replacers and never had any problems.I always find high quality ones, you never ever want to skimp on milk replacers if you are using them.

I also never use the little cups (comes with the milk replacer) to measure the powder. I notice when you don't measure the food correctly or give the right amount of milk formula, that is when all the problems start.


A kid should receive in milk or milk replacer 10% of its bodyweight over a 24 hour period.
Convert the kid's weight to ounces after you weigh her.
If she weighs 6 lbs, that's 96 ounces (16 ounces in a pound).
That means that she needs 10% of 96 ounces (9.6 ounces) over a 24 hour period divided up into at least four feedings.

As the baby grow you can lessen the amount of feedings to prepare for weaning.

Nothing beats goat mamma's milk though! I also use whole cows milk before with no problems either

When we go out to see other people's babies to see why they're not feeling so well, we always take a fecal tests. Then we make sure the human mommies are feeding their babies correctly, almost 80% the time they feed their babies wrong. When you overfeed= diarrhea, when you have too much formula to water= diarrhea.

If the goat formula you are using are not dissolving much in the water, its not very good quality.

If they are doing fine, then you have no worries Just keep checking and pay attention to your babies bottoms.

Just my personal experience

 

[norcal]

Thanks CrestAcres. 10% doesn't seem like much......or maybe we're just overfeeding? Guess I need to weigh them.

 

[norcal]

http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/feeding.htm#bottle

This website says after day 5; 10-12 oz per feeding 3 times a day.
The formula mix says; 8-12 oz, 3 times a day.

I'm just confused.

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

If your babies are doing okay, you shouldn't need to worry too much. I'm just letting you know what worked for me. I'm 4th generation goat raisers hahaha so I'm just doing what my ancestors did

To us, Because each goat weighs differently, it makes sense to feed depending on their weight instead of age. Different people raise their goats differently, to us we have goats that are 2 months old , and are 2x larger than some other 2 months old kids. If we feed the smaller 2 months old kids the same as the bigger 2 months olds..then we will be over feeding them and then they'll get scours. Feeding 10% Of their body weight keeps everyone on the safe side.

Once they passed the 2 month age where their tummy is digesting solid foods etc, they seem to do much better drinking more milk than the little ones. The little ones are just more sensitive and are more susceptible to scours and parasites.

Also note that Fiasco Farm(really nice information in there btw) raises La Manchas, they do what works for them, they also don't use milk replacers. I find that when I feed mom's milk they can tolerate alot more and not get sick.