How to wean??

Tehwrd

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Through a series of events we ended up with 3 little Nigerian Dwarf bucklings. They are going tomorrow to the vet to have their horns removed and be castrated. One was born 12/11 and then we have twins born 12/26. We are feeding them Sav A Kid milk replacer right now. I googled weaning baby goats and got a plethora of answers many contradictory. Since everyone was so helpful with my questions regarding milk goats, I thought I'd ask here. We have tried offering the older boy some alfalfa and some goat feed, but so far he sniffs it and might nibble the end of a piece of alfalfa, but no real interest in eating it. The younger two have absolutely zero interest in either the goat feed or the alfalfa. We weren't planning on babies right now, but the blessing in disguise is we're getting some OJT with raising baby goats! I'm just not sure exactly when to wean them from the milk. If they were with their dams, I know they would teach them to eat the other stuff - how do we as humans teach them that? Thanks in advance!
 

Alaskan

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I googled weaning baby goats and got a plethora of answers many contradictory.
Probably because so many do just whatever works for them.

I remember reading some place that there is some scientific evidence that shows that introducing some grain early on helps the rumen develop well.

Anyway... we would train the kids to drink their milk from a bucket... then mix the milk with some barley... and then keep increasing the barley and decrease the milk.

They just naturally over time started to poke at the hay. But then... we always had the kids in the herd... so monkey see, monkey do.
 

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