BOTTLE BABIES
Getting Kids to Nurse a Bottle

If you absolutely have no other choice but putting a kid on a bottle, here is how to do it.

Getting a kid to nurse a bottle takes time and patience. Convincing a newborn to accept a bottle is much easier than an older kid. The nipple does not feel like mom's teat and the older kid will fight acceptance of it. Sometimes it is necessary to let the kid get hungry by waiting six or eight hours before offering it a bottle. Do not let the kid have access to any milk or water during this timeframe or it won't be hungry enough to nurse.

I like to use Prichard teats because they are longer than human baby bottle nipples and fit the shape of the kid's mouth. Sometimes wetting and sprinkling the Prichard teat with granulated sugar will whet the kid's interest. Sit or kneel on an over-turned five-gallon bucket or seat of similar height and place the kid between your legs. Placing your thumb across the bridge of the kid's nose and your fingers under its chin, insert the nipple of the bottle into the kid's mouth using your other hand. Put your fingers across its eyes to simulate the darkness of being under its mother's legs. Hold the nipple in the kid's mouth, moving it in and out of the mouth and squeezing gently to stimulate the kid's interest. Take care not to flood the kid's mouth with milk that could be aspirated into its lungs. Premature and slow-to-learn kids can benefit from a 1/2 cc injection of prescription Vitamin B1 (thiamine) to help "wake up the brain." Once the kid learns that the nipple delivers milk, it should begin to suck, but do not expect this to happen on the first few tries. When the kid figures out how to nurse the bottle, you can sit on the bottom of a five-gallon bucket, place the bottle under your knee, and the kid will feel like it is under its dam's legs nursing her teats.

Caution: Most people feed too much milk too often to newborn and young bottle babies. Once a kid gets mature enough to eat solid food, the risk of feeding too much milk is somewhat reduced. The greatest risk of overfeeding milk is from birth to about four weeks of age. See my article on Overfeeding Bottle Babies on the Articles page at www.tennesseemeatgoats.com for a formula for determining how much milk to feed based upon the kid's weight in ounces.

If at all possible, graft an orphaned or rejected kid onto another dam. Bottle babies are not desirable. They are expensive to raise, almost never fit in with the herd because they view themselves as people, may wind up on the bottom of the pecking order, usually don't stay with the herd well, and are dangerous when grown because they still perceive themselves as that eight-pound kid who used to climb into your lap. The most dangerous goat on your ranch is a grown male who still thinks of himself as a bottle baby/people. Someday he will hurt someone unintentionally -- probably you. Regardless of how you may think about them, goats are livestock with instincts and behaviors reflective of their place in and their need to be part of their herd.

Suzanne W. Gasparotto, Onion Creek Ranch, Texas 4/11/13