My first night with my goats!

[Lenhart]

Well, we made the big decision to get them... and here they are.

The one on the left is a Nubian buck- but we are taking him back to get him banded in a week or so he is disbudded. The one on the right is a French Alpine doe who we still need to take back to get disbudded. They both are around a week old. The lady we got them from was very sweet and lives just a few miles from us and has a feed store. She knew we were getting them just for pets and gave us a deal of only $45 for a male and female! Couldn't believe the deal we got. I am actually enjoying bottle feeding them, they take it very well. We need to go shopping tomorrow to get some heat lamps for the barn so they can get out of the bathroom lol! My first goats, and I am just so afraid of making mistakes... They are sweet hearts- haven't named them yet. Plan to keep them for a very long time! The lady we got them from said it wouldn't be best to buy the goat milk formula, and said we should just buy regular cow milk and mix it with half and half milk, is this a good idea? Shes been feeding them fresh cow milk, with something else I think. She gave us some of what shes been using to feed them for tonight and tomorrow, but we need to know what to buy for tomorrow any suggestions?

 

[Shootingstars]

Congrats on your new babies, they are very cute!

 

[Lenhart]

Thank you!

 

[elevan]

Congratulations. They are very cute.

You wanna wait until your boy is at least 8 weeks old before you band him. The urethra needs time to grow to minimize the potential for problems with urinary calculi (UC) in the future (which can be and is often deadly).

There are many on here who bottle feed using only whole cow milk. There doesn't seem to be a need to mix it with anything. I'm sure one of them will post soon.

 

[Wild Wind Farm]

Congrads on the new kids, they are very cute! I have bottle fed new nigerian kids that I purchased on whole cows milk with added whole buttermilk.
Happy goating!

 

[poorboys]

very cute indeed!!! have fun, they are so much fun!!

 

[Roll farms]

Cute!

 

[mossyStone]

they are so cute! congrats on your new babies!!! Have fun!

 

[christy_was_here]

So cute! Congrats on your new babies!

 

[Lenhart]

Thanks everyone! I love them so much already. We are feeding them whole milk for the time being. I got the barn fixed up today, we went to the Grange and picked up some heat lamps that were on sale for $1.99! Got a salt lick, and some more nipples just in case. The truck wouldn't start up today so we couldn't get any hay, we will next week. They spent the night in the bathroom last night because we didn't have a heat lamp- man that was a mess!

They love the barn, should have seen their tails werea waggin when i put them in there. Tomorrow I'm gonna go take them out to the field to discover grass! Get some actual decent pictures of them tomorrow.

The little girl looks so much bigger then she actually is in this picture! Way smaller than the buck in person. I have thought of a few names. The little girl on the righy I was thinking "Babe" and the buck to the left "Bronco" but sill haven't decided on the names yet, any suggestions?