• Make sure the kid receives colostrum.
• Dip umbilical cord in an iodine solution

Day 2:

• Generally the kids will start nibbling on their bedding and their dam's food now. They also start nibbling on the mineral mix.
• Give a dose of Probiotics to help get rumen working. I just give them a pinch of the dry probiotics right into their mouth.

Day 5:

• Disbud - I learned from my first kids. The older they are the bigger the horn buds and more chance of scurs

Week 2:

• I remove the kids from the doe at night at 7:00pm. Then milk in the morning at 7:00am. They are then let run with the doe for the rest of the day.
• Start feeding separately at night and morning with free choice alfalfa pellets or hay, minerals, and water while they are in their separate pen away from mom.

Week 3:

• Start adding 1 1/2 tsp Molly's Herbal wormer #1, three days in a row, then every three weeks until they are 8 weeks old. Once a week give 1 1/2 teaspoons wormer #2 on the weeks they don't get #1. You will probably have to drench it. This is the only time I give the herbal wormer. Once they are eating the grain mix I add Coleby's minerals to it and discontinue the herbal wormer.

Week 6:

• Start weaning - slowly increase the time the kid is kept away from it's dam until by 8 weeks they are totally weaned. This is about one extra hour a day away from mom, continuing from the 12 hour intervals that was started at two weeks.
• Start giving a small handful of grain mix once a day.
• Let them have ad lib alfalfa pellets or hay, and minerals in their pen at all times

Week 7:

• Neuter boys that are not being kept as bucks.
• Offer a 1/4 to 1/2 cup grain mix (depending on if it is a miniature or a full size goat) at the morning feeding once a day at the end of 7 weeks.

Week 8:

• Tattoo
• Trim hooves
• Kids go to new home at the end of 8 weeks

Postpartum

Week 2 :

• Start milking doe once a day removing kids at night. Please see my milking tutorial

Week 6:

• Start milking twice a day at 12 hour intervals as kids are weaned.

Week 36:

• Switch to once a day milking around noon daily (or whenever is convenient, but trying to keep it at 24 hour intervals). Noon is convenient for me because the sun has burned off the fog and it is bright and sunny to let the goats out. Then slowly go to milking every other day in preparation to quit milking by 40 weeks, two months before she gives birth again in March.

I try to breed my does in October so they kid in March. I had wanted to 'milk through' but I have Nigerian Dwarf goats and they come in heat year round. I found it not only hard on the does and myself, but hard on the buck. Breeding once a year gives us all a 5 month break from the rut season.

Breeding:

• I breed my does in October for a March kidding.

The month she is planned to be bred:

• If she is dry increase her grain intake to 1 cup twice daily. If she is still milking, continue with 2 cups grain mix twice daily.

12 weeks before kidding:

• Slowly stop milking, but continue the 2 cups of grain mix twice daily. I slow down by milking once a day and not stripping out all the milk, then switch to milking every other day. By eight weeks before she kids, I am no longer milking. By this time I am tired of milking anyways so it gives me a break as well.

4 weeks before kidding:

• If she is a first freshener, I start increasing the amount of grain she gets until she is receiving 2 cups twice a day by the time she kids.
• Give Selenium/Vitamin E gel

2 weeks before due date:

• Give Selenium/Vitamin E gel
• Start adding Vitamin E to food each day.

About Selenium-E Gel:

• 1 mg of selenium and 500 IU of vitamin E per 5 ml.
   
• For treatment of:
  • Use in prevention/treatment of Selenium deficiency which can cause Nutritional Muscular Dystrophy, or White Muscle Disease.
  • Also can increase fertility and aids in easier birthing.
• Goat dose: Oral
  • adult goat - 5 ml (2 ml dose for our small Nigerians)
• Milk withholding time: none
• Notes:
  • Selenium can be toxic, and the margin of safety is narrow. Use only in Selenium deficient areas (check with your vet)
  • I give pregnant does this product at four weeks and two weeks before their due dates.

All Goats - Feed, Worming, and Drug Use

I make my own concentrate, please visit my blog for the recipe  concentrate grain mix.

 

Daily I feed 4 cups of concentrate to my milking does along with alfalfa pellets. Dry does, bucks, and wethers each get 1 cup daily along with the timothy/orchard hay pellets. The hay pellets are available at all times. I don’t feed loose hay, unless I have harvested it myself on my land. The grain mix is divided in half and fed twice a day. I also add ¼ cup real apple cider vinegar, usually homemade and raw, to each gallon of water that they receive as well.

 

In summer when the paddocks are dry, all the goats get fresh mature leaves that I harvest from oaks, apples, and other trees and shrubs, along with the grain mix and pellets. I try to rake up dry leaves and acorns that fall in Autumn to feed in winter. In winter they also receive shredded carrots and other succulent foodstuff along with the harvested dried leaves.

 

All the goats have access to paddocks almost daily. The only time they are not let out is if everyone in the household will be gone. Then they stay in the barn because we live in cougar country.

 

Hoofs are trimmed at the beginning of Winter, Summer, and Fall. Occasionally at different times if needed.

 

Because I have read so much about the diseases and ailments of goats today, I have chosen to give them as natural care as can be given in an unnatural environment; and penned and fenced is unnatural. I give no immunization shots and I don’t use modern drugs except in an emergency and do not use chemical wormers. Worms are quickly becoming immune to the chemical wormers and I feel an alternative must be found. In that light, my goats are given the copper in the minerals, which help keep worms at bay. The added sulfur in the minerals help keep off external parasites.

 

 

Disclaimer: Please use the information on this page at your own risk! I am not an expert, this is just how I manage my goats. I do things a bit different and felt others may have an interest in it. The information on this page is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. LinderCroft (Linda Foley) is not liable for any problems that arises from anyone following the information contained on this page or any other page of lindercroft.com