Vickie, Bernice, I know you are out there, or anyone with LOTS of goat husbandry, please put your 2 cents in here. I have some does due to kid any minute. I want to raise the doelings on a bottle. The problem is, I know for the first week, the babies need to be fed every 3 hours. I work as a delivery driver on night shift, and my husband during the day. There would be a 6 hour span each day before my "Baby Daddy" could get home to feed the girls. Do you think it would be possible to have milk in the Caprine feeder bucket for that six hours with an aquarium heater set to keep it warm? Would a new baby use it? I want good, handleable does for my herd, but won't attempt this if it would be detrimental to the babies.

-- Judy in IN (whileaway3@cs.com), February 27, 2002

Answers

Judy, I have been raising bottle babies for many years and have never fed my babies every three hours, except an occasional premie that kind of "traveled" with me when I had to be gone. The 6 hour span should not be a problem and I would rather see that that some possible hazard, which I think you might be describing as your solution. My usual feeding schedule for new babies is 6:00am, 1:00pm and 8:00pm (or maybe a bit later depending on what is going on). I never lose kids and am very happy with their growth.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I bottle feed my kids and the most I have fed them is every 4 hours for the first day, sometimes 2 days if they aren't drinking alot. Then I feed them every 6 hours (roughly). Unless you have one that isn't doing well there should be no problem with them waiting 6-8 hours for a bottle.

-- Leslie in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 27, 2002.

I feed very often the first hours of life to make sure they have the whole 20 ounces of colostrum down them, but then its on to bottles, 3 times a day, morning 10am, lunch 3pm and dinner 10pm. About 24 hours most does are smart enough to go on the lambar quite eaisly, most bucks sadly are not, and always need that extra day, and even on the lambar you have to make sure they find the nipple, and just don't spend all day butting the bucket :) Probably by next year I am going to wean myself :) over on to the Premier bucket, friend of mine has it and it is very nice.

I keep two lambars going, this way one is clean and waiting. I fill the lambar in the house with almost hot milk, take it out and the kids get their full of warm milk, this time of the year I just let it sit out there since it is cool enough that from 10 am to 3 pm it is not going to sour. But during the spring and summer I set out the hot milk, and plunk in two 20 ounce plastic soda bottles that are frozen with ice water, this keeps the milk cool enough to prevent souring. When I come out at 3pm, I have a new clean lambar, take the old one, hose it out, then take it back into the house, a run under the sink with dish soap, a swirl with the washcloth and its ready for the dinner rush! I take them all apart on the weekend and clean the tubes. My friends do the same, only feeding twice a day. Your goal is to have some milk left in the feeder when you replace it with clean. With the milk chilled they drink little sips of it all during the day. Honestly, I haven't seen a decrease or increase in size, no bloat, but the big change is that my kids aren't the running at you rats that they normally are, because they aren't starving between lambars! I have noticed they do not eat their grain as early, I have five 6 week olds, and they are not hardly nibbling any grain, though they eat hay and weeds/clover/browse.

I agree that the heater is a poor idea, you want to keep it cool, so bacteria doesn't grow. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

How to you assure that one that might not be as aggressive would get the needed amount of milk with a bucket type lambar? That would be my concern, if you have a lot of babies. Thinking of going to that myself. Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

I keep all the babies about the same age on the lambar, penning them this way also. Also the kids are used to having alot of milk to drink, and we all know with goats, its CHANGE that bothers them. If I notice that someone latched on to the lambar after everyone else, I may pull the bigger kids off the bucket by turning the bucket and making them stop nursing, even momentarily. Lambaring is really no different than nursing mom, their is only so much milk, and once it is gone no more till mom lets you nurse again. IF you have some older kids, let them nurse first, then move the lambar to the pen of smaller kids, or vice versa, or like I do have several lambars going at the same time, certainly faster and eaiser than individual bottles. It is also wonderful for medicating. Some folks will put mason jars in the bottom of the buckets full of milk, so each nipple goes into the tube and into the bottle, so each kid gets the same amount, we have just never seen the need for all that work. If I have the milk I let the kids have it, if I don't have the milk than 20 ounces 3 times a day is all they get. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

Judy...I feed my bottle babies like Diane does...unless I have a really weak or small one that I might feed every couple of hours or so for the first day. You just kinda "know" which ones need the extra feeding! Mine are fed at "about" 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the first 2 weeks. By the time I drop to twice a day, they're nibbling on hay, but don't seem interested in grain. I don't push the grain on them...just free choice leafy hay. Oh yeah...when I drop the noon bottle feeding, I start offering warm molasses water in a bucket instead of the milk. They really love that! Bottle babies are lots of fun and they really bond to you!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), February 27, 2002.

Hi Judy,

wow, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, guess I missed the post last night. Looks like everyone covered the specifics already. We feed bottle babies as mentioned and unless there is some problem we feed 2 x's a day. When the kids get a little older, a few weeks, we usually put the lambar out for them and let them nurse as they want. My "Paranas" of 2001 grew like weeds on that. I at first thought cool milk wasn't good, but then read a long time ago you don't want it really warm as Vicki mentioned. I also put mason jars in if I ahve a kid who I think isn't getting enough.

Hope this helps and if you ahve any more questions just holler.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

Thank you to everyone who gave me so much good information. No babies yet, so that's a good thing. It is 11 degrees this morning. Gosh, it was almost 60 on Monday! I keep telling the does to wait, wait. It is supposed to get up to 32 today. Again, thanks, you guys are the greatest!

-- Judy in IN (whileaway3@cs.com), February 28, 2002.