[Penrhos Bach]

Hi. I am new here and looking for help. We got 2 pygmy goats last November, Mother and 12 month old daughter. Mother had just been bred and we waited eagerly for our new arrivals. They came on Wednesday. 2 beautiful kids, a boy and a girl - apparently mum has always had singles before so the second one was a shock and a bonus. Although mum did all the right things when they were born, licking and cleaning etc, she wouldn't let either twin near her udder for the first day so we had to hold her down and try to 'force' the twins to feed to make sure they got at least some colostrum. Things are now better for the girl who seems to be being fed, we think. The boy however,(born second) has only just managed to stand and walk today (day 4) and although mum cleans him and responds to his cries, seems reluctant to feed him. We have to take him to mum since he can't get there on his own but as soon as he tries to feed mum just calmly walks away. We are feeding him 3 hourly using a syringe at the moment using ewes colostrum and thinking of going on to milk substitute perhaps today. Any advice please

Also our other goat is intensely jealous and  goes to attack the kids if she gets near them. Mum tries to protect the girl but never seems to be near enough to the boy to protect him. We have them separated at the moment but can't keep this up for long. HELP

Lesley

[shygirl]

you've done well to get to day 4 with the wee boy. id bottlefeed him if it was me as we had a nanny that was clueless and we lost one of her twins. we also had to hold her still and hold the kid in place to feed for the first 7-10 days for 2 years running but last year she was a much better mother.

[Anke]

Bottle the boy on Lamlac, don't know how much pygmy kids need per day though - someone else does probably.

But you have a problem in that to get the boy onto the bottle you have to separate him from mum entirely, maybe in a wee pen next to her? Once he is on the bottle 4 feeds per day are enough, my kids get fed at 7am, 11am, 4pm and 10pm for example.

Also you probably need to castrate the male kid asap, rubber bands are only legal in the first week. However you may find (if you are not experienced with lambs etc) to get the vet to castrate him surgically a bit later - speak to your vet about it.