[wytsend]

From personal experience,  be VERY VERY careful when feeding 500ml plus to a kid that is more than 6wks old.

By now, the fourth stomach... where the milk goes directly... will have shrunk from its original birth size to about
two thirds, so cannot take this amount of fluid easily.   You need this shrinkage to continue as the rumen expands to accomodate the increasing intake of roughage.

It is possible for the fourth stomach to BURST.....just like an over expanded balloon..... if it receives an excess of liquid.

Don't be a slave to books.... if the kid is growing, eating plenty, then it is OK.   Just keep up smaller amounts of milk at each feed... I never feed more than 400ml per feed at any time....it is better to keep on with more feeds than overfeed at any one time.

The thing to consider is.... we are trying to replicate nature with bottle feeding.... no kid takes 500ml in one slurping !!!!!!!   

[Tree Farmer]

The Lamlac I got was £25.99 for 10kg - that was from Countrywide so sure it's available cheaper. They didn't have it in our nice local independent one though (Pioneer in Ledbury).

Thanks Wytsend for the heads up about quantities of milk etc - that makes complete sense.

From today I am reducing their feed to 400ml a time, I'll keep that up for a few days then go down a bit more.

Quick question re concentrate though - I am so anxious about overfeeding after what happened a few weeks ago that I am only giving them a handful or so in a little tray which has always gone by the time I get back. Should I be leaving more out, so it's there whenever they want some?

[wytsend]

I feed coarse calf mix....never Goat Mix, doesn't contain the correct minerals..... and add some chaff/dried grass to make it more fibrous.

You need to get Premium Goat Feed Balancer....... small tub 5kg....... sprinkle some onto the kids feed.  The adults benefit higely from it.   There arelots of people on TAS who use this Balancer  and speak highly of it.

[Lesley Silvester]

I'll cut her milk down.  I did wonder if I should as she eats quite a lot of coarse mix/sugar beet, hay and vegetables.

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks Wytsend, I'll keep the quantity for the boys down as well, but they don't seem to like the coarse lamb  mix OH brought, not the one I wanted, no calf mix there either.
'Shepherdess' milk replacer was about £22 for 10kg, so looking on the 'net it doesn't seem too bad a price.