My sweet girl just gave birth to her first baby girl a week ago yesterday. I tried to get some milk from her through the week but was getting less than 2oz and last night I separated them for a short period so I could milk mom this morning and got 2.5oz. Is this normal? Should I even bother milking or just let the baby have it all? Baby looks healthy mom is eating grain and alfalfa and is drinking plenty of water. Never had a first time mom before so I do not know if that factors in or not. Thanks!
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If you're milking twice a day, that's not too bad!
For max production with a single kid, you either need to be milking twice a day without separating, or milking once a day after separating the kid overnight.
So update since I last posted its been 13 days since she kidded and Im getting about 1 cup when I milk her and the kid is still with mom 24/7. So better than when I started but just enough to be frustrating lol.
If you are getting milk when you milk her, that means the kid is getting all it needs. I was just saying that if she is only producing an extra 2 ounces, that would not have been enough to feed a second kid, so both kids would be starving if there had been twins. It's hard to believe that is not producing more than that, so my theory is that you are not getting all of the milk for some reason.
Alright Ill give that a shot she only had the one kid and the baby looks healthy and is gaining weight so the good news it shes not starving and I haven't had to start supplementing.
It would be really sad if that's all she's producing. If she had twins, they'd be starving. I would definitely milk her twice a day to try to get her supply built up.
Goats don't hold back milk on purpose. They've discovered that kids nursing will cause the doe to release oxytocin, which is important in the milk ejection reflex. So if you see the kid nursing you might want to grab her right then and see how much milk you can get since the kid got the MER for you. Or if you feel like you have gotten out every last drop, try putting her with the kid, and if you see the kid start to nurse like crazy (not just going back and forth trying to figure out which teat has milk), then take the kid off and see how much more you can get.
Thanks for the reply I went in and read your post and I wanted to clarify I have had milk goats in the past and am familiar with milking but not on a first time goat mom. I am getting no more than 4oz a day from her due to her being completely empty or her holding some back. Possibly because shes a FF?
Since you are just learning to milk, this is totally normal. It has way more to do with your inexperience that it does with the goat's milk supply. Keep working at it, and you'll get more milk! In the meantime, I probably wouldn't separate the kid overnight because she might not be able to consume all that you leave behind, which would ultimately result in less milk (lower demand). Instead, you should milk her twice a day without separating the kid. Right now you should be getting at least 2 cups a day. Here is a post that I wrote awhile ago about starting to milk ...
http://nigeriandwarfgoats.ning.com/forum/topics/starting-to-milk