Chat
03-20-2017, 01:20 PM
We used whole cow's milk for our bottle babies last year, and while it's not as good as goat milk I've heard it causes fewer issues than most replacers. Both our kids did well on cow's milk. One of them had scours off and on when he was 3-6 weeks old, but I think it had more to do with the green grass coming in than with the milk. He also was the greedier of the kids and would practically inhale as much milk as we wanted to give him, so I think we may have been overfeeding him just a little. When he got poopy we'd stop the milk and give him electrolytes for 2-4 feedings until he cleared up. The other kid never had any issues at all.
What I would do is add whole cow's milk into the bottles today and use it to stretch the goat milk out a couple days longer and ease the kids into the transition. Once your replacer comes you could start mixing a little with the cow's milk and ease them onto it. You might even plan on always feeding 1/2 milk and 1/2 replacer for the rest of their time on the bottle. That way you won't run out of replacer so soon and you'll be ok if there's another shipping delay. You'll be surprised how much they go through! I think we found that regular cow's milk was actually cheaper than replacer in our area (which kind of shocked me).
What I would do is add whole cow's milk into the bottles today and use it to stretch the goat milk out a couple days longer and ease the kids into the transition. Once your replacer comes you could start mixing a little with the cow's milk and ease them onto it. You might even plan on always feeding 1/2 milk and 1/2 replacer for the rest of their time on the bottle. That way you won't run out of replacer so soon and you'll be ok if there's another shipping delay. You'll be surprised how much they go through! I think we found that regular cow's milk was actually cheaper than replacer in our area (which kind of shocked me).