Need Advice: Should I pull the runt?

[Shootingstars]

One of our does had triplets and they all thrived in Momma's care, the next doe had twins and they are doing great also. Third and Last doe had triplets and she is a good mother, she is nursing them all and is taking care of them. These babies are 5 days old now and the smallest is just not really growing. She allows all the babies to nurse but I am really worried the little one is not getting enough. Should I pull her and bottle feed her to ensure the other two are getting enough?

Momma is eating goat pellets, alfalfa pellets and a good quality hay with lots of clean fresh water.

Editted to add: When the bigger two are playing, the little one gets knocked over alot but always get back up. She is just not as strong, she was the last baby born.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

You could always just supplement her but let her stay on mom too.

 

[Shootingstars]

You could always just supplement her but let her stay on mom too.

That was another one of my ideas but would that allow the other two babies enough milk to drink?

 

[Livinwright Farm]

One of our does had triplets and they all thrived in Momma's care, the next doe had twins and they are doing great also. Third and Last doe had triplets and she is a good mother, she is nursing them all and is taking care of them. These babies are 5 days old now and the smallest is just not really growing. She allows all the babies to nurse but I am really worried the little one is not getting enough. Should I pull her and bottle feed her to ensure the other two are getting enough?

Momma is eating goat pellets, alfalfa pellets and a good quality hay with lots of clean fresh water.

Editted to add: When the bigger two are playing, the little one gets knocked over alot but always get back up. She is just not as strong, she was the last baby born.

you could pull the littlest one.... but I would suggest decreasing the amount of grain(or removing it all together) giving her primarily alfalfa hay, free choice loose goat mineral, BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seed), and free choice water. Alfalfa is higher in protein that the regular hay, and the sunflower will boost her butterfat content. Doing this should get those babies back on track bulk-wise.

 

[Shootingstars]

One of our does had triplets and they all thrived in Momma's care, the next doe had twins and they are doing great also. Third and Last doe had triplets and she is a good mother, she is nursing them all and is taking care of them. These babies are 5 days old now and the smallest is just not really growing. She allows all the babies to nurse but I am really worried the little one is not getting enough. Should I pull her and bottle feed her to ensure the other two are getting enough?

Momma is eating goat pellets, alfalfa pellets and a good quality hay with lots of clean fresh water.

Editted to add: When the bigger two are playing, the little one gets knocked over alot but always get back up. She is just not as strong, she was the last baby born.

you could pull the littlest one.... but I would suggest decreasing the amount of grain(or removing it all together) giving her primarily alfalfa hay, free choice loose goat mineral, BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seed), and free choice water. Alfalfa is higher in protein that the regular hay, and the sunflower will boost her butterfat content. Doing this should get those babies back on track bulk-wise.

I can try to change the doe's diet however the other mommas are doing wonderful on what I am feeding but I have no problem changing the diet on them. All my goats have 24 hour access to loose goat mineral also.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

She still needs energy to produce enough milk for trips and keep her BCS up. IMO, leave her on the current diet. She should still produce enough for all three if you supplement the runt, but if you think the other 2 are getting weak or not gaining, then you could totally pull the runt. She should increase her production though as the kids demand more.

 

[Shootingstars]

She still needs energy to produce enough milk for trips and keep her BCS up. IMO, leave her on the current diet. She should still produce enough for all three if you supplement the runt, but if you think the other 2 are getting weak or not gaining, then you could totally pull the runt. She should increase her production though as the kids demand more.

Thanks! The other two are slowly growing but not as fast as the first set of triplets did. Bottlefeeding is not my first choice so I will try supplementing and see how that goes.

 

[helmstead]

Back when I was dam raising, I always pulled extra kids over twins. They just grow better when they're not competing for the milk. So, yes, if it were me, I would supplement the baby or pull it altogether. Really in your situation, I would supplement so you don't have a single bottle baby. If it's truely hungry, it won't be hard to get it on a bottle. Try a Pritchard nipple first.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I didn't take time to read all the suggestions, but in my experience if you have a set of uneven triplets you are better off to pull the runt, I have tried offering the runt a bottle while still on mom and at first they seem to do okay, but then they will start refussing the bottle, know you are in trouble, because it is really hard to get them back on the bottle, they can get quit the attitude about it.

I often leave triplets on if mom is experienced, and the kids are evenly sized, but a runt half the size of the other two, or a small doelig nursing with two bigger bucks, needs to come off.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

One of our does had triplets and they all thrived in Momma's care, the next doe had twins and they are doing great also. Third and Last doe had triplets and she is a good mother, she is nursing them all and is taking care of them. These babies are 5 days old now and the smallest is just not really growing. She allows all the babies to nurse but I am really worried the little one is not getting enough. Should I pull her and bottle feed her to ensure the other two are getting enough?

Momma is eating goat pellets, alfalfa pellets and a good quality hay with lots of clean fresh water.

Editted to add: When the bigger two are playing, the little one gets knocked over alot but always get back up. She is just not as strong, she was the last baby born.

you could pull the littlest one.... but I would suggest decreasing the amount of grain(or removing it all together) giving her primarily alfalfa hay, free choice loose goat mineral, BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seed), and free choice water. Alfalfa is higher in protein that the regular hay, and the sunflower will boost her butterfat content. Doing this should get those babies back on track bulk-wise.

I can try to change the doe's diet however the other mommas are doing wonderful on what I am feeding but I have no problem changing the diet on them. All my goats have 24 hour access to loose goat mineral also.

Realistically, I am not suggesting a massive change to her diet. If anything I am primarily suggesting beefing up her diet for optimal nutrition for her and her new little ones. the only thing to really necessary to replace/remove is the regular hay. Where you are already giving her the alfalfa, it would just be a matter of increasing her to free choice instead of limited. and adding the BOSS is something that has come highly reccommended to me, all my does LOVE it, and their milk production increased last year as soon as I added it.
I did forget to mention that, if you can get some, Manna Pro will also inrease their milk production. Do a search on here for it. I know there is a thread where one of the people talked about how when they removed this from their doe's diet the milk production went down over night, and when they added it back into their diet, the doe went right back to having a nice full udder.
It has anise in it, which all goats LOVE, and it has all sorts of good vitamins & minerals added for optimal reproductive health.
It is up to you whether you pull the kid for bottle feeding or not. I hjave nothing against bottle feeding a kid. I had to do it with my Pup last year. He had been rejected.
If you DO choose to bottle feed:
I suggest getting milk from one of the other does that has more than enough for her kids... that is, if she will let you. I don't suggest using the Kid Milk Replacer in the blue bag that TSC carries(i believe it's Dumor)! I got that last year for Pup and discovered half way through the bag that it had bugs!! NASTY!!! Land o' Lakes is decent and has many rave reviews on here for it's healthy bulking ability.