Posted by Vicki McGaugh on February 26, 2001 at 15:46:52:
In Reply to: newborn kid posted by doug on February 26, 2001 at 13:21:03:
We take all our doe kids away from the dams at birth, this is how we do it. I assist the births so the kids don't have a chance to chill, I rub them very vigorously with warm dry towels, and put them together into laundry baskets, then its a trip to the back porch, while I make sure Mom is o.k., and milk her about half way out. I put the colostrum (we have previously frozen colostrum that is heat treated, but you can just use the does colostrum) we get the colostrum warm, about 102 degrees, and then let the kids drink as much and as often as they want. At 12 hours the kids go to milk. I am not a fan of replacer colostrums or milk replacers. I would beg borrow or steal colostrum before using something that says right on the package "Does not contain live antibodies" so it can not help with immunity! I think whole Vitamin D Grocery store milk is much better to use in a pinch than mixing up milk replacer. Now if you are feeding lots of kids, well than thats a whole other matter. Keeping the kids warm and dry, here in humid Texas we aim for dry since we have to be ultra careful not to overheat our kids, which causes even more humidity. Heat lamps are used rarely and are used to dry the surroundings not to heat them up. Unless their is something wrong with these kids, selenium deficient (Bo-se injections) or inhaled fluid (Tylan 50 shots) most rejected babies can easily be saved. In your pygmy's you really ought to buy yourself some pritchard teats to use, caprinesupply.com or jeffers. They are small flexible and an angora buckling we took care of which was very tiny, did wonderful on it. If this continues in your herd you may want to talk to the very knowledgeable Penny who is on Nigerian Talks evenings on GoatWorld.com Chatroom
You may also need to be supplementing your does diet with minerals, perhaps selenium injections, read up on floopy kid syndrome (which doesn't happen in true newborns) failure to thrive from not enough colostrum, lots of old copper threads to sift through, and of course nutrition. Actively growing kids the last 50 days of your does pregnancy, really take a toll on the does, if they aren't being fed correctly the kids will be born weak. Vicki