bottlefeed baby question

[Rence]

They should be fine. Well, I've had kids and very young babies in the same area together and they got along fine. Of course mom was there, but they still played and slept together. Why not try and put baby outside with them and stay a while to supervise?

If she's not going to be an inside goat (which some people do. You can actually potty train them, they're very smart), then it really would be of benefit to her to stay with the other goats. That way, they will teach her how to eat grass and hay and get her rumen working and basically learn how to be a goat.

You need to watch the water troughs though. Until she's a few weeks old and steady on her feet, make sure she can't fall into the water and drown. If you only have a few kids, I'd keep it somewhat shallow if it's not too convenient for you. You'll be checking on her all the time anyway

 

[lilhill]

Please don't put that 10 day old doeling in a pen with a 3-1/2 to 4 month old buck! If you can't be her "new mom", then please find someone who would be willing to take care of her.

 

[kimmyh]

The older goats will terrorize the baby, please keep her safe with you, and when you put her out, give her a pen within their pen (without the buck) for a week, so she begins to smell like your other goats. Then try turning her out with supervision, I had a bottle baby that spent her 2-4 months in a pen within the pen because the older goats were just too hard on her.

 

[cmjust0]

Before I dropped a two week old kid in a pen with an intact male in early Fall, I think I'd maybe consider splitting the pen and keeping the buckling and doeling seperate, with a wether each. By a month, most kids are fairly hardy ( ).. Wethers are generally pretty docile, too ( )..

If you incorporated kimmyh's idea of a pen in a pen and kept the doeling seperate from 'her' wether until she was maybe a month old and really kicking up her heels...and if they'd had those few weeks to sniff noses through the fences and whatnot...I sorta think that might work out.

(...here's another for good measure...)

Or not... Might go horribly awry.

It's impossible to say, really, but I still think that's probably your best shot at making things work without incorporating another bottle baby.

 

[animalcrazy31]

ok whats the issue with the buck? hes actualy more laid back then the weathers. the buck is younger then the weathers. if the diapers and pen inside of the pen doesnt work then maybe i can hold for three more weeks till i get my other female pygym baby after shes weaned in 3 weeks.

 

[Rence]

ok whats the issue with the buck? hes actualy more laid back then the weathers. the buck is younger then the weathers. if the diapers and pen inside of the pen doesnt work then maybe i can hold for three more weeks till i get my other female pygym baby after shes weaned in 3 weeks.

I apologize, sometimes I forget we all have different setups and I skipped over the buck part. My bucks are usually all separated from my doesn, so my original advice didn't include the buck. I'm sorry, I made a mistake the other posters are right, you shouldn't put her in with a buck.

The buck will try to breed the baby, that's why everyone's so adamant about not keeping her with the buck. *however* even with my goats being together temporarily, I've never seen a buck trying to breed a kid that young. But it's better to keep them separate anyway, so she doesn't get hurt.

I do not believe the other kids will terrorize the bottle baby. However, I did suggest that you put them together supervised to see how they all act.

Erecting a smaller pen for the bottle babies is an excellent suggestion, and one that I should have included in my previous answer to your post. It also has the added benefit of the older kids seeing and getting used to the bottle baby before integrating. But honestly, I haven't had problems integrating kids at that young of age. It's usually after they're over a year that they start pushing each other around to establish the pecking order. At least that's how mine are.

I still would NOT keep the bottle baby in the house, but it's nice that your husband is willing to try the bottle baby with a diaper. It will at least buy you some time. If I were you, I'd put the bottle baby in with the younger goats (except for the buck) and put the buck someplace else. Conversely, you can erect a separate smaller pen and keep the bottle baby in with another bottle baby. That would really be the best thing.

 

[lilhill]

ok whats the issue with the buck? hes actualy more laid back then the weathers. the buck is younger then the weathers. if the diapers and pen inside of the pen doesnt work then maybe i can hold for three more weeks till i get my other female pygym baby after shes weaned in 3 weeks.

I've never seen a buck trying to breed a kid that young.

I've had lots of 1 week old bucks blubbering, squealing and mounting baby does the same age and by the time they are a month old, they are doing the same antics with the adult does. If they could breed them, they most certainly wouldn't hesitate. Just the nature of the buck. They could care less how old the doe is.

 

[goat lady]

We got two bottle does a while back. One was one week and the other 3 weeks when got them. They are 10 and 12 weeks now. I put them out near our goat pen, but these two little ones were separated in a dog kennel which is made out of chain link fence. I found it on craigslist pretty cheap. Hubby put a make shift roof for on top, and it has worked out great for us. I put some hay down for bedding and something for them to climb on, and they are happy campers in there. We had tried a bottle baby in the house, but it was a mess and she was lonely by herself and things just did not work out. Good luck.