Should I pull one of the triplets and bottle feed?

[Bonner family farm]

Ok this is our first time with triplets ans I worried that as the kids grow she will not have enough milk to feed them all. Right now they are taking turns and eating well but I figure thats not going to last forever. We usually let them nurse off mom until they are weaned but I didn't know if we should pull one and bottle feed to ensure they are all getting enough milk. Since Oreo only had one kid I was going to milk her to feed the one I pull. Any suggestions or insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[lilhill]

I just keep an eye out to make sure all the kids are growing at a normal rate. I have never had to pull a kid from triplets to bottle feed as the moms have always taken very good care of their babies, making sure they all get fed. Even with quads, the two does I had last spring that had them, fed every one of them with no problems and the kids had a very good growth rate.

ETA: Just make sure that mom is getting enough feed and doesn't lose condition from feeding three kids.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I agree...I'd wait and see. If you notice one standing hunched or looking cold, then supplement. I'd let Momma have a chance first.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I recently experienced this. I had two ewes that had trips . For the first ewe I just watched the growth, and all seemed well, but after about two weeks or so, one seemed to not be growing as fast as the other. We supplemented her morning and night for about two weeks. Now she is about the same size as the rest. The second ewe with her trips, one was obviously not thriving right from the start. We made sure the lamb got enough colostrum, and then she was brougth into the house for a coupla days. She's back out with her mom and sisters, but she is still a bottle baby. ( and a very demanding one ) So, I agree with the wait and see approach. You'll know when you need to supplement.

 

[cmjust0]

Ok this is our first time with triplets ans I worried that as the kids grow she will not have enough milk to feed them all. Right now they are taking turns and eating well but I figure thats not going to last forever. We usually let them nurse off mom until they are weaned but I didn't know if we should pull one and bottle feed to ensure they are all getting enough milk. Since Oreo only had one kid I was going to milk her to feed the one I pull. Any suggestions or insight is greatly appreciated.

We did this once..

All the kids were growing OK, but we had plenty of extra milk and thought...we'll just pull one and bottle feed so everybody has plenty. The triplets were two doelings and a buckling.

Naturally, we tried the smaller of the two doelings first. She wasn't teeny tiny or anything..just slightly smaller. Given that she was already probably 4wks old, she wanted NOTHING to do with a bottle. Try as we might, no dice.

So, we tried the other doeling...same story. She fought, and fought, and fought, and finally we said forget it.

Well...let's try the buck kid. Why not, right? So we bring him into the stall, shove the nipple in his mouth, he struggles for about 0.17 seconds and starts hitting the bottle like a speedbag.

Cool! We'll just bottlefeed this guy and the doelings can have all mama's milk.

The next night, we pulled him aside with the others we were bottlefeeding and he hammered down a bottle like he'd been doing it since day one. When they all finished, we opened the stall door and he ran straight over to mama, doing like a 7/10 split with his two sisters and latched on to a teat like he was absolutely famished.

We continued to give him supplemental bottles, but I really don't know how much good it did. I think he just ended up being a double-dipper.



I will say this, though...at least we'd already laid some of the necessary groundwork to be able to pull him permanently, had one of his sisters really started lagging behind. So, that was good.. Never had to do that, of course, but ya know. We were at least that much more prepared.

 

[ohwell]

Maybe this will show that I have zero experience with goats but doesn't it also depend on the breed of goat? Wouldn't a Nubian or a Saanen be able to milk 3-4 kids better than lets say a Boer or a Kiko.