# Mother abandoned one of her four newborn kids.



## 5th_overture (Apr 2, 2011)

Our lead doe, Adella, gave birth to four kids a few nights ago and she is in the process of being treated for mastitis with penicillin. I suspect our buck, a Saanan and Oberhasli mix, is the reason for her having four kids because the night before last another of our does had three. 

For some reason Adella has singled out one of her kids, a little white female, and decided that it does not belong to her. If the kid comes too close to her, she swats at it with her horns. If anyone can give us some advice on what to do, it would be very, very appreciated. 

As an aside, we've been feeding all of her kids with another of our does milk for the past few days.


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## ryorkies (May 4, 2010)

The amount of kids a doe has does not have to do with the buck.
It is the doe that releases the amount of eggs down from the ovaries to be fertilized.

If you want the kids to stay nursing the doe. You will need to put her in a stantion and force her to nurse them. If she has enough milk. Or just bottle feed. That is what I would do.
My 4 cents worth.


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## duffontap (Apr 8, 2010)

x2 on bottle feeding. Congratulations on the 7 new ones! I keep hearing that triplets and quads are the result of an excellent feeding plan leading up to the breeding. JD


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## ohiogoatgirl (Jan 31, 2010)

super kudos on the multiples!
what we've always done with triplets is take the smallest to be bottle fed. because it would just get pushed out of the way by the bigger two. i cant say on more then that because i've no experience with that.
you could get one of the kids she is feeding and the refused one and have them nursing her when she's on the stand. you could let her see the kid she kept and put it up to nurse but slip in the refused kid at the same time. try and trick her into thinking its two of the kids she kept.
good luck!


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## 5th_overture (Apr 2, 2011)

ryorkies said:


> The amount of kids a doe has does not have to do with the buck.
> It is the doe that releases the amount of eggs down from the ovaries to be fertilized.
> 
> If you want the kids to stay nursing the doe. You will need to put her in a stantion and force her to nurse them. If she has enough milk. Or just bottle feed. That is what I would do.
> My 4 cents worth.


Thank you for clearing that up. I forgot to mention that a third doe had two kids after my first post.


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## 5th_overture (Apr 2, 2011)

ohiogoatgirl said:


> super kudos on the multiples!
> what we've always done with triplets is take the smallest to be bottle fed. because it would just get pushed out of the way by the bigger two. i cant say on more then that because i've no experience with that.
> you could get one of the kids she is feeding and the refused one and have them nursing her when she's on the stand. you could let her see the kid she kept and put it up to nurse but slip in the refused kid at the same time. try and trick her into thinking its two of the kids she kept.
> good luck!


Thanks for the great advice! I should elaborate a little on the situation, I suppose. The doe with four kids, Adella, is a oberhasli and alpine mix and we think she is about five. We purchased her from a pack goat breeder in north fork, CA. This is the first time she has had kids since we bought her, so we really had no idea what kind of a mother she would be.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Is the kid a different color than the other kids? SOmetimes that triggers rejection. The idea of putting the doe on the stanchion is a good one. Or just bottle feed.


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## 5th_overture (Apr 2, 2011)

sweetgoatmama said:


> Is the kid a different color than the other kids? SOmetimes that triggers rejection. The idea of putting the doe on the stanchion is a good one. Or just bottle feed.


yes it is a different color than the rest. It is white with light brown oberhaslie strips. The rest of her kids look more oberhaslie.


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## Cazz (Jun 9, 2010)

Hi 5th_overture, how are the kids going? 
We had two sets of quads last year, but since we bottle raise all our kids anyway, it didn't matter much whether the does liked the kids or not. The kids were still with their mums though, and both of the mums did like all of their kids. 
One of my does kidded for the first time at around 5 years old, with a single doe kid. She wouldn't touch her, and never had the slightest bond with her. The next kid, also a single, she didn't like at all but we left him with her while bottle feeding and within three days she accepted him, and though we bottle fed him, she was protective of him and loved him. With her last kidding, she had triplets and wouldn't feed the little girl but didn't mind her that much, so we bottled her from birth and the two boys from a week.
Cheers,
Cazz


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