Mommy - not meant to be?

[Sophia A. Heimberg]

Well, now I have to bottle feed a baby goat, while she's adorable, I don'y exactly want to get up every two hours. She is healthy and running around playing, she is about 1 1/2 days old. The dam walks away every time we are trying to bring the kid to her, and if we hold her she kicks at the baby, and if she ends up near the kid she head butts her. It is so sad. When we get the mom to stand still to try to get the kid to nurse, she looks at us like she doesn't know what to do, but she takes the bottle like a pro. We also tried  to give the kid to another dam to nurse on and she head butted her too, it beginning to seem like no goat wants this kid. 

I was just wondering if anybody has any tips for bottle feeding or trying to get the kid to nurse on the mom? Thank You for any help.

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

It is really not that exact. Offer her two ounces in a bottle, and if she sucks down the whole thing, you can go 3-4 hours, although she might still be sucking on your chin between bottles. Some kids have more of a need to suck than others. You will know that you are giving her too much milk if she gets diarrhea.

And yes, Rachel, all of the baby feeding instructions are in my book.

[Sophia A. Heimberg]

Well, the doeling is 1 day old do I still feed every 2 hours or 4 hours?

[Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres]

I need to write that down somewhere. lol Is it in your book? I can't remember! 

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

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

[Sophia A. Heimberg]

She is getting better since the first time we milked her, which was last night, so pretty good progress if you ask me. But we still need two people, one to milk and one to hold the bucket.

[Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres]

Sounds like one of my First Fresheners last year! Don't give up on milking her. 

[Sophia A. Heimberg]

I have been giving her about 1 oz. every two hours of her mom's warm milk, I can't put her with her mom, because she head butts her and seems like she try's to hurt her. The mom is being a butt head about milking her, I will just say it's a 2-3 person job.

[Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres]

She might not be latching on correctly, which might be why mom isn't accepting her. Does her belly feel full? If it is, then she is managing to eat from mom just fine when you're not watching. Otherwise, if you can't get her to eat from mom on the stanchion, then you'd probably be best to feed with a bottle. Just be sure to feed small amounts more frequently, rather than large amounts less frequently. Too much milk at once can cause diarrhea.

[Sophia A. Heimberg]

Well the problem is that we tried that and the baby didn't feed off the mom, I'm not sure if this is correct but she might be used to the bottle.

[Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres]

If you have a stanchion, you can hold mom still while baby feeds, but you're still looking at regular feedings for a while. I can't remember how old Deb said she starts drawing out feedings.