Newborn Goat Kid Care and Feeding

When a Doe Rejects a Kid

Keep Kids Warm

The most common kidding problem most encountered is entering the barn on a cold morning to find a newborn kid cold and shivering. If it seems to be doing all right, just bring it in out of the cold. Place it in an enclosed box or pen padded with an old blanket, away from any hint of draft and with a heat lamp if the weather is particularly unpleasant. However, don't let it get hot; otherwise a switch back to normal temperatures will be as dangerous as the initial problem of hte cold.

In the case of a severely chilled baby, more drastic action is required. If you find one still set from birth and thoroughly chilled and nearly lifeless, one way to save it is to submerge it up to its nose in a bucket of water at afround 105 degrees F, which is about he temeprature of the environment inside the doe's womb. When it has revived, dry it thoroughly, wrap in in a blanket and put in a box in a protected place while keep a close eye on it.

However, such a kid might also be suffering from hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. As the glucose level falls, the kid shivers, arches its back, its hair stands on end and it moves stiffly. Eventually it lies down, curls up and becomes comatose and dies. The remedy is to warm the kid and administer at least 25 milligrams of 5 percent glucose solution with a rubber stomach tube. When the kid is showing signs of reviving, get 2 ounces of colostrum into it, with the stomach tube if necessary, Return it to the barn as soon as it is active.

Feeding

Kid bottles prepped for feeding

Kids vying for attention from their human parents.

Colostrum

This is the first milk that will come from the mother's udder and is critical in that it contains important antibodies and vitamins. You can identify it as a thick, yellowish milk as opposed to normal milk. The doe will provide this to her kids for the first 4 days. Ideally, what seems to work best is allowing the doe to nurse her youngsters on her own for the first two weeks. After that time, the doe will plenty of milk for both your family and the babies and you can begin to milk her and supply the babies with their milk via bottle or use a milk replacement for the kids and keep all of the milk for yourself.

First Feeding

It is important the first feeding occur within two hours of birth. It's best not to interfere with nature and let the mother stand for her kids and allow them to nurse or get the kids to drink from a bottle or pan.

Milking the doe and bottle or pan feeding is preferred if you have the following concerns:

Helps control potential contamination of diseases spread by contact from the mother to the baby
It preserves the doe's udder if you are or will be showing your doe
You can be confident in the amount the babies are consuming, especially important with colostrum. They need at least 1 ounce per body weight 3 times daily, but you don't want them to consume too much as that can result in overeating disease.
Expect a newborn to consume about 2 cups of colostrum per day which will increase to roughly 2 or 3 pints of milk a day at weaning.

However, if you have a healthy herd and aren't intending to show your goats, leaving the babies with the moms 100% of the time the first two weeks seems to make it easiest on everyone. After that, you can begin separating the mom's and babies overnight and begin milking the does in the morning, evening, or both, as best meets your schedule requirements. Just be sure to always try to milk about 12 hours apart consistently, regardless of what schedule you select.

Colostrum substitute

If for whatever reason you are not able to get colostrum from the doe, you will need to get the kids a substitute. Commercial products are available, but there have been reports of increased infections from using them. Another alternative is to make your own by mixing the below ingredients together well. However, this will obviously not have the necessary antibodies from the mother and there is not good substitute for the real thing.

3 cups milk
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon cod liver oil
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix all ingredients well together and put into a baby bottle and feed immediately.

Rule of Thumb: Ensure that each newborn kid will receive 1 counce of colostrum per pound of bldy weight, three times daily.

Bottle feeding kids

Options:
1. Bottle feeding:
- More natural for the kids to nurse
- Easier to monitor their consumption
- Less milk is wasted by pans being stepped in and tipped over
2. Pan feeding:
- Some claim pans are easier to lean and fill, than bottles and nipples

First time feeders will need to hold the babies in the crook of their elbow and open the kid's moth and place the nipple inside. After the kid understands, move to the "Target Method".

Once you have selected a method, that's the one you will likely have to use. It's difficult to get the kids to switch from one method to another as they get quite obsessed on finding the milk "target".

Feeding Frequency by Age and Introducing Solid Foods

Always make sure there is fresh water available that is neither too hot nor too cold. Offer good quality hay and Kid Starter (18%) in between milk feedings. Tiny bits of treat such as apples will also encourage them to sample solid foods.
As with any creature with a small digestive track, smaller, more frequent feeding are best, but for many, the reality of day jobs kicks in. If at all possible, it's best to feed kids less than two weeks old 3-4 times per day. For this reason it is likely easiest to leave the babies and mothers together so the kids can feed at will. This includes overnight.
If you need to feed colostrum, the first few days, these feedings should be 6 to 8 hours apart - as evenly as possible.
At one week only, feed 4 to 8 ounces 3 times per day. By one week you should notice the kids nibbling on grasses, leaves, hay, sticks and other objects.
During the second week, kids will typically consume approximately 12 ounces at each feeding. At two weeks of age, the kids should be consuming some solid feeds, which you want to encourage.
After two weeks you may separate the kids and mom's overnight and then return the kids to their mothers' after milking.
It is important to watch the animals closely and monitor their growth so you are feeding just enough milk to keep them healthy, but not so much that they are satiated on milk alone. too much milk may cause the animal to get diarrhea, known as scours.

Tips on Feeding Kids

When feeding kids, it is helpful to have them imprint on an object other than yourself. We call it the "Target Method"
- Use an object like a chair where you always feed the kids. Soon they will learn to run to the chair instead of trying to climb all over you to get to the bottle. This will:
  - Reduce the amount of soiled clothing you have
  - Keep the kids from being stepped on by you
  - You tripping over the kids while trying to work around them.
  - It will prevent you from having a pushy, large animal on your farm or trying to sell an aggressive animal to another potential owner.
It's easiest to move the kids from their pen into a feeding area.
If you only have a few kids, bring the kids out one or two at a time in the same order each time and feed them before bringing out the others.
If you have many kids, consider cutting holes into a long board that will hold the bottles. In the absence of the babies, place the bottles into the holding slots and then allow the babies into the feeding area.
Kids love milk and will prefer the millk over solid food, but it's important for their health and your production yields to manage their transition to solid foolds.
- The sooner you can move them off milk to solid foods, the more milk that will mean for you.
- Solid foods are important top help develop the rumen, or the first large compartment of the first stomach of the goat where cellulose is broken down.

Cleaning Kid Bottles

Kid bottles can be difficult to clean with a brush. The easiest is to wash them in a dishwasher with sanitizing capabilities. If that is not possible, to clean hard-to-reach places, place about 1 tablespoon of clean coarse sand or aquarium gravel in the bottle with a drop of detergent and a little water and shake vigorously. The sand or gravel can be strained, rinsed and reused.

How to use a stomach tube

A kid that is too weak or comatose to suck must be fed with a tomach tube. (Stomach tubes are available from sheep and lamb houses, but you can also typically find them at your local feed supply store. It's best to keep one on hand for emergency purpopses). A sterile catheter will also work. The stomach tube is a small, flexible plastic tube to which you attache a 60-mL syringe.

Slowly and gently push the tube down the kid's throat. Often the kid will swallow the tube as you advance it, which helps.
When the end of the tube reaches the stomach, attach the syringe of colostrum of milk to the upper end of the tube.
Depress the syringe's plunger slowly to discharge nourishment direclty into the stomach.

Note: Be absolutely certain that the tube in in the stomach before adminstering the contents, so liquid isn't forced into the lungs.