Our Bottle Feeding Protocol
- Debbie Berntsen
- Mar 30
- 2 min read
When our kids are born the remain with their Mum for about four days. This gives them a good start, eating as much as they desire, and allows the doe to convert from colostrum, to milk and flush the udder. We then bring the kids up to the house, where the reside in a kennel outside, and have a small play pen to romp in for a few days while they are learning to eat from a bottle.
When the kids are removed, the Mum rejoins the herd, and is milked twice a day, the same as the other does. At this is time the milk is then disbursed to kids and clients. The kids get first choice of all milk coming out of the barn. This is the main reason we are limited on quantities going out to the clients, especially early in the season.
Once solidly eating from the bottle the kids are then moved down to the kid pen by the barn. Fedding schedule is
7 am when I get to the barn for morning chores
12 pm
4 pm when I am in the barn for the second milking of the day
8pm before bedtime.
The each receive approximately 10 ounces of milk per feeding. The bottles that we use are human baby bottles retrofitted with lamb nipples.
We typically feed four times a day for the first month, and then we reduce by one bottle every two weeks until weaned. Kids will typically start experimenting with solid food at about three weeks of age. We have found that by starting to reduce the number of bottles at a month of age, this leaves them a little bit hungry, and makes an easier transition to solid food. This gives the kids ten full weeks on at least some milk. When weaning finally occurs, the kids don't usually even notice that the bottles have stopped.
We bottle feed all of our kids as it makes for a more friendly, people oriented goat. This also allows us to transition kids to their forever homes faster, so that we may service our raw milk clients sooner.
If you have any questions, please leave us a comment and we will get back to you soon.
Comments