Mom Rejecting Kid-Advice???

[ThornyRidgeII]

This will be a bit long but will have most information. Have kids (nigies) again for first time in 6 years.Kidded 5/18 at 2130. I was able to be there and assisted mom in getting kids delivered and cleaned up using towels I have used every other time that were stored in my kidding box. Mom did good and took to kids right away cleaning, licking, nuzzling, talking and coaxing them to nurse. She had a buck first and then a doe. Buck took to nursing first. I stayed couple hours to make sure everyone good and then went to bed. In morning before work everyone still good. Came home and mom now rejecting the buck. Wont let him nurse and pushing him away with her head while grunting when he approaches her. Very affectionate and maternal to doe still licking and talking and following her. Doe nursing fine. I started on day 1 distracting mom with grain and sunflower seeds to allow buck to nurse and he does so fine. I have resorted now on day 3 of doing this throughout day and night at least 6-7 times. Buck drinks a big bellyful and then runs off and is running, jumping and playing like normal. I checked mouth for sharp teeth and both kids mouths were similar. I have used the birthing towels that still have goop on them to rub all over him to scent him with her again- no luck. I have rubbed the doe and rubbed him all over mom to try and get her scent all over him- no luck. She still head butts him ( not aggressively) but won't let him nurse without me there distracting her with food. the doe goes up and nurses whenever. This doe is "wild" and not a friendly hands on doe. She is 2 and refuses to let you milk her. I have been debating on how long this can go on. He is definitely eating/nursing but only with my intervention. He is fine otherwise and I do notice he does not seem bonded with mom and stays with me when I am present. My option is to switch up to bottle but I won't be able to use her milk and know enough that milk replacers are vile and bad. I have considered the whole milk, buttermilk/evaporated milk mixture but wanted to make sure he got a lot of colostrum. It is weekend and I am home and can go down to barn frequently and make sure mom is distracted with food so he can nurse but I work full time. If if bottle feed him I have luxury and permission to take him to work for at least 1-2 weeks until he gets bigger and can go longer between bottles. I have never had kid rejected before and am very frustrated with this doe. She has ample milk/capacious udder. I have checked udder for issues when I was able to restrain her against fence and udder feels fine and I was able to squirt milk out very easily from both teats. I do notice her udder is so wide her teats sort of splay to side and she lifts her leg to allow kids access when nursing. She doesn't lick or tend buck when he is nursing. I have not seen either poop in past day and may try warm water enema. both have peed a lot but not seeing poop. They did both pass meconium poop and it did change to yellow but haven't seen any since day 1. Both kids run around and are active when I get them up and out in barn. I have mom and kids in 8x8 stall. the other issue is if I bottle feed buck would have to still stay in with mom/doe cause I have no other stalls available to put just him in and house is not option as he is not weak/struggling. I guess I am looking for advice and similar stories and what folks did. I am going to post this in another thread too to get more folks looking. Thanks in advance!

 

[Southern by choice]

Sometimes there may be something wrong with the kid and the dam knows it and will reject it. Sometimes they just have a preference and will orphan a kid.

Either keep doing what you are or go to whole cows milk- he is past the colostrum stage now. You can feed 3x day bottles.
What kind of goat is this?

I will give my thoughts on the rest of this later. Knowing the breed is helpful.

I would recommend you take down the other post.
Double posting is not allowed and this doesn't really qualify as emergencies.... it only brings more confusion to those trying to respond.

 

[ThornyRidgeII]

As stated in first line after kids -nigies- (nigerian dwarf).. reinforces why I posted in two places- the hope that someone actually reads it and offers advice. At this point I have went down to force her to feed him. He actively pursues nursing but she pushes him away or jumps from him when he tries on his own.

 

[Southern by choice]

LOL totally missed the Nigies...
Weekends are slow on BYH but double post cause confusion - you will have better response with one post.

Advice is the same. She obviously doesn't want him.
Not many options really.
If it were me I would pull him and start bottle feeding. For his first week of life 4x day. After 8 days old go to 3 bottles a day.

Start with 2-3 oz if he is 3-4 lbs and see if he takes it all. If he does good, give him that at next feeding... and so on. If he doesn't take that much adjust. Usually by 2 weeks they are taking 8oz 3x day.

As far as future goes. Next kidding I would pull all kids at birth- do not let her clean them lick them smell them- nothing. Wisk them away. After kids are cleaned and dry put her on a stand and milk her.
Surprisingly many does that are skitty, or hands off will stand there and let you milk. They think YOU are their kid. all they really know is they need milked.

We have a doe that was raised with lots of attention and care but no matter what she ran from us and was a real jerk. So much so I was going to sell her. She kidded first time this year, we pulled immediately as mentioned above... she is now the most loving doe ever. We are her "kids".

If you pull him you may want to consider pulling both.

 

[Latestarter]

If you are concerned that your post has not be read, you can click on "recent posts" up top then scroll down to find your post. Over on the right it will tell you how many views the post has had. One thing to remember is it counts YOUR views as well, so if you keep going back to your post, that will count as a viewing.

As someone who tries to help, I can assure you that multiple posts do nothing to help YOU... they confuse readers as they aren't sure which post to respond to, and are not sure if the other post has been responded to already or with contradictory information. It just causes all kinds of issues.

If you do pull both kids, you may want to consider hobbling or tying her to a fence and forcing the milking issue. Will save you money for feeding the kids, and perhaps help the momma avoid potential pain and discomfort (or mastitis) from over full udder and forced drying off without weening.

 

[maritown]

This might seem obvious so no offense meant but are you SURE she rejected him? I.E, was his belly empty when she wouldnt let him nurse? Moms have pretty strict schedules for when they let their babies drink, only small amounts at a time. Babies don't have the sense to stop drinking when their full so mom will kick them away if it's not time.