I am new to goats and could really use some advice/reassurance because this goat mama is getting a little paranoid. My female nigerian dwarf kid, Fern, is about 3 weeks old. We bought her from a breeder outside of town and have had her for about 4 days. I'm kicking myself a bit for not double checking the persons advice/instructions, because after getting home and struggling to get her to take to the bottle, I come to find that the older the kid, the harder to transition from teat to plastic nipple. On top of this, I was instructed to feed DuMor Goats Kid Milk Replacer for the next 3-4 weeks before weaning, come to find many have issues with feeding milk replacer as well as switching from dams milk straight over. I have been nervously adhering to this instruction, hoping that if the seller told me it was fine then this baby goat will be fine but now I have my doubts!
I have been mixing (and /trying/ to feed) Fern around 24 oz of milk replacer (calculated as 15% of her body weight of 10lbs) spread throughout the day, usually at 5 am, 9 am, 12 PM, 2pm, 6 PM and 8 PM. I know the hours between feedings are inconsistent, but really I give her the bottle whenever she acts hungry because I have been having such a hard time getting her to accept the nipple. Sometimes she only takes an oz or two at a time. I have at max gotten her to drink about 16-18 oz through the course of the day and I'm so worried she is not eating enough. I cant tell if maybe she just doesnt like the milk replacer or she is just still figuring out the nipple? I worry most that she has a lack of appetite, though she nibbles grain and browses the yard between naps.
Her poo has gone from pellets the first few days to clumpy and more mucous, but I don't know if that is because she is just being introduced to all new milk/hay/feed (I feed free alfalfa hay and put about a handful of grain out a day but she only seems to nibble at it for now). She has also been browsing our yard and munching on a good bit of new foliage. Could this be the cause of the abnormal poo or should I be worried about her being sick? I fed her about 3 oz of homemade electrolyte (salt, baking soda, water, molasses) this morning an hour and a half before her first bottle because I was worried about dehydration from not drinking enough milk and it seemed to help clump up the poop more.
A note: I'm worried about switching from the milk replacer suddenly to a whole milk or something because of all the changes and issues already..
This part may be silly, but could anyone give me a gauge on average behaviour of goats this age? I feel like she sleeps a lot and if I am not out with her or she is not with the other animals, she will just lay by the door waiting for someone to come out. Sometimes she cries, but only for a minute then she finds a good place to lay down. Otherwise she is bouncy and likes to run the yard and hike with the pack of dogs and I. I did purchase her as a single goat, as the seller told me that if she was born as a single kid rather than a twin that she would do fine as a single goat. Now, with my belated research, I hope she wont get too lonely. I work from home and spend multiple hours a day just with my animals. When she is alone I have been putting my sweet old little dog who is the same size as her in the barn outside of her pen to keep her company (I never ever leave her alone/out of sight with the dogs without barriers). We have talked about maybe getting another goat, but I can't imagine the stress of another bottle baby right now..
I just realized as I type that this is so much but i am just so nervous and I want to do the best for baby Fern. Any advice is appreciated.
I have been mixing (and /trying/ to feed) Fern around 24 oz of milk replacer (calculated as 15% of her body weight of 10lbs) spread throughout the day, usually at 5 am, 9 am, 12 PM, 2pm, 6 PM and 8 PM. I know the hours between feedings are inconsistent, but really I give her the bottle whenever she acts hungry because I have been having such a hard time getting her to accept the nipple. Sometimes she only takes an oz or two at a time. I have at max gotten her to drink about 16-18 oz through the course of the day and I'm so worried she is not eating enough. I cant tell if maybe she just doesnt like the milk replacer or she is just still figuring out the nipple? I worry most that she has a lack of appetite, though she nibbles grain and browses the yard between naps.
Her poo has gone from pellets the first few days to clumpy and more mucous, but I don't know if that is because she is just being introduced to all new milk/hay/feed (I feed free alfalfa hay and put about a handful of grain out a day but she only seems to nibble at it for now). She has also been browsing our yard and munching on a good bit of new foliage. Could this be the cause of the abnormal poo or should I be worried about her being sick? I fed her about 3 oz of homemade electrolyte (salt, baking soda, water, molasses) this morning an hour and a half before her first bottle because I was worried about dehydration from not drinking enough milk and it seemed to help clump up the poop more.
A note: I'm worried about switching from the milk replacer suddenly to a whole milk or something because of all the changes and issues already..
This part may be silly, but could anyone give me a gauge on average behaviour of goats this age? I feel like she sleeps a lot and if I am not out with her or she is not with the other animals, she will just lay by the door waiting for someone to come out. Sometimes she cries, but only for a minute then she finds a good place to lay down. Otherwise she is bouncy and likes to run the yard and hike with the pack of dogs and I. I did purchase her as a single goat, as the seller told me that if she was born as a single kid rather than a twin that she would do fine as a single goat. Now, with my belated research, I hope she wont get too lonely. I work from home and spend multiple hours a day just with my animals. When she is alone I have been putting my sweet old little dog who is the same size as her in the barn outside of her pen to keep her company (I never ever leave her alone/out of sight with the dogs without barriers). We have talked about maybe getting another goat, but I can't imagine the stress of another bottle baby right now..
I just realized as I type that this is so much but i am just so nervous and I want to do the best for baby Fern. Any advice is appreciated.