what milk to feed a kid??

[jerebear7]

our new buckling has had 3 feedings of colostrum since he was born (milked from our doe)..but spotz is still very very tender and in some pain, so she wont let him nurse. we have goat milk replacer powder from a feed store, but i read some people give baby goats milk from the grocery store...which is better? we don't want to put to much stress on spotz until she starts feeling a little better..what does everyone suggest? also, he had about 6, 20ml syringes of colostrum already, we have a little bit left..prolly 2 more syringes..is that enough colostrum? and how often should we feed him? thanks for any and all info!

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

This is very helpful:
http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=586-baby-goat-info

I would go with cows milk but, either is fine.

 

[poorboys]

cows milk for sure, you usually don't have the scours with it. vit d

 

[Mzyla]

I was feeding my two doelings with Mixture:

- Quart of whole cow milk (from store, I don't have a cows)
- 1/2 can Evaporated milk
- Couple spoons of ButterMilk
- few drops of Goats Drench (not all the time)
- Bitten fresh egg (not all the time)

Their coat was shiny and they were pretty healthy.
Sometimes when I was on a hurry or didn't have all the ingredients for milk mixture
I gave them some apple juice that I boiled my self from our apples.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Are you milking the mother at all? If you do not, her body will not "know" to produce more milk.

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

I used formula with my first bottle baby who is now 10 weeks and weaned with no problems.. I got 4 bucklings from the dairy and just put them on formula not even thinking about it, the runt stopped eating and I think started to bloat so no more formula and I switched them over to whole milk. Plus the formula is getting really hard to find around here, the stores are always sold out. Plus the formula I had had weird things that would clog the bottle.. Little bits of all kinds of things, once I think I pulled out a little piece of cotton or something, funny black things, and grain? So I say store bought Vit D cows milk.

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

Are you milking the mother at all? If you do not, her body will not "know" to produce more milk.

keep that imn mind!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If you plan on letting her raise the kid, then milk her out so she's not as tender and feed that milk to the kid, or milk her out until she's comfortable enough to let him nurse. And you may very well have to tie her or hold her and make her let him nurse. IMO, if you're planning on letting her raise him, switching him to any other type of milk (replacer or cow) will just upset his system and there's really no need for it. Now, if you plan on bottling him and not letting her nurse him at all, then do either a high quality milk replacer (which I have great luck with) or do whole cow milk from the store.

 

[Mzyla]

Oh, I forgot to add;
After couple of weeks I started adding baby cream farina to their mixture
They love it! The mixture was thicker and more fulfilling.
I was buying all kind of variety with different taste; banana, apples, etc...

 

[Queen Mum]

She is probably sore but should be at least milked. It will help her hormones settle a bit. She also needs to be getting up and standing so if you get her on the milkstand for even a few minutes of milking that will be good for her.