Baby pygmy goat feeding schedule
Bottle Feeding Baby Goats - Backyard Goats
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Once your kids arrive, you will need to decide if they will be dam-raised or if you will be bottle-feeding baby goats. There are reasons you might choose to bottle feed from promoting friendliness to managing the dam’s udder. Or you may be forced to bottle-feed because for one reason or another the dam can’t or won’t let the kids nurse or a kid is too weak or compromised to nurse. Whatever the reason, if you are planning on bottle-feeding, you likely have many questions including:
- What kind of milk to feed baby goats?
- How to get a baby goat to bottle feed?
- How much milk to feed a baby goat?
- How long to bottle feed a baby goat?
What Kind of Milk to Feed Baby Goats:
When bottle-feeding baby goats, the very first milk they must receive is colostrum. Ideally, the dam will be producing enough colostrum that you can express her own into a bottle and immediately feed it to the kids. But if her fresh colostrum is not available for some reason, your other choices are to feed fresh colostrum from another doe that has kidded at the same time, feed frozen colostrum that you saved from a previous kidding, or feed kid colostrum replacer. For this last choice, it is important to be sure it’s kid colostrum replacer and not calf or lamb replacer as the nutrient needs are different for different species. It is also important to be sure it’s colostrum replacer and not milk replacer. Newborn kids absolutely must get colostrum in the first 24-48 hours of life or their chances of survival are low. Do not substitute any type of homemade replacer at this stage and don’t try to get by with regular whole milk.
Once you get the newborn kid through the first 24-48 hours, then you can switch to milk. Ideally, you will have fresh goat milk available as this is best. Many goat owners who choose to bottle-feed will milk the dam and then immediately transfer the milk to bottles and feed it to the babies.
Other goat owners prefer to heat-treat the milk before bottle-feeding baby goats in order to eliminate the risk of potentially passing CAE or other diseases from the dam to the baby. I, myself, do my CAE tests while my does are pregnant so that I know they are negative and then I feed the mother’s milk to the babies raw, which feels more natural to me and I believe it contains more of the beneficial antibodies than heat-treated milk does. But if you do choose to heat-treat, remember that colostrum cannot actually be pasteurized because it will curdle, so it must just be gently heated to 135 degrees F and held at that temperature for one hour. Regular milk can be pasteurized at 161 degrees F for 30 seconds.
If you don’t have fresh goat milk for bottle-feeding baby goats, then your choices are goat milk replacer or another species of milk. I have seen goat milk replacer recipes but the advice I get from my veterinarian and goat mentors is that whole cow milk from the grocery store is more adequate and appropriate in the event that I don’t have, or don’t want to use, powdered replacers.
If your newborn is healthy enough to have a strong sucking reflex, getting it to take a bottle will be relatively simple. I like to use the little red “Pritchard” nipples for newborns because they are smaller and easier for them to suck. Don’t forget to snip the tip of the nipple as it doesn’t come with a hole in it! Hold the bottle at an angle so that the milk is flowing downward, open the baby’s mouth with your fingers, and stick the nipple inside. I find it helpful to put gentle pressure on the top and bottom of the muzzle to help the baby hold the bottle in its mouth at first. A strong kid will generally be hungry and start sucking enthusiastically.
Bottle-feeding a baby goat. Photo credit: Kate Johnson.If the baby is too weak to suck, you may need to feed a few drops at a time through a medicine dropper (be careful not to put too much on its tongue or in the side of its cheek at once or it could go down the wrong tube and into the lungs).
Or you may need to tube-feed the baby. I’ve also had babies that just needed to wake up a bit in order to get the sucking response going, and I find that using a supplement like “Nutri-Drench” or some Caro syrup or even coffee, rubbed on their gums, is often enough to give them a little energy boost and get them eating.
How much your babies will need depends on whether they are full-sized breeds or miniature breeds, and also on how old they are. In general, try to feed three to four ounces per five pounds of weight per feeding. At first, you may be feeding every three to four hours, and then after a few days, you’ll spread this out to four feedings a day. You can drop that back to two or three feedings a day at about three weeks of age, and then down to twice a day by six to eight weeks. For the last month, you can feed once a day as they should be eating some hay and grain by then, if not sooner.
Here are two useful charts to use as a starting point.
You may need to modify the schedule and number of feedings per day based on your own schedule and time constraints, but this is a good place to begin:
| Age | Ounces per Feeding | Frequency |
| 0-2 Days | 3-6 ounces | Every 3-4 hours |
| 3 Days to 3 Weeks | 6-10 ounces | Four times a day |
| 3 to 6 Weeks | 12-16 ounces | Three times a day |
| 6 to 10 weeks | 16 ounces | Twice a day |
| 10 to 12 weeks | 16 ounces | Once a day |
| Age | Ounces per Feeding | Frequency |
| 0-2 Days | 2-4 ounces | Every 3-4 hours |
| 3 Days to 3 Weeks | 6-8 ounces | Four times a day |
| 3 to 8 Weeks | 12 ounces | Twice a day |
| 8-12 weeks | 12 ounces | Once a day |
As a general rule of thumb, when I’ve decided on bottle-feeding baby goats, I try to feed doelings for at least three months and bucklings or wethers for at least two months.
