Socializing our first bottle baby

KatyDaly

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Hi there folks: I just jumped over from Backyard Chickens to pester you with a goat question. We have been raising and breeding dairy goats for almost 4 years now. That makes us newbies with just a bit of knowledge, so far just enough to keep us out of trouble.

We had our Saanen doe deliver a dead kid about 2 weeks ago. She was mourning the loss terribly, whining and bleating for most of the day, and for several days after. We thought we would do her a favor by buying a bottle baby for her. He is a Nubian buckling and only about 4 days older than her kid would have been. As she kidded early in the season, there weren't many babies available.

She has no interest in feeding this kid, and being a bottle baby, he has no idea what he is supposed to do when we put him under her. We tried several times, but eventually gave up as she started head-butting the little guy out of the way. And then the other goats started butting him too, not hurting him, but not loving him either.

So we gave him a small dog crate in the barn where he could hide if he needs to. He spends most of the day in there. We have 3 other new kids (born here) who visit him in there sometimes, but for the most part he is by himself.

Just these past 2 days the weather has turned frigid. Down to -20° at night. It is expected to get warmer the day after tomorrow. My 3 kids are bigger than the new guy even though not much older. Bigger, and with thicker coats. They don't seem to mind the cold, but then they have been out there since they were born. He came from a nice warm barn in a pen with 8 or 9 other kids to keep him warm.

So we decided to pull him and now have him in the garage with a heat lamp. Big garage, just 1 lamp, so it's not actually all that warm, just enough to keep him from getting frostbite. He is in a larger crate with plenty of hay, and we are bottle feeding him 3 times a day.

So my real question is: Is there any magic trick to get the other goats to accept him? I don't want to keep him separated for more than these 3 days, but I am afraid of leaving him out in the cold. Do you think it is wise to keep him in the garage?

I see a lot of people keep the bottle babies in the house, but that just won't work here as much as I am tempted. Plus, we live in upstate NY, and I would have to keep him in here until at least April before it would be warm enough to put him outside.

Last question: Do Nubian goats have shorter hair? Or is it just because he started out in a warmer barn?

Thanks for any advice you can give!
 

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Latestarter

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Greetings @KatyDaly from the front range in Colorado :frow Glad you finally found your way over to us here on BYH! Many of us made the same trip ;) Sorry you lost your Saanen kid.

Your little Nubian sure looks like an outcast in the picture :( I hope it all works out for you. I'll leave the answers to your questions to the pros, who I'm sure will be along directly to welcome you and offer advice and support. Welcome!
 

babsbag

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I am not really sure how I would socialize him as I have never had to do that. I have tried putting a kid on a doe that isn't their dam and that was a no go. Sometimes you can take a newborn complete with birthing sac and a doe will clean it and accept it, but it can be hard. Can you put the kids in a separate pen for a few hours during the day and maybe let them play together so they will bond better?

As far as being cold, make the kid a jacket :) You can find ideas online on how to make them out of old sweatshirts or sweatpants. Heat lamps scare me to death, please be sure it is hanging and not just clamped and that the goat can't reach it or chew on the cord.
 

goats&moregoats

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Making him a sweater is a great idea! It can be made from several items. I saw one made with kids sleeper PJ's. Also is their a way you can set up so all the kids can sleep in a small pen together (safe from adults) just for the night. During the day they can all run and play as normal. This might help him bond with the kids. As long as the adults aren't being down right mean I think they will be fine in a week or so..........but there are yet others on here with much more experience than I. Good luck!
 

KatyDaly

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My heat lamp is safe. I made sure of that because they scare me too! The lamp is hung from the rafters with 2 separate baling twines. If one fails, the other is attached separately and will be sufficient to hold the lamp. Buckling boy is in the garage with a concrete floor and nothing around to burn. He is in a wire dog crate with plenty of hay, and it is partially wrapped in a tarp to keep some of the heat in the crate. The bulb is at least a foot above the crate, and the wire of the crate is not hot.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be back in the 20°s. I think we will put him back in the barn with the others during the day, and then maybe back in the garage at night for one more night. I found out from his owner that the barn where they kept him was only about 10° warmer than outside, so I feel comfortable putting him back out in our cold barn as long as it is above 20°. He was in there for a week with the others before I pulled him out. I really wish I did not have to do that, because the other kids seemed to want to interact with him, but his short little hairs didn't look to be enough to keep him warm. I didn't know that Nubians had shorter coats because they were desert animals...

I may try to work out some sort of sweater for him. Thanks for the suggestion. Or I may just see how he does back in the cold barn and hope that he builds up some resistance to the cold like our kids. He has a smaller wire crate with plenty of hay in the barn where he had been sleeping. The door is left open, and I have seen the other kids going in and out of there with him. But they always sleep under the hay manger because it's nice and warm under there. I think you are probably right that it will just take some time for everyone to adjust. We only got him a week ago today!
 

OneFineAcre

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It takes some time
We bought a 5 week old buckling a couple of years ago
All of our girls had babies
It took some time but he eventually became part of the herd
Of course when he was about 10 weeks old he joined the big boys and got pushed around again
 
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