Lamancha Bottle Baby - creating a MONSTER

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We picked up our buckling yesterday and this is a first for us. We have never bottle fed! He is 2 days old today. He is 10 lbs.
We are giving him 2oz colostrum and 3 oz goats milk (from the breeder) so 5oz every 3 hours. He is full but not "bulging", just full tummy. He had mom's colostrum for the first 24 hours and then what the breeder has sent home. Today he will finish off the colostrum but we will still have his momma's milk which we want to gradually mix....

This is what we are thinking of using....
http://goatspots.com/articles/bottle-feeding/

1 gallon whole milk (homogenized)
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup buttermilk
Take the gallon of milk, and pour out about 1/3 and set it aside
Pour in the 1 can of evaporated milk and the 1 cup of buttermilk into the gallon then pour to the remaining milk that you set aside until you reach the top. Mix gently each time before making up a bottle.


Not sure how soon to increase amount and time. I would like to keep him at the 3 hour mark for the first week than skip the overnight....
Any suggestions?
 

ragdollcatlady

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They can go several hours overnight fine. Last year I bottle fed Spells kids from the start. After the first few days, they were fine going "overnight" in the dark, without being fed as they don't usually nurse or move much in a dark place. Goats bed down for the night and are quiet so not to draw the predators, so that makes sense.

I was feeding 4 times a day, during the day, for about the first 2 weeks, then cut back to 3 times for the next 4 weeks, then we went to 2 times a day. That was for Nigerians.... At first I let them eat all they wanted for a few minutes, sometimes they stop and come back a time or two within 3 or 4 minutes. Kind of like when mom walks a few steps and the kids stop, only to decide they are still hungry and want more. By about 3 weeks, they finish the feeding in one go though.

Fiasco recommends feeding more bottles, for longer and that is for larger goats so you might see her website.
 

ragdollcatlady

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RavioliAnna came to me at 7 weeks and I fed her just a 16oz bottle 2 times a day and she ate hay and pellets......so I imagine by 6 weeks, 2 bottles should be good for standard sized goats......I happened to notice that as the kids get bigger, the moms cut the babies opportunities down.....
 

taylorm17

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We got our little buckling at around 4 weeks old and finished bottle feeding him. I don't know too much though. We did have his mothers milk for a while and then gradually moved him over to a formula as we ran out. I do know, they LOVE feeding time and can get very rough! haha. Do you have any pictures of him? I'd love to see!
 

jodief100

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I use Rolls schedule. 3 x a day as much as they want, whole cows milk. I will add some cream the first 2 weeks since cows milk has lower fat than goats. We used the evaporated milk/buttermilk thing the first year without success.

I went to a seminar with Dr. Pinkerton (The Goat Man) in October and he presented research he did regarding bottle raised dairy bucks. His data shows they gain the fastest with 2, 16 oz bottles a day and all the grain they want. This was on terminal bucks so I am hesitant to use it. He said kids can and will start eating grain and hay as early as 3 days old.
 
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