# Tips for reducing the number of bottles per day



## rtdoyer (May 6, 2010)

I have four five-week old boys that I want to switch from 3 bottles a day down to 2 bottles a day. Any tips on making the switch? I read through some previous posts about adding water to the milk AND slowly making the bottle more water than milk, but is that more for complete weaning? 

They are getting about 15 ounces three times a day. When I switch, will I up the amount of milk?

Tonia


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Water shouldn't be added to milk as it does something weird in their stomachs. remember what off the top of my head. Just cut out the bottle and make sure they have plenty of hay available. THey will whine but they always do when it comes to any food deprivation.


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## Huckleberry (Mar 12, 2010)

We just reduced the bottle for the feeding we were cutting out by 2oz each day until they were down to 4oz, then stopped.


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## Rockytopsis (Oct 5, 2007)

I would not watter the milk down. Just stop the middle bottle, that is what I just did and seems to be working fine. My bottle baby is getting 2 10oz bottles, 1 at 8am and one at 8pm. She just turned 2 months old.
Nancy


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## Cazz (Jun 9, 2010)

We drop the third feed when they are only a few days old, so they are still getting as much as they want, but when we drop their second bottle (at five months old) they just get half, the same as was in one bottle when they were getting two. After a month and they get weaned over three or four days. (going down by around a third of the milk at a time until they get a last feed of about a cup of milk)
Cheers,
Cazz


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## imported_ashley (Jun 9, 2011)

I am going to throw out this disclaimer: I am VERY new to goats.

Our little one just turned four weeks old..and he is a pig.. he eats about 40 oz of milk per day..broken into three meals..he will occasionally only want 16 oz at a time but he wants at least 30 to 40 oz per day..I am not sure how much he weighs, I would not say he is large for his size compared to our other 4 week-er that we just got today but he likes his milk! He is not fat..his little belly bulges out when he is done eating..is it bad to be feeding him this much? He is on goat milk replacer powder. He also has alfalfa and fresh grass, as well as "lamb and goat pellets".


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

I don't know nuthin...

I used Carolyn's formula but had it all wrong. Pig was getting a lot more buttermilk and condensed milk mixed in than the formula called for. He wouldn't even touch the Calf Manna though he had free access to it. I was feeding him one of those large cow bottles twice a day.

Using my version of the formula it was easy to wean him. When I had run out of cash and sold two cars, he started eating the manna as if the formula wasn't even there. ;-)


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