New idea for bottle babies (at least to me!)

madcow

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Bottle babies can be a lot of work and the cuteness factor only goes so far after about a month of feeding and cleaning up after the precious little things. A new acquaintance of mine that raises goats says that with bottle babies he takes them and feeds them in the house and then puts them back outside with their mother so that she can tend to them the rest of the time, thus eliminating the need for keeping them inside the house penned up and cleaning up their area day after day. Of course this would only work for those situations where the baby can't get milk for some reason, like momma has no milk, momma won't allow them to nurse or an issue with the teats where the baby can't nurse. I really like the idea because it allows them to bond to you, but they also bond to their herd at the same time, and it seems like a lot less work in the long run. He said that rounding up the baby for feedings gets simple after a day or 2 as they see you as their source of food and will be waiting for you at feeding times. Seems like a win-win situation to me!
 

Sweetened

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We just purchased a buckling that was pulled from his Mom, we pick up on February 10th. They are outside (twins) with their Mother, but in a Pen beside them. They have ZERO interest in feeding from her, but she cleans and loves on them and is protective of them. I love that set up. They don't associate Mom with Milk, but they know her as Mom. Mom is less stressed as the babies aren't technically pulled. If we pull bucklings from multiples this year, we plan to do this.
 

HoneyDreameMomma

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We did something very similar with one of our kids last year. She was under weight and cold and momma was a first freshner who wouldn't hold still to let her nurse. We had to bring the doeling inside, but as soon as she warmed up, we had her inside for feedings and outside with mom as much as possible. It worked great. :) Good thing, because I have never seen a doe bellow like her momma did when we'd take her away. The first 36+ hours after the doeling was born and she had to be inside, momma cried the entire time (she actually made herself hoarse), and kept looking all over he goat field for her baby. :eek:
 

Sweetened

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Oh my GOSH honey, i just could not bear that, it would break my heart.
 

Buzz'n Billy

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We had a bottle baby and did something similar. We don't live at our farm, currently, so we would take the baby home with us each afternoon, then send her to "kid"ergarten every day when we arrived at the farm. She learned how to be a goat, and still got her bottles/nourishment. After she was about 6 weeks old, we adjusted the bottle feeding schedule and left her with the herd 24/7. It worked very well. We successfully weaned our bottle baby at 10 weeks. She's still our "kid", but she's also a thriving member of our herd.
 
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