As you know I don't know much on goats .I have this older nanny she last night had twins,now ? she has a bag that reaches almost to ground her teats are about4 inches across very large bag,her bag was so big they could not get milk out so we milked her,she gave 1/2 a gallon, and feed them 3 times.Well after that one teat they have been nursing on only but the other they are not touching.so milk is very full so we milked that side out with hopes they will soon get the idea they can nurse there also ,they weighed in at doe 10 1/2 #,buck 9 # she is a big alpine bred to a smaller boar buck not 100 percent...........Now do we milk her and let babies nurse or do we not milk for family till the babies are weaned.We need big time help very soon..Thank you so much for all your help.

-- Pastor Hughes (hbchurch@brightok.net), January 22, 2002

Answers

If you want milk for the family alot of people will seperate the kids from the dam at night, milk the dam in the morning leaving just a little milk in her and then let the kids nurse during the day. I think they would start seperating the kids probably after a week of age to ensure they have a good start.

-- Leslie in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), January 22, 2002.

I always worry when I see these posts about people cross-breeding goats to pigs - most particularly if the people doing it are supposed to be able to know the social differences between European-derived South African religions and the rest of the world.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 22, 2002.

You need to milk her twice a day. I would not start taking the kids off at night until they are older, say a month old. Is one teat larger than the other or easier for the kids to nurse from? It would explain why they weren't nursing on that side. Otherwise, put the doe up on a milking stand and bring the kids to nurse. But first, milk out the side they favor. When they go to nurse, gently guide them to the other side. You may need to empty it about halfway, it could be so full of milk now that it's hard for them to get a good grip on. They are still young and ir shouldn't be hard to teach them to nurse from the other side too.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 22, 2002.

Those babies should get hang of nursing the bigger teats, with a little friendly help. Assuming you want to leave them on the doe, and not bottle feed them, I'd go ahead and put her up on the stand and hold those babies one at a time up to a teat until they get the idea. Then, once you are sure they are nursing on their own, I'd still milk her twice a day, until the kids are drinking up the milk. This will help keep the udder even, and empty her bag in case they are not...If you are not sure they are getting enough, hold those kids up again each time before you milk her out until you are sure.

After the first few weeks, if you want more milk for the family, put the kids in a separate pen at night, and you can have the morning milk before you put them back together.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 22, 2002.

Don, be nice; at least she wasn't bred to a bore, which I've seen many times;o)

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), January 22, 2002.

Ouchie. CLEAN UP ON AISLE 7!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

I've had sheep udders like that.Touching the ground as well. You just need to keep milking enough out of the larger side until its even with the other.Yes, initially they can favor one side, especially if the other teat gets too big for them to grasp easily. A vicious circle if you don't intervene and strip enough milk out.Otherwise the untouched side could get caked and mastitis. But if she is for your house milk, milk her out and bottle feed the kids. Our sheep don't get milked, the lambs get it all, but sometimes I do need to milk an unbalanced udder for a few days till they get the hang of it.And hold back on her grain a bit as that only increases the milk production, until you get this resolved.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), January 22, 2002.

You might also want to go to caprinesupply.com and look at their udder support they sell, and rig up something like this for this doe. This is exactly the kind of doe that I wish I had a photo of when somebody comes to buy and says "OH! We aren't interested in papers or show stock" No but you are interested in a doe with good enough attachements to keep a gallon of milk up off the ground! The scarry part of this is it will get worse every year, at the same time her kids will get smaller and more of them, when she triplets next year, you will have to dig little holes for the kids to nurse from :) How about just letting her dry up and feeding the kids milk from another doe! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

Thank you all so much for your help.She is an old nanny,we had bought her to clean brush,over 8 years old,so this was a surprise to us her having twins.Thier is a baby that was needing goat milk,so I was wanting to milk her .Thank you

-- Pastor Hughes (hbchurch@brightok.net), January 23, 2002.

I separate my kids and odes immediately after birth. they are not reunited for at least 4 to 5 mos, when the babies can go with the big girls in the pasture. But i milk the does twice daily, and just feed the babies what they need, my table gets the rest. you may not get much while your feeding kids, but they are weaned soon and then all the milk is yours! good luck!

-- Susan Owen (dsowen@tds.net), January 23, 2002.