klcardella
Ridin' The Range
Hi everyone. I am brand new to dairy goats. I have sheep, and have plenty of experience with lambing, but have never had this problem with a ewe. Night before last, my first Nubian gave birth to two lovely little bucklings. The problem is that her teats are HUGE! I have large hands, and each one fills my entire palm. They did not look like that prior to kidding. Her bag is also very low, so the babies are having real difficulty nursing.
I read a few threads, and milked her out completely the first morning, and that helped a bit, but they cannot come close to getting the entire teat in their mouth. I tried bending their knees so they could reach better, but they won't stay in that position. I have been supplementing them several times a day with what milk I get from her, but they don't really eat too much.
One has gained a little weight, and one has lost a couple of ounces, so I upped the bottles today.
Will this get better as they get bigger, or am I going to have to bottle feed them? I don't really want to, and she is VERY patient with them, but they just cannot get a good hold (even after milking), even though they try and try. I have put the teat in their mouth, squirted milk in, but they just cannot latch on.
I have never had this problem with sheep (not dairy), or had an animal with so much milk that cannot feed her babies.
Any advice?
Here is a picture of one of the bucklings at nearly 48 hours old.
I read a few threads, and milked her out completely the first morning, and that helped a bit, but they cannot come close to getting the entire teat in their mouth. I tried bending their knees so they could reach better, but they won't stay in that position. I have been supplementing them several times a day with what milk I get from her, but they don't really eat too much.
One has gained a little weight, and one has lost a couple of ounces, so I upped the bottles today.
Will this get better as they get bigger, or am I going to have to bottle feed them? I don't really want to, and she is VERY patient with them, but they just cannot get a good hold (even after milking), even though they try and try. I have put the teat in their mouth, squirted milk in, but they just cannot latch on.
I have never had this problem with sheep (not dairy), or had an animal with so much milk that cannot feed her babies.
Any advice?
Here is a picture of one of the bucklings at nearly 48 hours old.