# New babies..questions about bottle feeding.



## dixiegirl3179 (Jan 20, 2010)

Hey all

I just bought 2 pygmy doelings and a nigerian buckling from a lady. The doelings are twin sisters out of triplets (the other was a buck) and are 8 days old today. The buckling is 4 days old today. I knew they were bottle babies when I went to see them and was fine with that, but I assumed that if she was advertising them as such they had already been on the bottle. Well, turns out they'd been on their mom's til then. I probably shouldn't have taken this on being as inexperienced as I am, but I'd already fallen in love with the little cuties and the lady said it wasn't hard to get them to take the bottle. Well..I tried last night and again today and the most I can get them to take is 1oz. They are biting on the nipple and will suckle for a few seconds, but then stop. One of the doelings took 1.5oz last night, and the other 2 took 1 oz and .5 oz. Today the buckling took 1oz but the other 2 only took .5oz. I'm using regular old evenflo human baby bottles and sav a kid formula. I'm sure there's another post about this someplace...I feel bad for these babies because I don't know what I'm doing and probably bit off more than I can chew. I'll do what I have to do to make sure these babies are healthy and happy, even if that means taking them back to the lady I bought them from.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Just keep trying, once kids have been with mom it is hard to get them on a bottle.....it takes alot of work on your part to get them to eat. When I have had to use a bottle, I found that the pritchard teats worked the best....Tractor Supply carries them....they are red nipples with yellow caps that screw onto a pepsi bottle. Coke bottles do not work, the threads are too short.

Try and get these type teats, they are most like mom's and remember to snip the ends so the milk flows.


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## dixiegirl3179 (Jan 20, 2010)

I was going to get those, but didn't know that they fit pepsi bottles. I should have gotten them! I will pick some up. I drink a lot of pepsi and have plenty of 20oz pepsi bottle around. Thanks.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

When you go to use the, make sure you pop the ring from the bottle...the safety seal that the cap locks into...otherwise you won't get a tight enough fit. Also, these teats are made with a ball bearing covering the hole on the inside, make sure that little silver ball is seated corectly otherwise the milk will pour out. Milk will drip out once you invert the bottle and the gravity inside the bottle will stop it. Another good thing would be to hold the kid between your knees facing away from you, hold the bottle above and cup their chins from behind, you ewant their noses pointed upward to nurse, naturally as though they are under mom reaching upwards.


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## Epona142 (May 26, 2008)

When I brought my baby home, I had to pry her mouth open and stick the nipple inside. After a couple times of that, she would start nursing. And after a couple of days of prying her mouth open, she learned what the nipple was and took it on her own.

It can be very frustrating at first, but you'll get it, just stay calm and patient


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## pelicanacresMN (Dec 29, 2009)

Keep working at it. They will hopefully catch on soon. Best of luck


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## dixiegirl3179 (Jan 20, 2010)

They're doing much better now. I got the pritchard nipples but there's no ball bearing inside them. The milk goes everywhere. They are taking the regular human bottle nipples now too. Sometimes they'll grab on themselves, but mostly I have to stick them in their mouths first, then they suckle. They're taking 4-6 ounces at a time now. They always seem to be ready to eat lol. They aren't great because anytime I'm near they climb all over me. For some reason my computer isn't letting me resize the pics. Gah!


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## Epona142 (May 26, 2008)

I had that problem with the pritchard nipples too. I spilt milk all over myself numerous times. 

I finally learned to hold the bottle level until I got it in their mouths and keep the milk from getting everywhere.

Glad to hear you're doing well. The climbing all over is crazy too, my Baby does it as well. Bottle baby goats are just TOO friendly!


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