My saanen doe kidded this afternoon, giving me one very large and 2 average sized buck kids. She has enormous teats and her kids always have a hard time latching on, so I always give them colostrum via bottle and keep bottle-feeding until either I accept my fate as mother or until the kids figure it out. I was in offering them each some colostrum this evening, and the doe kept licking the bottle. When the kids were finished, I opened the bottle and she guzzled the colostrum right out of the bottle! I've never seen a goat tipple before! I figure it's just an odd form of recycling...

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), March 17, 2002

Answers

We have one goat that we can't leave the milk bucket sit anywhere close to her. When you let her out of the stanchion, she will about jerk your arm off to dive into the milk bucket. She has emptied it before, when we were not paying attention.

-- Marci in NE Ohio (Marci@amazinggrazefarm.com), March 17, 2002.

Oh gosh, they sound like last yrs batch of kids I bought, we name dthem the "Pirhanas!"

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), March 17, 2002.

One of our does does the same thing given the chance. None of the other animals are interested. She does not seem to be a self sucker though. She is the lead doe with a STRONG personality, I just thought she was greedy.

-- SeattleGirl (roongoddess@yahoo.com), July 23, 2002.

I let a doe have soem of her own milk if she seems to crave it. Usually this is when they have just kidded or freshened recently; my thought on it is that they may have a shortage of calcium at this time and need all the nutrition they can get. It is important not to switch milk though or feed milk from a pail that has been milked into from other does without having been washed, because of CAE. My husband worried that the practice of letting the does have some milk would make self suckers out of them, but this hasn't happened, and my does seem to lose their appetite for it after a while.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), July 23, 2002.

My does will do this occasionally also. They are very interested in what I'm bottle or bucket feeding the kids for the first week or so...then they lose interest. The calcium idea makes alot of sense!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), July 23, 2002.

I have lots of girls that love milk! All year, any old time! Sluuuuurp it right down. Some just seem to have a taste for it. I used to have this HUGE 6yo buck that would still suck a bottle, it was hysterical to watch. I've never had any problems with them self suckling. We also feed back the whey, some like it, some don't.

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), July 24, 2002.