Tag: raising goat kids

Kids Grow Up Fast

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 17, 2023

Baby goats are so cute. Nubian kids are especially cute with their long ears. But kids grow up fast.

Spring had her doe kid only two weeks ago. Already this doeling is leading the herd in the pasture. Spring has other ideas as she takes over to race the herd to the top of the hill for some perceived threat.

On her first day out to pasture, this two week old Nubian doe kid from High Reaches Spring kept up with the herd as they roamed around eting fresh spring grass, climbed a steep hill to browse at the top, came back down to explore the creek banks and then was still trotting along as the herd came in for the night.

This perceived threat was me. I wanted to take a couple of pictures of her little one on her first day out in the pasture. My chance came when the herd was coming in that afternoon as I didn’t want to chase the herd up the hill.

Playing Games

The two little bucks are too busy having fun to go out with the herd. This is a big disappointment to their mothers. They want to go out to graze on all that new spring grass.

All the kids like playing on the goat gym, but the little bucks are the most enthusiastic. One of their favorite games is standing on my shoulders if I sit down on the bottom step. This is only fun until they are about a month old and too heavy.

The goat gym may be old and worn, but kids still love to jump up and down the steps These two Nubian buck kids are only a week and a half old, but can already get up and down steps as tall as they are.

My kids grow up fast as they will be big goats. I’ve read about the goat yoga and know my kids would be a disaster by the time they were three weeks old and twenty pounds.

New Little Darling

Drucilla had a little doe. I can’t keep her and it hurts. She is gorgeous and polled. Her mother is a good milker, one of my best all time milkers.

Born the night before this picture, this Nubian doe kid is already wanting to explore and is spoiled rotten. Her mother High Reaches Silk’s Drucilla stays next to her all the time. This will wear off in a week or so. By then this kid will off on her own much of the time.

For now this little one is my little pet. I have three months to cuddle and spoil her.

And then I will mourn that these fun kids grow up fast as they will be sold and leave with someone else.

There are several books about goat on this site. I would expecially mention “Capri Capers” and “For Love of Goats“.

Tags High Reaches Nubian kids, raising goat kids

Latest From High Reaches

Raising Bottle Baby Kids

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date December 21, 2022

When I started raising goats almost fifty years ago, the few books around recommended raising bottle baby kids. Now I let my does keep their kids and everyone is much happier.

There are times when raising bottle baby kids is unavoidable. The third of triplets, small kids, rejected kids, sick mothers are all reasons. And the bottles and nipples appear on the sink.

Supplies I Use

After trying several methods, I settled on one easy for me. I usually use lamb nipples, although the ones for a lamb bar are easier to put on a bottle, but harder for me to get locally.

Soda bottles work well. I prefer the 20 ounce size. If one gets too dirty or doesn’t work well, it’s easily replaced. Different brands have different shapes, so I can use one bottle every time for one kid marking it for the amount of milk.

There is a supply of frozen colostrum in my freezer replaced every kidding season.

I should know better. This Nubian doe kid was rejected by her mother who preferred buck kids. At that time I could take time to walk out with the herd in the morning. My little doe was delighted. When I couldn’t go, she would stay behind calling me. High Reaches Agate still stands by me as the herd goes out to be scratched (her favorite spot is over the shoulders) and still asks me to go out with her.

Raising Bottle Baby Kids

I’ve used replacer, but prefer fresh goat milk. Newborns get colostrum for twelve hours.

Newborn kids don’t drink much at a time. I feed them often that first day or two, whenever the kid is hungry. Temperature is important for them, about 100 degrees.

Once a kid drinks six ounces at a time, it’s ready for a four times a day schedule. There was a time when I did this every six hours. Now I leave an eight hour gap at night so I can get some sleep.

Bigger kids eat more, up to eight ounces a time. Using fresh milk lets me feed as much as a kid wants each time.

Once the kid starts eating at around ten days old, the bottles of eight to ten ounces can show up three times a day. The kids are sleeping through the night so I generally do bottles at milking times and noon.

At about six weeks old a kid is ready for twice a day, twelve ounces a time. And so am I.

Pest was a small Nubian buck kid and couldn’t nurse his mother. So he moved into the house and a bottle. The problem was that I worked cleaning at a local laundromat. The solution was to take this kid that had trouble standing up with me. He had a wonderful time captivating all the laundromat patrons and walking around on the tough carpet. Pest is now a two hundred pound spoiled brat of a wether blissfully unaware he was supposed to be goatburger several years ago.