Sometimes I go longer if I have extra milk, but this seems to get them off to a good start and by two to three months they are eating grass, hay, and even some grain, so their need for milk is greatly reduced.
Bottle-feeding baby goats is a time commitment, but it’s also a fun way to bond with your babies and make them oh so friendly!
References
https://www.caprinesupply.com/raising-kids-on-pasteurized-milk
Caring For Newborn Pygmy Goats
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Do you want to learn more about caring for newborn pygmy goats? If yes, then you are in the right place.
Some people love to raise a few Pygmy goats as pets and also for fresh milk supply daily. And most of the people want the size of their herd increase day by day. New life is always welcome in the barn or farmstead.
So, it’s better if nature take it’s course in the animal kingdom. But sometimes, nature sidesteps our expectations and then we have to face sudden and unwanted hazards or challenges.
It’s not unusual if you are raising goats.
Sometimes, you might have to face such condition when a mother Pygmy goat abandons her baby kid to die. In such cases it falls to humans to intervene.
Handling such situation and caring for newborn Pygmy goats is not so easy and it’s involved with lots of dedication, time and hardworking. But it’s really worth doing if you love your animals. Isn’t it?
Table of Contents
Here we are describing some important steps of caring for newborn Pygmy goats if it is abandoned by the mother.
Feeding
You must bottle-feed to save the kid from death if the mother Pygmy refuses to nurse. While bottle-feeding, the bottles should contain warm fluids. Because feeding cold fluids can cause digestive distress to the kid. Always follow the natural feeding position that allows milk to flow directly to the kid’s abdomen.
You can feed the kid with it’s head tilted back. This is the best position for the kids. Give the kid 1 to 3 ounces of colostrum in the first hour of it’s life and every three hours after that for the first day.
On the 2nd and 3rd day, feed the kid 2 to 3 ounces of colostrum or fresh/frozen goat’s milk (raw or whole cow’s milk will work).
Feed them 8 to 10 times a day on their 2nd and 3rd day. Feed the kid 4 to 5 ounces of milk during the first week, 7 to 8 times a day. And then 6 times a day for the next two weeks.
After that, feed them 6 to 8 ounces of milk daily on a decreasing frequency till their 2 months of age when they are weaned. Pygmy kids always don’t take bottles easily. Patience is the the key trait here.
Additional Care
Although feedings are crucial for saving life of Pygmy kids, additional care is also required. Sickly kids are often abandoned by the does. So monitor the baby goat to ensure a rectal temperature of 101.5° to 103.5° Fahrenheit.
Place a goat with low body temperature in warm water. Then towel and blow-dry, and then wrap loosely in a towel and place in a box with a towel-covered heating pad on low. You can also use a heat lamp in cold weather.
Why Does It Happen
It occurs often enough to be considered a usual part of kidding. Over the years, goat farmers have come up with myriad reasons for this occurrence. Such as confusion of the doe, poor mothering, a lack of bonding etc.
But whatever the cause, such conditions require human intervention to save the newborn kid’s life. And obviously, it’s heartbreaking to observe a newborn Pygmy kid stretching to nurse, only to be refused milk by it’s mother.
Prevention
The old saying “prevention is better than cure” definitely applies here. In most cases, when a doe give birth of kids for the first time, she often fails to take care of her babies. And immediate bonding is key to ‘jump-starting’ the mothering instinct.
As a goat farmer, you need to move the kid in front of the mother to encourage cleaning and caring. Cleaning is the critical first step in the bonding process of mother and kids that leads to better nursing. Some people who raise goats regularly even place a bit of birthing fluid on the mother goat’s nose.
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Feeding newborn kids - AgroXXI
How to feed a kid from the first days to 7-8 months of age (+ video)
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First feeding - benefits of colostrum
Whichever way you choose to rear your goat, it is important that the time between birth and first feeding with colostrum is as short as possible.
The maximum interval is 1 hour.
The fact is that kids are born with a very weak immune system and are prone to many infectious diseases. They do not yet have the necessary antibodies in their blood. It is with colostrum that a newborn receives not only the first portion of tasty and nutritious food, but also maternal antibodies to strengthen immunity.
The second reason why you can’t do without colostrum is the “launch” of the digestive system. If the kid quickly receives colostrum, then the first to colonize his stomach and intestines are not harmful, but beneficial lactic acid bacteria, which not only prevent pathogens from multiplying, but also destroy them. In addition, they contribute to the release of original feces and good digestion.
Feeding scheme for kids under the uterus
This method is practiced only for goats with low milk production. Kids are with queens up to 3-4 months of age, after which they are transferred to a milk replacer and other food.
