My nubian doe gave birth last night to a single kid. Can I separate them this morning and start milking her and bottle feeding the kid? I know, I was supposed to pull the kid right away and heat the colostrum and the milk and all (due to CAE), but it was so late, and I was so tired, and I'm not planning on raising goats for anything but our use.

I've heard you can leave the mother and baby together during the day, and then separating them at night, then hand milking the doe for the morning feeding and putting them back together for the day. Has anyone had success with this method?

She's being such a good mommy, I hate to take the baby away. Am I just being too sentimental? Do I just put the one kid in a stall all by itself? I have another doe due to kid any day, and when she does at least they'll have each other to cuddle with. It seems awfully cold at night to just leave it on it's own.

-- Kris Erickson (pkjea@localaccess.com), March 04, 2002

Answers

Kris, I have just milked the doe out twice a day and left the kid with it's mom. I think since she has already had the colostrum and CAE prevention has been forgone, I would just leave the kid with the mom for now. If you milk her out good twice a day, you will be bringing her in to full milk and the kid will be just fine. I have done that with my buck kids very frequently.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I put my kids in a stall at night, away from the moms, and milk out the moms in the morning. Then I just let them run together all day, and don't have to milk at night. I check the doe's bags at night to be sure they don't need milking. I like it this way. No fuss with the bottles. So far I have 4 buck kids. And they even know to run into their stall to get the grain and alfalfa.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), March 04, 2002.

I think that the operative word is Kids here. After the other doe freshens, you will be able to house the group together so they have someone to cuddle and Cindy's method would be what I recommend.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I hit the submit button to fast......... a single kid, in the cold alone is, IMO rather cruel and I totally support you just leaving the little one with it's mama until another kid comes along.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I agree with the advice to just leave the kid with the mom all the time and milk the mom out twice per day. I would like to mention though, in case you don't already know, that the milk often has a strong taste for about a week right after freshening, so if you are disappointed in the taste, just wait a few days and try it again. Of course, you must keep milking, you will just have to feed the milk to a calf or cats & dog or something.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), March 04, 2002.

This is also a good time to worm the doe. Then you can have that withdrawal time from the wormer while the colustrum is clearing out of the milk. I leave kids on full time for the first month, milking out twice a day if necessary, before I separate at night.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

last year i had 10 boys out of 10 babies. disgusted, of course (i raise for milkers) so left the babies with mom at night (am's are busier than pm's for me) and took them away during the day-milked every everning (5 does) and checked in the am. because the kids were only with mom about 12 hours a night, never had to milk out in the am until the kids were weaned. they grew great and i had no problems- handling them once a day kept them tame enough to catch. leaving them with mom cut my chore time significantly. i agree with waiting until you have more than one baby. much nicer for social animals.

-- laura (okgoatgal@hotmail.com), March 07, 2002.

We had another baby yesterday. Another boy, Alpine, and very, very beautiful, would have been a georgeous doe. 5 for 5 boys. Where are my little does?

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), March 07, 2002.

cindy-last year i had 10 for 10 boys. yuck. this year i am 5 girls, 2 boys. some years are just like that. good luck.

-- laura (okgoatgal@hotmail.com), March 11, 2002.

Had a doe baby BUT it's a pigmy! Can't keep her for a milker! Sweet and cute, and spotted like an appaloosa. I bottle feeding 2 little pigmy does, I took them away from their moms, they're just too little to be out there with the pigmys. I had 3 and lost one, I guess they stepped on her or something, so that's why I took the others away.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), March 11, 2002.