The Problem with Raising Bottle Baby Kids

Dam raised kids are friendly when handled a lot. Bottle babies are pets.

And I must sell all my kids now, even the bottle babies.

Tags raising goat kids

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Saving Chilled Kids

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date December 15, 2022

I’ve always had my goat kids born in March as the weather had settled. No more. Now, even in March, I may be left saving chilled kids.

There are few things about raising goats worse than going out to find a doe had her kids on a frosty dawn and they are lying there, limp. It doesn’t take long for a newborn kid to die of hypothermia.

My Preparations

Before I go out to the goat barn on cold mornings, I start the fire in the wood stove. Wood heat is radiant heat. It warms you quickly, completely.

There is a supply of kid goat coats in the milk room. A few old towels are in another pile.

Next is checking the barn for new kids. Goats usually twin and I’ve been watching my does as I can usually tell whether they will single or twin. This is important as newborn kids can get separated.

Newborn goat kids are small and wet. They can not keep themselves warm for several days. That sets them up to get chilled. Hypothermia is an emergency to watch for and treat when kids are born in cold weather.

Saving Chilled Kids

If I find a newborn kid, the first step is to dry it off as much as possible. This is what the old towels are for.

A chilled kid can seem normal, but its mouth is cold inside and it doesn’t want to nurse. Such a kid is bundled up and taken to the house, put in a box bedded on old towels and placed near the wood stove.

If the kid is limp, I towel it off anyway. It may be alive and will move a little, usually trying to cry. The prognosis isn’t good, but this kid is also put near the wood stove.

Getting Kids Warm

It’s tricky telling when a kid is warmed up. They warm up on the outside quickly, but not on the inside. If such a kid is taken out to the barn, it will chill again.

A fully warmed up kid is up, active and asking to nurse. Its mouth is warm inside.

This kid gets a goat coat and taken out to the barn where its mother is usually delighted to have her kid back.

Cold, Not Chilled

Nubians talk a lot. The kids talk to their mothers. Sometimes a kid will have a higher, begging sound and call over and over.

If the kid isn’t hungry, it is cold. A goat coat will often warm it up.

Saving chilled kids isn’t always possible. But those that survive to run and play later on make the effort worthwhile.

Tags goat emergencies, raising goat kids

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Farm Babies Grow Up Fast

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date June 10, 2022

April was a month for babies here. Goat kids and chicks found they were in a strange new world. But farm babies grow up fast.

It is now June. Those cute balls of fluff are now lovely white with black necks pullets. They complain their little house is just that: little. Their yard is bare dirt as they ate most of the greenery. And it is too small.

It doesn’t take long for young chicks to eat and scratch up the greenery in their yard. These Columbian Wyandotte pullets have learned I let them out into a temporary yard on grass for a few hours most days. In the meantime they patrol their yard hoping some luckless bug will drop by.

I do have a 50-foot roll of three-foot chicken wire. This is staked up from the little chicken gate with electric wire posts to enclose an area of grass.

Don’t stand in the gateway when it is opened. For that matter, don’t stand in the doorway in the morning. Those pullets come flying and racing out.

There is a roost. According to this Columbian Wyandotte pullet, the feed container is more comfortable for roosting. And there are no grouchy neighbors.

Most of these pullets will move to a new home later this month. The remaining eight will continue to grow up into pullets big enough to move into the hen house.

The pullets will start laying in the fall. Then they will be hens at only six-months old. Farm babies grow up fast.

Goat kids are so cute when they are little. They depend on their mothers for milk. In a few days they are out exploring, playing, jumping on the goat gym.

Nubian doe High Reaches Agate’s spotted doe kid loves attention. She insists on attention. The best attention is scratching over her shoulders.

At almost three months old these kids are ready to move to new homes. The polled buck has already left for one up near Columbia.

The three doe kids will be advertised toward the end of the month. Hopefully someone good will take them to a new home the beginning of July.

Just last April this Nubian doe kid was easy to pick up and hold. High Reaches Spring has lots of milk. This doe kid is now a big armload to pick up. So far her spots are staying brown and look really nice against her black coat.

The buck kids are rarely so lucky. They too have to start leaving in July.

And then the barn will seem empty with only my thirteen adults in it. Augustus will be left alone all day again.

Farm babies grow up fast.

Hazel Whitmore raises Buff Orpington chicks in “Mistaken Promises“.

Tags raising chicks, raising goat kids