Feeding a New Mom of Triplets

My boer goat Mabel had Triplets late Friday night. Everybody seems to be doing well, but I am concerned that she will not be able to make enough milk for all three babies. All are nursing well, and we are weighing them often to make sure that they are gaining weight. Mabel has free choice of hay and water with a scoop of goat feed twice a day. I'd like to increase her goat feed to increase her calorie intake, but if she gets too much grain, her poop goes soft. She has this problem even when she doesn't have kids. Is there something I can do or a particular thing I can feed to give her more calories and help her make milk, but not cause an upset stomach?

The main reason for our concern is that last year (her first kidding), she had twins, and her milk dried up a couple of days after she gave birth. She seems to be doing much better this time, and I want to help her if I can.

Here are the kiddos hanging out in their warming barrel.

My Nigi just had triplets on Friday. She had a big girl and then a little girl and a little boy. The big girl has been monopolizing the teats, so I started doing a few tiny bottles each for the little guys and always holding the big gal while the runts nursed. After 3 days, the little ones have almost caught up in size and seem to be holding their own on the nursing. I upped the grain for the dam to twice her usual daily intake and have been delivering fresh hay twice a day to her stall so she can munch while nursing. Her poop has also gone soft, but for a few days I think that is a fair trade to get the little ones out of the woods.

@babsbag & @ragdollcatlady & I believe @Mini Horses have pretty extensive Boer experience and may be able to provide insight. Cute kids!

Be sure the hay is VERY good quality...mix in some alfalfa & increase grain a little. Hay critical. If no good alf hay available, use some pellets in the grain instead of more grain. I often use a horse feed for my does who are nursing, Purina Enrich ... high protein plus vit/min. Seems to keep the does happy & in good body. Only takes a little, like 1/2 cup to normal ration of grain. (I used this for minis horses, also.) Lactation takes MORE calories than gestation of the young. Plus more calcium -- thus the alfalfa hay/pellets.

My Boers were excellent milk producers and with the feed, all kids were well fed & does kept weight. Each is different but, try this if you need milk.

With trips, sometimes the does will nurse 2 & "be done". So, you may have to hold one back at nursing, then switch them out. I found that after a week, they worked it out themselves. It's the first few days that make a difference. I do this now with my dairy does.

By the way, cute kids!!!

I have had Boers raise triplets a few times and they did ok. I have also supplemented them but not because I felt I needed to but because I had a bottle baby buckling and one of the triplets figured out that they could get extra milk when I switched to bucket feeding. It really depends on the doe. Everything that @Mini Horses said about feed is what I would do too. Also Manna Pro makes a product called Calf Manna that you can add to your goat's diet. It is very high protein and you don't feed much, maybe a 1/4-1/2 pound a day, follow what it says on the bag. You should be able to get it a Tractor Supply and sometimes at Walmart. Also, the grain needs to be at least 16% protein. Purina makes a good goat chow too.

Thanks for the input everybody. We have two kinds of hay (one alfalfa, and the other grass) that we mix for their feed. I can up the alfalfa hay and give her some alfalfa pellets, which we also have. Her poop looked much better tonight, and her energy level seemed better. All three kids are very close in weight, and they seem to all get nursing time. I will look into the horse feed and calf manna too.

This is very helpful as we have two more does who will be kidding soon.

I agree with the 16 percent minimum protein in the ration and adding alfalfa pellets. I would definitely add more or go to totally alfalfa hay for the time being. I generally use straight alfalfa hay and I will offer a bottle to triplets, if they are hungry enough to take it, then they need it. One kid will usually stick near mom and get more feeding time so I would watch that one of the other kids doesn't miss out too much. Having one kid take a bottle 2 times a day while staying with mom and siblings can guarantee that everyone gets enough.

If we do start bottles, is it better to choose one kid to give bottles to, or spread them out among all of the kids? For example: Monday night - give a bottle to kid #1, Tuesday morning - bottle to kid #2, Tuesday evening - bottle to kid #3, then repeat. That would relieve some of the load on Mom, and everybody gets both kinds of milk.

Since mom's milk is best, it seems reasonable to give all of the kids both, but I'm afraid this will cause a problem that I'm not considering. We've raised bottle babies and mom-fed babies, but never babies that got both.

Also, if you choose one kid for bottles, which one is best? The smallest?

IMHO watch them and see which one if any is getting left out. It will normally be the smallest/weakest of them. Either pull that one and make it a bottle baby or just augment that one with the extra it needs. Chances are one of them is going to be a glutton and get the most of the three, no need to augment that one. If they are all basically equal and none are getting enough then just pick one (or two - whatever is required) to be bottle babies, so that all can grow and flourish.

When our doe wasn't producing milk due to infection after birth we supplemented with whole cows milk. About 4 oz 3 times a day. She then ended up producing after we got her back to health.
Mom also wanted the milk, we'd let her drink whatever the babies didn't. We also got her a mineral block and added alfalfa to her diet to beef her back up.
Good luck.