Aboutgoatlady Expertise Specializing in New Goat Owner understanding of goat physiology, goat anatomy, goat care and herd management. *I am not a veterinarian, any advice and information should be verified by your veterinarian before administering to your goats.
Note: Keep in mind, the goat expert is volunteering her time to help other goat owners, she also runs her farm with her own herd of 100 goats and may not be at her computer at all hours. Questions are answered as soon as she can possibly read and answer them, usually within 24 hours.
(! During times of severe summer weather in the Midwest, I may experience a delay in internet service due to the interference of the satellite reception - but will answer your questions as soon as service is restored. !)
Experience 17 years experience of raising goats and herd management. Active hands on experience with goat herd and research with various Caprine University Research and Extension Centers nationwide. 15 years dedicated to helping other goat breeders/owners with goat anatomy, goat disease and goat health care issues via phone, published goat care articles and internet interaction.
Organizations 5 year active member of International Veterinary Information Service
Publications United Caprine News, Homesteaders Magazine, Columnist for Goat Magazine, Owner and Author of GoatPedia™
Education/Credentials Graduate Programs in Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University
Expert: goatlady Date: 7/22/2008 Subject: when and how to wean
Question QUESTION: My Nubians I think are 9 to 10 weeks old and now drinking 2 8lb tubs of Pro-nurse milk replacement per week. The male Zucco has 3 8 oz bottles 3x per day,and is at least twice the size of Evee the little girl who has 1 1\2 TO 2 bottles 3xper day. They have alfalfa and goat chow and fresh water at all times. I see them drink water now but no luck on solids except my daughter told me she saw them chewing on bark.As you can probably tell these are our first goats and have no clue on when or ( HOW) to wean them??? I have looked everywhere and asked everyone and all they say is...Stop giving them bottles and they will figure it out and eat... I tried eliminating the mid-day feeding and they screamed and screamed... Any advice you could share would be greatfully appreciated..
Look forward to any help
Sincerely
Debbie
ANSWER: HI Debbie,
First thing for you to do it to take them off the milk replacer and buy whole regular cow milk from the grocery store. Milk replacer can cause digestive upset and is very expensive. The last thing you want to do is to upset them them to the point of screaming - this stresses them and can cause more problems with their health. I have a great article on feeding bottle babies: http://goat-link.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=76
Normally when they are ready to be weaned, they will loose interest in the bottles because they are eating hay and not depending on the bottles. The last 2 bottles to wean from are the first morning bottle and the last one at night. You can start to wean them by cutting one of the bottles half and half water and milk- usually I do this with the morning bottle so they still have the night bottle as a good security bottle. Again, this won't happen for another month at least. (16 to 20 weeks old, usually 16 weeks) When you start to cut out a bottle try cutting it back to about half of what it was, then take them to the hay to eat.
These babies are pretty young to wean yet- usually they are weaned at 4-5months old. They are too young to really eat much goat chow and you need to make sure the goat chow is not the main feed- hay is the main feed- the goat chow is more like dessert for them and is difficult to digest at such a young age especially. You do not mention them having loose minerals for them - they need to have minerals out for them at all times (free choice)
Here is an example of what needs to be in your mineral mix- if you do not find this particular one- try to duplicate it as close as you can: http://goat-link.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=116
Stressing the babies can cause worms (which by the way you should be thinking of deworming them soon) , pneumonia and pink eye for some of the stress induced problems. Read my article on deworming:
QUESTION: Can I give them a mineral block?? And is there a non-shot form of de-wormer??
Answer HI Debbie,
You can give a mineral block along WITH loose minerals- the blocks are not enough - they do not contain enough minerals really. And for dewormers- yes Valbazen is an excellent oral dewormer- but never give it to a pregnant doe. I have an article on my website on deworming. http://goat-link.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=46
