1. I have noticed that one side of my goat's udder is always more full than the other. What would cause this and how can I even them out? The kids are nursing on her right now.

2. What is your technique for weaning kids and

3. training them to leash and collar? I have been seperating them during the day from their mother and they have gone hoarse screaming for her. And I do mean screaming. It drives me crazy. They can see her from their pen.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), May 31, 2000

Answers

1;Lopsided udders can have various causes.Some are that way naturally,often they are caused by mastitis, and permament damage from mastitis that was not caught soon enough.Sometimes if the kids are nursing the dam, they will prefer one side and that side will respond to the more frequent demand by producing more milk.You can solve that by seperating the kids at night,and then milking out ALL the milk from the favored side, but leaving some in the other side,forcing the kids to nurse on the other side when they are let out. 2;I start seperating the kids at night when they are a month old.My experience has been that seperating them overnight any sooner will cause excessive stress to both parties(does and kids),and that the kids don't do as well as if it is held off until a month.When the kids are between a month and 6 weeks old, I either eat or sell all the buck kids.That means that some of the does will not have any kids on them, and some will have a doeling.If there are twin doelings,or if I don't want any doelings as replacements,I sell a few doelings,too,keeping only the ones that are the best.Every night the doe kids get seperated from the mothers.A good way to catch them, and to get them used to handling,is to let them into the milking area at night when you milk their mothers,and feed the kids grain in their own little dishes.They will come to see you as the source of goodies,and it will give you a chance to handle them.Then, when you let the kid's dam out,lead the kid to the holding pen,where it will stay overnight.I do not seperate them during the day,because I want them to eat the pasture and to fit in with the herd.Would you want to be cooped up in a pen all day long on a nice day?They don't seem to mind it as much at night, and they go to sleep so they don't yell all night long.If you are very late milking in the morning they will let you know it,but other than that ours don't scream a whole lot.Also, the morning milking is always more abundant than the evening milking,so I get that, and let the kids nurse in the day.When fall comes, if they have not been weaned by the dam already, she will wean them when she gets bred and her pregnancy hormones make her teats tender. 3;I put a collar on them when they are only a month or two old, and let them wear it all the time,and hold them by it when I pet them or feed them grain in my hand,etc.As they get bigger,I lead them very short distances,gradually increasing the leading time, and get them used to having their legs handled, because I show them in the late summer.I would not recommend suddenly clapping a collar and leash on them and dragging them around the pen for half an hour until they learn to lead.They will only learn to dread you and to try very hard not to let you catch them! Once they have an appetite for grain, you can take each kid and pull on the collar with the right hand, while luring it along with some grain in your left hand.Give it a taste of grain every time it leads a little.As the training progreeses,make it walk several yards only smelling the grain,and then giving it the grain after it has walked that distance.Then if you are going to show it, get it used to showring manuevers and posing and standing still, and give it the treat after it has done all that.Goats in general do not adjust well to sudden changes, they do much better if things are worked up to gradually.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 31, 2000.

Not much to add to Rebekah's answer it was great. Will tell you that we put web collars on our kids from birth, well cattle leg bands cut in 1/2 width wise from Jeffers Livestock catalog, and then web collars when about 3 weeks. We teach ours to pose and lead by leading them to and from the lambar, and touching them all over as they drink and setting up their rear legs. Not sure if you (R.) are a male or female, but here goes. Though lopsided udders can come from disease they usually are very lopsided, barely lopsided is usually from supply and demand, and if you had nursed children (here I am hoping you are a mom) you would know exactly what I am talking about, all 3 of mine preferred my right and it is ever so slightly larger. This is the number one reason why we do not allow show does to nurse kids. It is very good mangement to put your does who do nurse kids up on the milkstand at least once a day to completely empty them and check for problems, especially if you intend to have family milkers after the kids are weaned, because as she weans her kids she also weans her own milk supply, till soon there is none, that supply and demand thing again. When we do wean, we wean all of sudden, yes they scream (do you have Nubains? :) )but if you do it all of a sudden the screaming will eventually stop, where if you do it day after day I would definetly worry about stress, cocci and worms in the kids. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 31, 2000.

Guess I should add a few more details. The mother is part Saanen and part Nubian. She was bred to a Nubian.

The reason I seperated them in the day instead of the night is because I didn't have enough shelter for the two groups at night. I could leave her inside and the kids out or the kids in and her out, so I just decided to put them in a grassy pen during the day. But they are all free to roam even at night. I don't keep them locked up.

All of the goats and kids have collars. I have been trying to teach the kids to lead by letting them get hungry and thirsty in the pen and then leading them to food and water. Then taking them once around the house. They are not too happy about starting around the house, but are eager to finish it and get back with mom.

I will try to do what you suggest and milk out the full side only and see if that helps. I see that the mom is trying to wean them herself. She won't stand for them as much anymore especially when I let them in to her after they have been seperated.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), June 01, 2000.

We take our kids off at birth as we practice CAE prevention. We also show our does so our situation is a little different. That said, we teach our doe kids to lead at about 2 weeks of age. We put collars on them and work with them 3 or 4 times a minute each and they lead like troupers. They will fight the collar around their head, so put your hand on their neck just in front of their shoulders and "pull" them along. They do great in the showring. Even if you do not show it is nice to have animals that lead.

We let our bucks nurse on our does and then sell them for meat when they are about 2 months old. Quite often they nurse on one side only and the does udder is uneven. After the kids are removed we milk out the small side once a day and the normal side twice a day. If the doe is very valuable as a show animal we would remove the kids before 2 months of age so as not to ruin her udder.

For weaning purposes, I note that at about 2 months of age, the kids are independent, eating hay and grain, and Mom is getting a little tired of them. We use lamb bars to feed our kids and wean them from 2 to 3 months old. They holler when they see me coming without the milk bucket but it only lasts a few minutes.

Marci W.

-- Marcella Waterman (hwater1933@AOL.com), June 26, 2000.