# Bottle babies and growth



## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

I am trying to get some idea of what to expect with 2 bottle bucklings that we have. Will they mature as large as they would if they had been on mom? They are both fullblood boer and weighed in at 16.5 and 18.5 pounds today at 21 days old. I can't really compare them to their half brother as he is a single and already 31 pounds at 4 weeks old. 
Would you consider a bottle buckling as a herd sire prospect?


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## myanjelicgirlz (Jul 19, 2011)

don't worry, they will mature just as if they were on the mom onder:


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Sometimes they mature just like dam raised kids, sometimes not. There are antibodies in moms milk, not just the colustrum, that can keep them healthy and thriving. Put them on milk replacer, whole milk, a formula (I have done all of these) and you can get different results. I used to have a buck that was bottle fed and at 1 1/2 years old, he weigh 250lbs. By the time he was 3, he weighed 400lb! Then I have a almost 6 year old wether, who was stunted. Had beautiful parents, big goats, but he took forever to grow, and he was always short and stocky and very 'bottle baby looking'. Then I had a boer buck that I bottle raised myself on whole milk that at 4 months weighed 75lbs. He was getting bottles until he was 6 months. Its not healthy for them to be on a bottle for that long, we learned, as they really don't need milk after 8-12 weeks. We wean our dam raised buck kids at 8 weeks, and our doelings at 10 weeks. Bottle babies a little longer if needed.

It also depends on how frequently you feed them. The more frequent they get fed, the more they are getting fed like their mom would feed them. Smaller, more frequent meals will decrease the chance for pot bellies and bloating.


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## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

I have one right now who will be 2 weeks tomorrow. Not only is he a bottle baby but he gets the formula milk. He weighs 9.8 at 13 days. I think he is small, but his stature is small--his weight is actually on the plump side considering his smaller size. 

The breeder I purchased his dam from said they catch up quickly as they mature and it should make no difference.

We are actually keeping him as another herdsire for us--he has excellent genes--bred for the black color and he is 98% south african.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. Glad to here you are keeping yours as a herd sire burns branch. Is he fullblood boer? How often are you feeding? 
They are on full replacer right now. They had been on replacer mixed in with another doe's milk that I have saved for the first 2 weeks. I ran out of my freezer supply though and shes just about dried off.


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## myanjelicgirlz (Jul 19, 2011)

I have a little doe and I bottle fed her since she was 2 weeks old. she about the same size as a kid that was raised by his mom


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

I bottle fed a doe this year and she was 2 weeks younger then the other 2 does in her pen. When we got her she was half the size of the others. Now the other 2 does were dam raised. She is now bigger then the other 2 at 7 months. I did not use formula I used a whole milk mixture. You take 1 gallon of Vit. D milk from the store and take 1 3/4 cups out and use for your self, then add 1/2 a can or 6oz. of evaporated milk and 1 cup buttermilk. Shake the jug to mix it all together. I think it worked really well because it had the fat like you would find in goat milk and most of the nutrition. I worked her up to 20 oz. 3 times a day. I bottle fed her for 10 weeks so she would catch up with the rest and she did. If I ever have another bottle baby I will do this again.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

We purchased a bottle buckling as a herd sire this fall, not so sure it was the best idea. He was hard to handle at first, VEry poorly mannered. wouldn't breed and wouldn't go near any of the other goats in the herd. also seems like he didn't get enough first milk and has a sensitive stomach, which he seems to be outgrowing. 

I would say, the bottle baby should have 3 to 5 days of mother's milk or milk saved from another goat, including the first milk. I label mine C for clostrium(spelling?), day 1 milk, day 2 milk ect.... save some in a freezer for the next kidding season for an emergency. 

The bottle baby should be put back in with the herd as soon as possible to learn to be a goat and not kept isolated. 
Don't play head pushing games with the cute bottle baby, this will encourage bad bad habits. 

My husband and I have a lot of experience of livestock and this buck was very dangerous by the time he reached 6 months of age. He had no bounderies and had no issue knocking you down to get out of a gate, our jumping on you when your back was turned. He is doing better at a year old, but it took some work to teach him some manners. He seems to be growing fine. but would break into scours antime there was the slightest change in his diet.

edited to say: I should have said we purchased him at 6 months of age, we werent' the onse that had raised him. I know his mother died at birth.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

We are being very careful not to spoil these boys just because of that reason. They are being raised with our herd. They are really quite attached to our guardian dog. I go out and put bottles in holders for them and then leave the stall. It was a little hard when we were first feeding them by hand until they learned to use the bottles on the wall. They are learning its not acceptable to push at as us looking for food.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

Maggie said:


> We are being very careful not to spoil these boys just because of that reason. They are being raised with our herd. They are really quite attached to our guardian dog. I go out and put bottles in holders for them and then leave the stall. It was a little hard when we were first feeding them by hand until they learned to use the bottles on the wall. They are learning its not acceptable to push at as us looking for food.


