HELP- Need some Guidance!

[StarckRanch]

Looking for some guidance in our current situation. So our local and one of the only feed stores within miles had to order in “Doe’s Match Replacement Milk” they had thought it would be here sooner but now come to find out it may not be here till Friday. We have two kids with us now that we have raw goats milk for till Tuesday. I don’t want to use another brand of replacement milk as I have heard you should stick with one kind, and this does match doesn’t have soy- which I have heard is good. What should I do? Is cow’s milk a good option? It seems some have had issues with that? Any advice?

[Nanno]

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).

[StarckRanch]

Also I guess I would like to ask- someone had brought it to my attention when bottle feeding a baby goat is there a rule about the bottle being held to high? I know with sheep you have to be careful but I was curious how that worked with goats I don't want to cause some to go into their lungs if that is the case.

[Nanno]

We've only had three bottle babies so I'm not for sure on that one. I like to see them drink comfortably, which means I hold the bottle at a slant and not straight up and down. They'll try to pull it every which direction and some of them will tug the bottle downward until they are on their knees or even their belly. (See photo.) I hope Dave will chime in on this thread. He's the bottle kid expert around here.
   

[Nanno]

How are your bottle babies doing?

[StarckRanch]

So far so good! They are doing great! We have been taking them on walks around the property and they just follow right along!

[Nanno]

Aw, that's awesome. Post pictures sometime!