I was surprised by a litter of 3 beautiful babies this morning, and since the mom is new I wanted to help out with hand-feedings. I saw on the FAQ that there is a formula of 1 can goat's milk, 1 can water, and 1 T. baby rice cereal. I was wondering how much a can is since I usually find goat's milk in jugs.
Chin Litter
- Thread starter Strevale
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javachin
Well-known member
A can is usually the size of a standard Campbells soup can. Give mom a day or so to let her milk come in. The babies just trying to suckle gets the process going and you don't want them to be too full so they won't even try.
Pookinaround
FUZZ BUTT ENTHUSIAST
Most of the time you do not need to step in. I would intervene only if there is an issue... Straight up fresh goats milk found in Wal Mart's dairy section works best though if you do need to help mom out....
Zoaea
O.o
Yea what Pookin says.
Milk isnt automatically made, its stimulated by hormones, every time the babies try to nurse, it makes the mom release more hormone. If you hand feed with out reason you'll end up having to hand feed. But you should def get a gram scale and measure them everyday for weight gain/loss.
Mt. Zion Chins
Barb
you only want to 'help out' if there isn't enough milk. Weigh the kits each day around the same time. There will be a gram or two lost in the next couple of days that is natural. Some mother can actually feed 4 or more with no problems. Ralph Shoot told me about a mother who nursed 6 kits with no problems. He tried offering the kits milk but they wanted no parts of it and the kept gaining. I have one of the kits (now about 3 years old) and her first litter was 5.
Cuddlebug
Well-known member
You said your goats milk comes in a jug. Is it fresh goats milk? If so you do not need to add water. You only add water to the condensed milk in the cans.
Spoof
Kung Fu Chinny!
I agree 100% with this. I think many people end up stuck in a hand feeding schedule by worrying.
Here is an example of what you will see;
Just Dry weight: 45, 52, 56
Next morning weight if mom has started to produce milk: 42, 50, 54
Next morning weight no milk: 41, 49, 51, quiet kits (not so much squeaking)
Second day weight milk: 42, 51, 56
Second day no milk: 39, 47, 49 (kits are very quiet and very hungry) I will start hand feeding when I see this and split the smallest kit onto a surrogate mom.
Third day milk should be in. 43, 53, 59. I don't interfere so long as they are all gaining.
I had my first true no-milker for a second litter recently and she had a litter of triplets. On day two I started rotating her kits with kits from other moms to keep her stimulated and let everyone feed because she had not produced for her first litter. By day six the kits weren't even bothering to suck on her so I culled her and fostered everyone out. They do a much better job of raising kits than I do, so I try not to hand feed.
Hope this helps!
Well we had two big kits and one very small. The two big ones have been gaining since day 1, and the runt was losing until day four. I started removing the bigger kits for about 30 min every 2.5 hours. Since I did that the little one started gaining weight again. I think the big ones are pushing the little one out of the way.
