The question of how to wean goat kids from their mother's udder concerns every farmer. Many farms keep animals for milk, and raising babies significantly reduces milk production. In addition, for full development, goat kids must receive a variety of food. It is impossible to change the diet of animals abruptly, so newborns are gradually taught to drink milk from a bottle with a pacifier or a bowl.
How to wean a kid off the udder
The optimal solution to the problem is to initially keep the newborn away from the mother’s udder. Otherwise, if you only allow the baby to the female once, then there is a possibility that the goat will stop milking normally.The female will not allow anyone near her udder for milking. And the animal will adhere to this behavior until the cubs grow up.
The main disadvantage of this method of weaning newborns from the udder is that the owner will have to feed the cubs with milk themselves at first. If it was not immediately possible to accustom the kids to artificial feeding, then they need to be weaned from the udder gradually. It is recommended to reduce the time of udder sucking for two weeks. First, the kids are allowed near their mother three times a day, then twice, then once a day. At the same time, solid food is introduced. Various vegetables, grass, hay, root vegetables and feed diversify the goat's taste sensations.
A radical way is to put a special collar with spikes on the kid’s face. A newborn, when trying to suck the udder, will give the goat unpleasant sensations, and she herself will stop letting him go. Another controversial but effective method is based on the cleanliness of animals. It is known that goats have a negative attitude towards dirt and unpleasant odors. Therefore, before feeding, the female’s udder is lightly smeared with manure (there is no need to be zealous, since then you will have to wash the udder before milking). Out of disgust, the kids refuse to suck the udder.
If you repeat the “trick” with manure for some time, the cubs will develop a stable dislike for the udder. To prevent the animal from experiencing stress from a change in diet, milk is offered to drink from a nipple or bowl.
Methods for weaning an animal from a bottle and pacifier
When receiving milk from a bottle with a nipple, newborns' natural sucking reflexes are triggered. At the same time, newborns do not experience stress due to the fact that they were deprived of the opportunity to suckle milk. It is also a convenient way to control the amount of liquid you drink. However, this feeding method has significant disadvantages:
- the animal develops the habit and need to suck milk from a bottle;
- if a pacifier is suddenly abandoned, newborns experience severe stress;
- the sucking reflex persists for a long time.
Important! Animals should be weaned off the nipple gradually, while simultaneously offering nutritious and tasty food.
To wean newborns from sucking a pacifier, after two weeks it is recommended to introduce hay into the baby’s diet. The first portions of dry, high-quality complementary foods should be small - you should not allow babies to overeat. After 35-40 days, the animal’s body is considered to be already stronger, capable of receiving smaller portions of milk. After a week or a week and a half, you can completely switch the kids to a standard diet - fresh grass, hay, branches, mixed feed, root vegetables.
How to train a baby goat to drink from a bowl
You should not try to teach newborns to slurp from a bowl, since this type of feeding has several disadvantages. For fragile kids, feeding from a bowl is unnatural, so the animals may not gain weight well. It also takes a long time to train little goats to drink milk from a bowl. However, the benefits of feeding older animals from a bowl are obvious:
- the farmer spends less time feeding livestock;
- In babies, the sucking reflex disappears,
- It’s easier to replace mother’s milk with feed in the diet.
To teach kids to slurp milk, farmers resort to various tricks.Alternatively, it is recommended to pour warmed milk into a bowl so that the familiar aroma attracts babies. When the kid approaches the bowl, you need to tilt his head towards the milk without much effort. You can dip your finger in milk and invite your baby to lick it.
If the kids drank milk from a bottle, then dip the nipple in the warm liquid. When the animal reaches for the nipple, it is slowly lowered into a bowl of milk. The baby reaches for the pacifier and begins to drink milk from the bowl.
Changing an animal’s diet at any age is not a one-day process. In the case of newborn kids, you also need to take into account the stress that they experience when weaned from the udder. Therefore, it is important to select the most gentle methods.