When rearing a goat kid on suction, you should make sure that the goat's udder is healthy and clean, and the milk is well milked. In goats, sometimes plugs form in the nipples, which prevent the goats from sucking the uterus normally. Weak kids cannot drink milk at all if a cork has formed, so the first trickle before feeding the kid should definitely be milked.
The best and tender hay and concentrates should be given to kids from 3 days of age.
In the first 5 days, the baby should receive milk 3-4 times a day in a volume of up to 1.5 liters. Remember that the substitute should be introduced into the diet gradually, until the mother's milk is completely replaced by it.
From the age of 20 days or from the age of one month, the kids must be given mineral supplements: 5 grams of salt, 5-7 grams of bone meal or crushed chalk per head per day. By 2-3 months, the daily dacha of bone meal or chalk is increased to 10 grams.
At the age of 3 months, kids should be gradually weaned from the queens - over a 7-10-day period, alternating days of feeding with mother's milk and days on concentrate.
Feeding schedule for kids without queen
Cultivation with pasteurized milk
An alternative to artificial milk replacer is natural pasteurized goat's milk. Pasteurization is necessary to kill the bacteria and make the milk fit for consumption some time after the goat has been milked.
There are two methods of pasteurization - fast and slow. When fast, the milk is heated to +74°C for 30 seconds. With slow, the temperature is lower, but the holding time is longer - it is necessary to heat the milk to + 64 ° C and hold for 30 minutes. Today, for these purposes, you can use household pasteurizers or a regular stove and a thermometer.
After processing, quickly cool the milk in a sterile container. Remember that everything related to milk must be sterilized in order to avoid re-contamination.
If you are planning to heat colostrum, the technology is slightly different here.
It must be heated to +56°C and held for 60 minutes. This treatment simultaneously destroys bacteria and preserves the antibodies necessary for the kid.
When growing without a queen, special bottles or cups are used to water the kids. Milk containers must be clean. But it should be remembered that the growing kids begin to butt heads and can accidentally hit the person who feeds them from the bottle. In addition, feeding from a bottle with a nipple is a rather slow way to feed kids.
Pot feeding
You can teach kids to drink on their own from their very birth. Despite the apparent unusualness of the method, the kids willingly agree to drink from the pot and drink from it with great pleasure, because here they have the opportunity to immediately drink a lot.
You can accustom a kid to a pot or bowl already with the first portion of colostrum. To encourage a kid to drink, you need to heat it 1-2 degrees above normal temperature (+39°C).
To make the goat drink for the first time, dip its muzzle into the pan for a second. Usually this is enough for the baby to figure out what to do next.
Small cups can be used to water the little kids first, and then they can be replaced with pots. Cups and pots are much easier to keep clean than bottles, and you don't have to incur the extra expense of buying teats and bottles. There is, however, one significant drawback - the kids sometimes put their feet in the pan and spill all the contents.
Kids diet
Until the age of one month, the kids need to be fed four times a day (every 4-5 hours), the first time at 6 am, the last at 21 pm.
From the age of 10, a small amount of good hay or brooms is placed in the feeders and they begin to give 4-6 grams of salt per day.
From the age of 3 weeks, goats are fed concentrates: bran, rolled oats, crushed cake (preferably a mixture of them), adding to the concentrates 8-10 grams of crushed chalk or bone meal per head per day.
Oatmeal is boiled daily, given warm and lightly salted. Root crops must be given in finely chopped form.
Also remember that from the first day of life, goats should be given plenty of clean, non-cold water to drink.
After the transfer to the stall content in 7-8 months, they are given daily 1.5-1.6 kg of hay, 200-300 grams of concentrates and 0.8-1 kg of silage or root crops (tuber crops). On such a diet, young animals grow and develop well.
The live weight of a kid with proper feeding up to 6 months of age should increase monthly by 3-5 kg.
Read about mating goats here
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Life expectancy and pregnancy of different animal species
| Animal species | Attainable age | Estimated duration of pregnancy (months) |
| Elephants | 120-200 | 20. 5 |
| Horses | 40-50 | 11 |
| Donkeys | 40-50 | 12-13 |
| Zebras | 22 | 11.5-12.5 |
| Cows | 20-25 | 9 |
| Single humped camels | 40-50 | 12-13 |
| Sheep | 10-15 | 5 |
| Goats | 12-15 | 5 |
| Mountain goats | 20-25 | 6-7 |
| Reindeer | 30 | 8-9 |
| Chamois | 15-16 | 9-10 |
| Lani | 20 | 8 |
| Reindeer | 16 | 8 |
| Moose | 20 | 9 |
| Wild boars | 20-30 | 4 |
| Domestic pigs | 20-30 | 4 |
| Hippos | 40-50 | 7-8 |
| Rhinos | 40-45 | 17-18 |
| Dogs | 10-15 (20) | 2 (58-63 days) |
| Wolves | 10 | 2 |
| Foxes | 10 | 2 |
| Domestic cats | 9-10 | 2 (50-58 days) |
| Lions | 20-25 | 3.  .
|
