Bottle Feeding Kids

A kid should get 15% of its body weight per day, divided into 3-4 feedings timed about equally apart. He should take equal amounts each time if you feed him at regular intervals, not just when he seems to want a bottle. Here is a general chart of amounts I use:

Birth to 2 weeks: 3 ounces, 4 times/day (12 oz. total)
2 to 6 weeks: 4 ounces, 4 times/day (16 oz. total)
6 to 12 weeks: 5 ounces, 4 times/day (20 oz. total)

Yellow stool is common at this age due to the milk diet. The feces will become brown as the kid starts eating hay. Kids can be weaned at 10-12 weeks if they are eating sufficient roughage (hay) and chewing a cud. When fine-stemmed grass hay and fresh water are available all the time from about one week of age, he should begin to eat and drink. Do not exceed the daily milk amounts or he will not consume the hay or water he needs to develop his rumen.

Fresh goat milk is ideal for kids, but it should be pasteurized if you don't know the disease status of the herd providing the milk. Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) and Johne's disease are very harmful, and kids can become infected from drinking even a tiny amount of unpasteurized milk that contains these organisms.

Tips for bottle feeding:

• Milk temperature is very important. Use a thermometer to make sure the milk is right at 102 F.
• Hold the bottle to approximate the position of the mother's teat.
• It might help to get a plastic baby bottle (I use Even-Flo) so that you can squeeze a little milk into her mouth.
• It also helps to use a cross-cut nipple so the milk comes out a easier than from one tiny hole.
• Feed Probios to get the rumen working and offer water and hay at all times.
• Use a "surrogate" mother to trick a relunctant bottle baby into nursing. 1) Warm the bottle and take the bottle and the kid to the barn. 2) Clip a doe's collar to the fence so she can't move her head. 3) Have someone else hold her hind legs so she can't stomp the kid. 4) Put the baby by the doe's udder, and she should be eager to nurse something she recognizes. 5) Let the kid nurse very briefly. 6) Hold the doe's teat back and put the bottle in its place, with the bottle nipple where the teat should be. This should fool the kid, and she will probably nurse the bottle. Once they get the feel of the bottle, they usually start taking the bottle.