How long do you wait before you intervene when they are only nursing 1 side? They were born last evening and so far have only discovered the right side. Should I try to get them to start on the left, or should I just milk out some colostrum and freeze it...?? Can't remember protocoll for this. Thanks
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After last year, I am willing to try anything. I literally milked this doe lashed down to the milk stand because she was such a bronc. Was telling a friend of mine about it and she said, "oh sell her, it's never worth it to keep one like that"...but so far I can't bring myself to do it.
I will definitely be making a thread about it if she milks any better this year.
It's definitely worth a try! If a doe has a history of being difficult to milk, we start milking her as early as possible, and it helps. Even if she doesn't have any extra milk, just put her on the milk stand for her grain and get 10 squirts if that's all she's got left.
And old farmer's lore says to let the doe lick your hands when you're handling the babies at birth, and she'll recognize you as one of her babies too. No idea how valid that is, but when I have a doe that is not the most personable, I try to remember to do that.
Okay great, then I will keep up with this doe. But you just gave me an idea -- my other doe Penny was a terror on the stand last year. But when I first bought her, she had not completely dried off from a yearling kid, so I learned to milk on her. And I thought she was so nice at first. Year #2, when I seperated her kids to milk her, she was wicked! I blamed myself, figured my bad technique learning on her ruined her attitude. Wonder if it had anything to do with what you're saying, being mad for taking milk from her babies? Wonder if she'd be any better if I milked her a little from the beginning this year?
Especially since by the look of her I can't imagine there's more than 1 in there, she is not very big.
Sounds totally fine! It's only been two days. As the kids get more mature and smarter, they should start nursing the two sides more evenly. Definitely keep milking out the side that the kids are ignoring. Otherwise it will dry up -- and that ain't pretty!
Plus you regularly milking her will keep her in the mood for letting you. I just had a very skittish yearling give birth to triplets, and they got chilled just enough for them to not want to nurse at birth, so two of them wound up as bottle babies, which means I'm milking the mom twice a day. I've realized that this is actually a really good thing for this particular doe because they are much more receptive to letting you milk them right after giving birth, and as long as you keep it up, you never have that transition period where some of them get mad at you for stealing their babies milk! We had an apprentice here when the doe kidded, and she could not believe that this doe was standing in the middle of the straw letting me milk her a couple hours after she was running from us like a wild deer. Those birth hormones are awesome!
More nursing ??s
I am still emptying out the left side from time to time when it gets engorged. They are nursing it but are still heavily favoring the right side. Should I be concerned that they are not getting enough milk if I am doing this long term? They are bouncy and bright and when I pick them up I usually feel waterbaloon bellies which i assume means full of milk. She is absolutely patiently lettng them nurse when and how they want, so I am positive it is nothing she is doing that is causing them to nurse uneven.
She is an older doe...I forget exactly but 6 I think, so she should have plenty of milk...?
Uh oh, I froze the whole jar...didn't read this post in time!! darn. Oh well.
Deborah it's very exciting if you think she's a good milker- I have been so excited looking at her udder, to my admittedly untrained eye it looks pretty great as far as attachments and I think her teat placement is okay plus her teats are long unlike her sister. She is a real sweetie, too. Penny would never have stood there and let me milk her out in the stall like I did yesterday. Can't wait to post udder pics and see if I am right about her udder & also milk her for the first itme and see what she's really got in there. (well I milked her last year but I bought her half dried up so I never knew what she could really do)
Anyway, the good news from this morning is that her udder looked even & I saw them nursing both sides, though they are still favoring the right side. Seems like they should do fine now.
If you got 3 cups from one side, those kids have already had more than enough from the other side! That is one amazing milker! They only "need" 10% of their body weight in colostrum in the first 24 hours, but most kids will take more than that if it's available. If you haven't already frozen it, you should do it in nothing larger than 4 ounce increments. Learned that one the hard way! Once it's thawed, you have to use it, and you don't usually need 3 cups!
From what I have seen, kids favor the side that is easiest to latch onto. Full teats are harder for young kids to latch onto, which is why I suggested milking out that side. (besides keeping your doe from getting mastitis on the one side) Hypothetically, once the kids are older, even if they haven't been interested in the full side, if you milk it out, they may eventually become interested, and if they don't, then at least you won't have lost the second side for your own use, due to mastitis or lack of use.
Well I took about 3/4 of a quart out of that side to make it even with the other side. She seemed very grateful. I guess it's no loss to them, they weren't drinking it anyway. We tried to get them interested in that teat but I have still only seen them drink the right side. Oh well I guess. There are only two of them and by the looks of that bag there ought to be enough on the one side, she is like 6 years old and has had lots of kids before.
I will just keep emptying that side if they don't & trying to get them to nurse both.
I think they will be fine. If I remember right, Colostrum is produced for X amount of days (not that there is only so much in the udder and then it's gone)
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