How to wean?

[goat lady]

My two does are almost 7 and 5 weeks. They are both eating grain and hay. I have gotten them down to only two bottles a day. Morning and night. I am decreasing how much they take. Only a few oz. Do you just stop cold turkey? How do you go about taking them off the bottles completely? They were bottle babies when I got them a month ago. Thanks and have a great day.

 

[trestlecreek]

I would keep taking it slowly as you are. When they are at about 10-12, then I would worry about getting them off completely.
Bottle babies have attachment "issues" with that bottle and they could go off feed due to the bottle being taken away.
Just like human kids, just let them have their comfort for a few more weeks. They will be old soon enough, let them be babies for now.
Push to make sure they are eating their grain, hay and water real well. When they do that, then generally they will wean themselves!!

 

[cmjust0]

You shouldn't be weaning them until they're at least 8 weeks, at which point you can just quit if you wanted.

What I find troubling is that you're already cutting them back.. There's no really good excuse to be cutting a 7wo kid back on milk -- even to prepare it for weaning -- but there's simply no excuse at all to cut a 5wo back. It's barely half way to weaning age!

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but...you gotta feed your kids. If they were here, they'd each be getting between 36oz and 42oz of milk per day right now, and they'd get it until at least 10wo.

Some folks would be giving even more.

 

[trestlecreek]

I agree ( I didn't notice that you were already cutting back), I wouldn't cut them back at this age. When they start eating real food, they will refuse the bottle themselves, but even with refusal, I still would keep pushing to take the normal bottle feeding. At least until 10 weeks.
I think my last baby was around 4 months before she weaned herself and quit taking her last morning bottle.

 

[goat lady]

Thanks for the advice. I will keep them on the milk for several more weeks. They are just not wanting as much, and I thought they were starting to wean themselves off already. I didn't want to force them and make them sick or fat babies. It is not harsh. It is how we learn things is by asking.

 

[trestlecreek]

....and they may be trying to wean themselves,...but it is best to keep them on the same amounts at the same times.
Mine would just take half of the bottle every now and then at that age.
I would just wait until the next scheduled feeding to offer again and she would usually take her normal amount the next time.
Mine would ALWAYS let me know when she was hungry early or even an hour later after she would refuse. The little devil at times would like to dictate. LOL.

 

[cmjust0]

They are just not wanting as much, and I thought they were starting to wean themselves off already.

Ah..I get it now.

I've had bottle kids do that before, too. They'll either sniff the nipple right when it's offered to them, snort and blow snot on it a few times, then reject it altogether, or they'll take it readily and drink a portion, then back off, sniff, snort, sling snot, and reject the rest.

I dunno if that's the period in time where their noses really start working or what, but now that I'm thinking of it, almost every kid we've bottle raised has rejected a few perfectly good bottles for no apparent reason. Maybe it's just one of those proverbial "phases" kids go through? Whatever it is, they seem to get over it to the point of really, really, really missing their bottles by the time they get weaned.

When ours rejected a bottle, I would usually try to 'persuade' them to nurse (as in, grab their lower jaw and cram the nipple back in their mouth) and they'd either start back up and nurse almost reflexively, or they'd continually back away and get milk everywhere and have no part of it whatsoever.

I didn't necessarily push them to nurse because I knew they needed milk or because I was worried they were gonna starve to death, though...frankly, I did it because I'm not a morning person, yet I still went to the trouble to get up extra early to prepare the milk just so-so and, by gollly...they were at least gonna TRY.

 

[goat lady]

The older one could careless. The younger one will eat a little then she walks off. I pick her up and she kinda shakes her head to get the nipple away. But if I put some grain or fresh hay in their pen they are all over it. They are still being keep separated while we bottle feed them. Now our two new babies that were born Sunday will be 2 weeks are nursing off the mother. So they are in with her and the rest of the herd.

 

[cmjust0]

Hmm.. Are you bottlefeeding goat's milk, cow's milk, replacer...?

I know I've had problems with temperatures before, too.. If the milk is the least bit cool when they're used to having it come off the stove at 105-107, they balk..

I've never fed replacer, btw.. Read too many bad things about bloat, scours, etc.. If I can't feed goats' milk, I mix a little buttermilk and evaporated milk with whole cow's milk and feed that.

If I remember correctly, you pour 20oz off the whole milk and replace it with 8oz of buttermilk -- not lowfat buttermilk...gotta be 'high octane' buttermilk, so to speak -- and a whole 12oz can of evaporated milk..

It looks and smells like goats' milk a lot more than regular whole milk, and the kids seem to like it and make good gains on it.

 

[crazygoatlady]

I let my kids wean themselves--which is usually about 4 months give or take. Sometimes they take more, sometimes they take less, but I know they get the nutrition they need if they need it--they are eating hay and a little grain, but some days they are little piggies and drink it all. I think the goats milk gives them the nutrition they need. This just works for me.