Newly pregnant doe nursing

[Alicia]

Hello all. I'm pretty sure one of my does is about a month pregnant. I just noticed this morning that one of her kids from last year is nursing from her. She had stopped for about a month.
Is this going to cause problems for the doe and the new babies?

 

[Southern by choice]

No, but you may want to separate them a few weeks before kidding. More than likely the dam will kick her off as time gets closer.

 

[Alicia]

Okay good. That's what I was hoping to hear. She is a great mom, good instincts

 

[madcow]

I agree with Southern, she will most likely kick the grown freeloader off at some point, but that doesn't mean that he will give up entirely at attempting to nurse. My herd queen's first grown buckling would always take every opportunity to nurse from his mother with any subsequent freshening. Hard to get out of my brain that it was like a 20-year-old son nursing at every chance he would get! She never seemed to mind and would sometimes allow him to nurse freely, but her new kids grew at a good, steady rate regardless. She made plenty of milk for them all. Keep in mind that kids nurse quite often and for very short periods of time, with the milk bucket being tapped often and once the the udder is emptied it immediately begins to work at filling again. Supply and demand kind of thing. My concern would be that the freeloader will definitely be at risk of getting too fat with the extra milk in his diet, but it's a great thing for all her subsequent kids to have a doe who is a good mother. Things will most likely work themselves out over time.