[mojocafa]

      

Wow! Well done!

[sokel]

All 4 are full of bounce this morning 
can anyone advise on best way forward with Quads ?   They are all with mum ,They are all about the same size
At the moment I am topping them all up with a bottle that they are all happy to take and they have all been seen feeding from mum aswell. We do remove and bottle our kids after a week old anyway
Mum has loads of milk , I remember the year she had twins we where taking a over a gallon off her a day on top of what we where bottling into the kids

[sabrina]

Amazing 

[sokel]

This was them minutes after the last one was born

[Anke]

These are Boer crosses? Mum a dairy goat?

I think your best option would be to milk the nanny and bottle feed all the kids, that way you know that they all get what they need.

I would worry that with four to suckle from mum, one could easily always be the last one in the queue...

[sokel]

Yes mum is a BT and dad a pure Boer we are bottling them, at the moment they are each taking around 350-400 mls each feed but we have left them in with mum for now. Do you think it would be better to separate now rather than at a week old like we normally do ?

[Anke]

Yes mum is a BT and dad a pure Boer we are bottling them, at the moment they are each taking around 350-400 mls each feed but we have left them in with mum for now. Do you think it would be better to separate now rather than at a week old like we normally do ?

Separating at one week is probably fine (as you are topping them up anyway they should be fine just switching onto the bottle fulltime), I am behind with my first set of twins too, disbudding was on Wednesday and I normally separate straight after that, but as OH was too busy to put in the pen division, they are still with mum until a week old at the weekend  ...

[sokel]

All still doing well and taking a full bottle each at each feed aswell as feeding from mum.
Snowdrop, cherry's 3yr old Daughter produced  a single female this afternoon 

[goosepimple]

You're doing really well Sokel  that's brilliant.


I'm going to ask a question here, and it's not meant to rub anyone up the wrong way because there's a lot I don't know about goat rearing I'm sure.


Why would you separate kids from their mums so early.  Surely it is the most natural thing in the world to leave them with their mums for at least a couple of weeks before milking for yourself?  I can see quads is a different thing but if there is just one or two involved, why give yourself the hassle of having to feed them all the time and why wouldn't you want the doe and kid to have the experience of that bond? Smallholding isn't commercial farming, there's no pressure surely.


Not meaning to offend anyone out there. 

[Anke]

The later you leave it the more difficult it is to put the kid/lamb etc onto the bottle, and causes more stress for everyone (kid, nanny and human) involved.

[sokel]

Ours still have a very close bond without the feeding, Cherry is Mum to Bluebell and Snowdrop, we took over bottling them at a week old they still went out together but they saw us as the source of milk. They would run to us too be fed then follow Cherry around the field.
They still as adults always bed down together and rest their heads on each other

[Lesley Silvester]

Personally, I prefer to leave mine for mum to feed and let the kids wean naturally. I still milk mum after the first week, even if I don't get very much as milking increases the yield.


I'm just wondering how Cloud is going to take to being milked. I have tried feeling her udder (such as it is) a couple of times and she does not like it.

[goosepimple]

Thanks for replies to that!  There's a reason for everything. 


Our kid from last year had to be bottle fed, first time mum just wasn't interested at all, makes for a very biddable kid and the human kids loved it.  I'll assess the situation this year when she has her offspring in May.


How's it going anyway Sokel?

[sokel]

All finished and all doing well 

[goosepimple]

Excellent, must be like the Waltons at your place (or am I showing my age).


Goodnight John Boy, goodnight Hairy Melon