is she eating anough?

[animalcrazy31]

I have a 11 day old bottle baby shes a alpine/togg mix. Ive been giving her 16.9 ounces every 3 hour and after the bottle woolfed down she still seems hungery. do i need to give her more ounces? or is she just being a piggy? Shes on cows milk mixed with buttermilk she hated plain cows milk but loves a recipe i got from here. I'm affraid im going to over feed her if i give her more but when she yells at me and trys to eat me i feel like im starving her.

 

[Rence]

I go by how they look. Can you post a picture of her? How is she acting?

If she's lethargic and not growing well, I'd give her more. If she's energetic, acting normal, and growing well, I'd keep her where she is so she can start drinking water and grazing. The more milk you give, the less inclined she will be to eat grass, hay and drink water.

If by chance you give her too much milk, and she gets loose stools from it, just give her less the next day. There's a difference between scours from being sick and getting a bit of diarrhea from too much milk. I had that happen to a calf that I separated from his mama for a few days. When he went back in with her, he indeed made a piggy of himself and "scoured" but it was normal the next day and I didn't even withhold milk. They always act like their starving

To me, it sounds like you're giving a lot of milk for an 11-day old, but thankfully, it's been a while since I had to worry about that. Maybe someone else can answer that part better.

 

[cmjust0]

I have a 11 day old bottle baby shes a alpine/togg mix. Ive been giving her 16.9 ounces every 3 hour and after the bottle woolfed down she still seems hungery. do i need to give her more ounces? or is she just being a piggy? Shes on cows milk mixed with buttermilk she hated plain cows milk but loves a recipe i got from here. I'm affraid im going to over feed her if i give her more but when she yells at me and trys to eat me i feel like im starving her.

Think of it this way: Goat kids = junkies, and Milk = heroin..

Just as you could never judge how much heroin to give a junky based on his level of begging, you can't really rely on the kid to give you an accurate guage of how much milk they need. Both the junky and the kid will kill themselves, if allowed.

Now...if you're really feeding 16.9oz every three hours, all I can say is HOLY CRAP that's a lot of milk! Even assuming you're sleeping at least 8 hours a day, you're still feeding something on the order of...what...about 90oz of milk a day?

Umyeahthatsplenty.

 

[animalcrazy31]

ok i was giving her 4.5 ounces and then someone another thread she said she should be drinking a soda bottle full how much should she be drinking? I have her pic on my help name her thread shes the little one at the bottem on the steps.

 

[cmjust0]

I don't think I ever fed more than 72oz in a day...three 24oz soda bottles. Usually I did three 20oz bottles. That was for full-size breed goats, too..

That, plus a little grain and free choice alfalfa or alfalfa/grass hay, and we never had a problem with anybody being too thin.