Bottle Feeding a Baby Goat

Whether you just got a bottle baby, or you have orphan kids that need bottle feeding, this blog should help you successfully bottle feed a baby goat!

This kid was tiny and rejected by his mother, so we had to bottle feed him with a small animal bottle, instead of a normal goat bottle.

What to Feed

All the baby goats we sell will almost always be old enough to be fed regular formula or milk, so there will be no need to buy colostrum.

But if you have an orphaned kid that is younger than 24 hours you will need to feed it colostrum for the first two days.

If the kid is older than 24 hours, you can feed it raw goats' milk, if you can't find this, pasteurized goats' milk would be the next best choice, but if you can't find this either, then you can feed formula made for baby goats. (cow's milk should not be fed to goat kids).

How to Bottle Feed

1. Stand the kid on the ground or hold it in your lap (the goat kid can be laying in your lap when you feed it, but do not hold them upside down).

2. Cover its eyes with your hand (to make it think it is under its mother, some baby goats will do better with this, and some will drink just fine without it)

3. Open the kids' mouth by gently squeezing on either side of its mouth with your thumb and index finger (a lot of kids do not like you opening their mouths and will fight it, but they are fine, they just don't like their mouth getting opened).

4. Put the bottle in the kids' mouth (sometimes you have to hold the kids mouth shut around the bottle until they realize that there is milk in it).

5. Tip the bottle at about a forty-five-degree angle so when the kid drinks it's tipping its head up.

6. Some kids may need you to hold your hand under their mouth for a while to keep the bottle from slipping.

   
   

Amounts of Milk or Formula to Feed an Orphan Nigerian Kid

Time Frame	Amount (if you have full sized goats feed double)	Frequency
First two days	2 ounces colostrum	Every 4 hours
Days 3 through 14	4 ounces	Every 6 hours
Second through forth weeks	5 ounces	Every 6 hours only during the day for a total of three times a day
Fifth through eighth weeks	6 ounces	Every 12 hours

These amounts are just suggestions, in general, goat kids will stop when they are full, so just pay attention to your kid, if she drinks eagerly and then stops and won’t take anymore, don’t force it.

If she eats everything and seems to still be hungry, give her a bit more. Once the kid is about six weeks old, you will want to let her be a bit hungry after each feeding, so she starts to eat hay.

Tips When Bottle Feeding a Baby Goat

You can start offering the kids hay right away. They won’t eat much at first, but they need to start learning how to eat it. Any grass hay is fine, avoid alfalfa if you have any male kids, but it’s okay for females.

Some baby goats will suck on the bottle as soon as you cover their eyes, others will need you to put the bottle in their mouths before they realize that there is milk in the bottle.

The sooner you start bottle feeding a kid the faster they will learn to drink although, often you cannot control when to start bottle feeding such as if you purchased a bottle baby or the mother goat died.

If you are going to switch from goats' milk to formula, try to do it as smoothly as possible, as baby goats are sensitive to change in their diet. We do sell goats milk from about April until October, if you would like to purchase it from us.

Click here if you would like goat milk.

If you have any other questions about bottle feeding, feel free to contact us!