I have registered Nubian goats kidding and the mothers refuse to accept kids. The mothers are healthy and so are the kids, but the mothers will not let them nurse. We have never had this happen before with our goats. What should I do to get them to accept. There have been coyotes and red foxes overrunning our area (in ky) could that have anyhting to do with it? The goats are secured in the barn but we don't know if this could still be a problem.

-- Jan Zimmerman (jztwinmeadows@juno.com`), January 28, 2001

Answers

Hi Jan,

Hmmmmmm.... so what are they doing now for milk? are the kids with their mothers now? here are some ideas: you can try rubbing vaseline, vicks or vanilla on the noses of both the doe and the kid, this may result in the does taking the kids back. If not then there is choice #2, try holding the doe and then allowing the kids to nurse, the doe will hate this but the kids can get their milk this way. If not then try bottle feeding them. Sometimes, despite our best efforts this happens. Perhaps being in the barn will help calm them if they were spooked by the coytoes and foxes. Are they first freshners or older does? Good luck and hope this helps.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), January 28, 2001.

If these does are new to your herd they may never have been given a chance to raise their babies.Many milk goat owners take the kids away at birth and bottle raise. We bottle fed while ridding the herd of CAE.After a few years we went back to dam raising and some of the does just didn't know what to do with their babies. If these are not new does then I would suspect some "wrong"smell on the kids.Did you clean them with a perfumed towel or anything like that?Any other powerful smells around?Gasoline,fuel oil etc.Did another doe clean these babies? At any rate,if you hold the doe and let the babies nurse for a couple of days the does milk should give them a smell she will accept.

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), January 28, 2001.

Jan, It sounds like these are new to you?? I think JT might have hit it, since a lot of registered herds raise all kids on bottles. I have an old doe that I never let raise a kid and this year was the first time I let her. Couldn't get her to nurse, she would clean the kid and love him but not let him nurse. I put her on the milk stand three times a day for a couple of days and let the kid nurse. After that she let him just fine. She just didn't know what to do because she had never been allowed to before. Her daughter had never nursed and she didn't want her kids to nurse either and I had to do the same thing with her. They are both very good mothers now.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 28, 2001.

Jan. We raise Nubians and bottle feed all the babies as do all the breeders we know. Nubians may not be the best mothers in general, although some of ours have done quite well at cleaning off their babies and seem genuinely upset when we take them away. There are several benefits to bottle raising: the does will be much more manageable and tame as adults, the doe's udder is preserved for showing; with multiple kids you can monitor their eating and will know immediately if there is a problem. A sick kid will go off it's bottle. We feed 3 to 4 times a day so we have time to treat illnesses before its too late. With a dam raised kid you may not notice until its too late. Milking the does also keeps us in tune with their general health and the health of the udder. We have a doe that we would have lost to milk fever had we not been milking her. We would have also lost the kid because she did not have enough milk or colostrum. We had to get some from another source. It's more work, but the results are superior, in my opinion. :)

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), January 28, 2001.

Jan, I have heard this said over and over about if you bottle raise, the mothers somehow lose their natural instinct to mother. I haven't found this to be true. We took 100% of the kids away for years, and in the last several years have allowed does to nurse their bucklings, this year an 8 year old who has never seen her kids, very sucessfully raised her buckling until he was sold. My 11 year old steals all the bucks in the barn, and she has come into the milk room with no milk before when she was obviously letting someone nurse, though her kids are always bottled. Now I have seen bad moms in the pawing them into the bedding and the totally ignoring them, but these are usually first fresheners. I think alot of new folks interveen to much with the actually kidding, yes get in their and get the kids out quickly, make sure their mouths are clear, but let the dam completely clean the kid, without you messing, or they will then expect you to continue with the care. You can very sucessfully raise these kids, seperated from the moms, either on bottles, or letting the kids nurse the dams 3 times a day for at least a week, then going to twice a day, on the milk stand, you can even snatch extra milk for your families use. Obviously it goes without saying that you would want to know the disease status of these does before you use the colostrum and milk raw, unless the kids are destined for meat. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 28, 2001.