It sounds like you are using a lot of common sense and they will do just fine as herd sires. Good luck with them.


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## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

Hi Maggie-yes, Mojo is a full blood boer. He is just two weeks old now. We have just begun stretching him to every 5 hours around the clock. He is taking 8oz at a time now. Honestly I think our baby was pre-mature-he seems to be about 2 weeks behind normal boer babies  

I read on sites that they could go 6 hours w/2 to 4oz of milk-there is no way mine would have survived the first week and a half if we had done that. 

Sadly poor lil Mojo has been on replacer since the get go. His dam passed away 24 hours after he was born. We managed to get him 4cc's of colostrum (and that was work!) but we had colostrum replacer (thank God we had it on-hand) by Manna Pro and he has had the Manna Pro Unimilk replacer since he was 2 days old. 

He is small sized but he has a great weight (he is getting little rolls on his neck  ) and I think it will just take him time. If he grows to a big boy he will be breathtaking--he has good long length-strong chest and he is velvet black except for 1 white leg. He is a south african w/2 black parents so black coloring genetics should be on his side.


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

RPC, we used almost the same mixture of Whole Milk/Evaporated Milk/Butter milk for some bottle babies. Except we took out 4 whole milk, put a full can of Evaporated milk, put in the 1 cup butter milk, and then added as much back of the whole milk as we could. It worked very well.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

That recipee works really well, we have also used it and had great luck with it.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

20kidsonhill said:


> That recipee works really well, we have also used it and had great luck with it.


Where did you guys hear about mixing bottle milk like that. Is there a link to an article or web site you could share? I assume the buttermilk is for probiotics? If you had access to freshly milked goats milk would you use that instead? Trying to learn.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

I don't bottle feed but if I did I would try my absolute hardest to do so with goats milk.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

freedomstarfarm said:


> I don't bottle feed but if I did I would try my absolute hardest to do so with goats milk.


Me too. 
I was at the vets the other day and a couple of guys came in with a baby alpaca that all they did is weigh. It had lost weight. I offered them some goats milk to help turn the poor thing around and they just looked at me like I was retarded.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

I'd love to use goats milk if I had it! I used up my supply within the first 2 weeks. I only have one doe in milk right now and she is not producing very much, I am happy she is able to just feed her own kid.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

The babies are 9 weeks now. They are keeping up pretty well with their big brother. They still are not eating much grain though, they just pick at it a little, but are grazing fine. They are still getting 3 bottles a day. The one weighed in at 39 pounds and the other is 43 pounds at 60 days old. Is this fairly decent? They were born pretty small, 6.6 and 7.6 pounds. Their brother was born at 9.5 pounds and was around 50 pounds at 2 months, but is a single (dam is not a real heavy producer though) and also has been eating grain since he was 2 or 3 weeks old. I don't really have anything to compare to as these are the first kids out of this particular buck since we have had him anyways, and both dams were FF.


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## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

He will be just fine :thumb: We bottle feed all of our kids and they are always big and healthy. We use goat/whole cows milk. We had a doe kid quads and one of the kids was pretty small at birth (the others were normal sized) and she caught up in about a month and is now a big girl :thumbup:


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## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

:wave: Hi Maggie-glad to hear all is well w/your bottle babies.

Mojo is doing good too! He is a great size-I would guess he is in the 30lb range. Today he is 2 months old!! :greengrin: 

He has been living out with the other goats for 3 weeks now. He has a favorite buddy-her name is Taffy a 5 month old doeling-she teaches him how to get into all sorts of trouble :help: 

He loves sudan hay, the adult goat pellets (wont eat the nanny & kid stuff-lol!) of course he still loves his bottle. he gets 3 bottles that are 16 to 18oz depending on the timing. I was giving him 20oz bottles but I cut him back a little because he would go over and eat grain right after-I was scared he would overload his tummy.

I love to watch him bounding in the pastures w/the other does and Taffy. I love to see him growing and maturing. He has been w/me bottle feeding him since day one. So I am happy to see him adjust to the other goats.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

Thats great Mojo is out with the other goats now. He seems around the same size a my guys. We were feeding 20 ounces 3 times a day too, but they usually don't even finish that off so must be filling up on grass.


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