catholder
Chillin' with the herd
- Joined
- May 27, 2009
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We are new goat owners and we just had our first doe born on Tuesday morning - very healthy and strong little beauty. Our question is:
How should we milk the mother?
This is NOT a first time Mama - her udder is very tense/hard - we have not milked much out of her thinking that the baby should do the job - this morning (day 4) I went out and felt her udder (still hard) so I went to massage the udder just behind the teat and milk came squirting out of the teat closest to my hand - then she walked away dripping lots of milk. We see the baby go up to milk but only stays on for a few seconds (seconds!) which seems too short to us - then returns a few minutes later for another snack.
Oh, and the Mama doesn't like the milk stand anymore and screams for her baby... any suggestions to help make her comfortable? She is a La Mancha/Nubian and is very well behaved on the milk stand unless... and food is not a motive for her - only her baby -
As a human who breastfed her babies - I feel like she's in need of some relief - but my husband seems to think that the baby will take care of her mama - Help please - what should we do???
How long should the baby eat at each feeding?
How should we milk the mother?
If we milk the mother do we have to feed that milk back to the baby?
Thank you for reading this!
Catherine
How should we milk the mother?
This is NOT a first time Mama - her udder is very tense/hard - we have not milked much out of her thinking that the baby should do the job - this morning (day 4) I went out and felt her udder (still hard) so I went to massage the udder just behind the teat and milk came squirting out of the teat closest to my hand - then she walked away dripping lots of milk. We see the baby go up to milk but only stays on for a few seconds (seconds!) which seems too short to us - then returns a few minutes later for another snack.
Oh, and the Mama doesn't like the milk stand anymore and screams for her baby... any suggestions to help make her comfortable? She is a La Mancha/Nubian and is very well behaved on the milk stand unless... and food is not a motive for her - only her baby -
As a human who breastfed her babies - I feel like she's in need of some relief - but my husband seems to think that the baby will take care of her mama - Help please - what should we do???
How long should the baby eat at each feeding?
How should we milk the mother?
If we milk the mother do we have to feed that milk back to the baby?
Thank you for reading this!
Catherine