My FF freshened yesterday with triplets. Her udder filled with milk today and she is HUGE and really full of milk-- way way more than the babies can consume (and no more colostrum). I put her on the stand and milked out a couple of cups to ease her, but should I milk her all the way out or will this much help her start producing what the babies need? I'm worried about the potential for mastitis if she has way way too much milk. Help please?
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Update: I milked my FF this morning without separating the triplets (almost 3 weeks old) because she is so full every morning and I wanted to see how much is in there. I got 12 ounces after all the babies had been fed! That seems like a lot, right? I think I'm going to continue to milk her each morning (without separating the kids) partially to get her used to it and also because I can't wait to have milk again!! The babies were 3, 3, & 2 lbs at birth, now they are 9, 9, & 8 lbs. Growing like weeds! Super excited to have such a good producer for a FF!!
YAY!!! That's AWESOME.
Thanks Rachel. I think we're going to get lucky... she has been feeding her littlest one along with the rest just fine. I'll sneak in there to look and find her suckling her mom and mom licking her tail. This happened several times today (whew!). They all seem to be well fed and bouncy babies! I'm SO happy and grateful!!
In another conversation not too long ago, Deb shared her timing for feeding:
"You do not have too feed the kid every two hours. After the first couple of days, we give a bottle every four hours during the day. If they are in the house, they do not usually wake us up more than once during the night. By about a week of age, I generally put them in the barn, and they go 8 hours overnight with no problem. For example:
8 a.m.
noon
4 p.m.
8 p.m.
midnight"
I would say that would be a fine timeline for going out and making sure she nurses. :)
OH I wonder if that's the problem. This littlest one climbed into our laps constantly right after birth and more than the others although we really handled all of them a lot. We didn't pick them up much (they screamed!) but they crawled into our laps right from the beginning.
So if I just go down there and put her on mama to eat instead of bottling her, how often should I do that? I'm going to keep trying with the bottle too just so I'm sure she's getting enough though. She suckled for a long time on her mom several times this morning.
Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres said:
Congratulations on the milk supply!! That's awesome!!
I made the mistake of handling a baby too much with a FF last year, and she rejected the kid... I left the kid with her, but I started giving it a bottle.
Thanks that's helpful. No mustard poop just scrambled eggs. They each only suckle for a few seconds but I noticed tonight they are nursing a little longer which is a relief.
On another note my doe has not really warmed up to the littlest doeling. Sometimes she pushes her away but a few minutes later she'll get in there and succeed to nurse. She has bitten her on the ear a couple of times! I've had to spend a lot of time with them making sure the little one gets enough. Sometimes I think my doe is jealous of her and the attention I give her (the littlest doeling). Do you think that could possibly be it? Tonight the little one was climbing on my lap and Leela grabbed her ear and bit it! If one of the others (upon whom she lavishes her attention) is nursing, I can put the little one on the other side and she stands fine for her. I don't know what happens when I'm not there but it is really worrisome. I'm trying to warm the little one up to a bottle in case I have to supplement her but so far she screams and doesn't like it at all. I'm hoping when I'm not there she is not mean to her.
Haha, it's because I don't KNOW any better! I was afraid of taking milk from the kids but I'm a newbie so there you go. I just remember you saying if they have triplets you have to wait a month to milk the mom. So, in other words, if she's producing more than they need, I can milk her out once a day and it will be fine? She has a good quart in there all the time even though the three of them are nursing every 30 minutes or so.
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