How much is he taking at a feed? We have two male kids who are 2 months old. One is castrated and is still on the bottle, and one is entire and drinks from a saucepan (our home-patented system of kid feeding). They both still get 3 feeds a day, the castrate gets a full glass IrnBru bottle every feed which is about a pint and 1/3. The entire male, Carrick, gets 2 pints a feed. Personally, for a male kid, I would feed him as much milk as I can manage for as long as possible. They have a heck of a lot of growth to do, and bone to calicfy (sp?).
You could drop him down to 2 feeds a day now, but if you do that I would increase how much milk you give him in at those two feeds. You can wean them completely by the time they are 3 or 4 months old. I think our two are ready to drop to two feeds as well. It gets them better into the habit of going out to graze all day, rather than hanging around the field gate waiting for a bottle.
The easiest way to wean them, is gradually cut out bottles. Cut out his middle of the day feed first, it is easiest to go. The after a few weeks, cut out either his morning or evening feed. I would recommend cutting out the morning feed first, as he will be eating hay and grass during the day and not notice so much. When you are down to feeding him once a day, you can start cutting down the amount you give him, and gradually cut them out altogether. "Forget" to give him his bottle one night, then in another few days, "forget" again. Keep on doing this, you will get down to a bottle every 2 days, then just cut it out all together.
I hope that helps
Beth
Topic: Bottle Feeding Billy (Read 2647 times)
