Insights on Bottle Feeding vs. Dam Raising Goat Kids

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Click HERE to read my policies & disclaimers if you're interested. I will only link products I use and personally recommend. Thank you for your support, friends!

If you raise livestock, I’m sure you’ve heard the ole “I like bottle feeding because it makes them friendly and tame” once or twice or a hundred times.  If you haven’t, I’m shocked!  That’s something some livestock owners really love to tell everyone.  There is no right or wrong way to raise goat kids, but bottle babies aren’t always the answer and I want to share my insights on this.  As someone who has had goats almost my entire life, I have many years of experience to go off of and form my opinion, which is what this post will be.  It is not an attack on your farming practices or what you’re doing, but rather another angle and insight to maybe help you or someone else decide what is best for them.

I raise both Boer and Alpine goats, so I’m smack dab in the middle of both the meat and dairy production worlds with my herd.  Dam raised Boer (meat) goats are the best because milk makes them strong, quick growing, and chunky, but I’ve found Boer does have the tendency to be awful mothers and need a lot of babysitting and coddling to show them how to do it.  BUT in dairy, more times than not, the babies are taken from the dam immediately after birth and raised a bottle kids. And sometimes under the guise that dairy animals don’t have good maternal instincts and are bad mothers (WRONG), as my Alpines have been the best mothers I have experienced in my years with goats.  I do things a little differently is all and I’m going to tell you why!

There’s a method to my madness that works very well for me.

Bottle Babies Are Easier to Tame and are Friendly

First, I want to immediately debunk the myth that bottle raising kids makes them friendly.  It doesn’t. Periodt.  It makes them associate you with food.  You bring the food, we like you.  Any bottle baby of any species is going to be “friendly” toward the human that’s holding the milk.  I’m not even sure I should call it friendly, but moreso running up to what they associate as having the food and rooting around and sucking on them for more milk. There’s not sweet snuggling or petting involved. Just, MIIILLKKKKK GIMMMMEEEE DYINNGGGG HUNGRAYYYYY.  

What many don’t consider when bottle raising these babies is the attitude and behavior issues that come later in life if they’re not raise properly with their own herd and more like human children, running around in the house with pajamas and diapers on.  Yeah, it’s cute, but you’re going to have a poorly behaved goat in your future that is hopelessly attached to you and will pine away for you when it comes time to live in the barn again.  This can be all fine and dandy with a smaller goat, like Nigerian Dwarfs, but I raise Alpines… some of their heads darn near reach my shoulder they’re so tall… imagine that jumping on you because FOOOOOOOD.  Or your kids?  Nope.  That becomes a safety issue when you have a careless 150 pound goat jumping on your toddler.  

Dam-raised kids will always be better in behavior and respect than bottle kids.  If you came from the reel I shared on social media, you saw the quadruplets I am bottle feeding right now along with the other alpine kids that are being raised by their dams jumping all over me.  They’re friendly and tame and it comes with knowing I am the leader, the care giver, the provider of scratchies, and they watch how I treat their dams and how their dams treat me.  It’s not coming from an association with food… they genuinely see me as the leader and caretaker of their herd.  

This makes a very respectful and easy to handle goat that is trustworthy.  By spending a very miniscule amount of time with the dam raised kids, they are tame and trust me just by watching their mothers.  I don’t have time to lay in their pen for hours and hours every day.  It’s genuinely me going to the barn three times a day, talking to them while I fill up water buckets and check on everyone, and scratching heads and ears as I walk by.  They learn really quickly that you’re pretty cool to be around.  It really isn’t hard to get friendly goats and it doesn’t come with all the extra work, and risk, of bottle babies.

Why I Don’t Pull Kids to Bottle Feed for My Dairy Goats

This is always a hot topic and I’ll start by saying I am NOT condemning a single soul who does it differently.  I absolutely see the side of taking the kids to get milk… it’s how you make money.  What I am doing is explaining why and what I do.  It is neither right nor wrong, but right for me and my herd.  Cool?  If you’re gonna lose your mind over this, please comment on Facebook… that’s where everyone else does when they decide to take something I say as a personal attack ;p

I choose to dam raise all my alpine dairy kids if possible.  You can absolutely have kids raised by their dam AND have milk.  It’s called milk sharing… or kid sharing for goats.  Calf sharing in cows, etc.  It is possible, so don’t immediately think you have to pull kids and bottle just because you want milk. Especially for you small homesteaders.  We’ll get into this.  

This year, my 5 year old doe, Becca (RIP), had quadruplets and it just wasn’t happening.  A normally chill and calm goat became extremely stressed being constantly followed and nursed on by 4 kids.  She quit eating and would just lay in the corner trying to get away from them.  Her teats were also cracking and sore even though I was putting salve on them morning and night.  So,  I made the call to start supplementing to see if that would satiate them to stop pestering Mom so much, but ended up just moving to exclusively bottle feed them.  

I figured if I was going to supplement 2, I’d just handle all 4 because at this point she was not feeding all of them without a fight. Had it been a normal group of a single or twins, I have no doubt in my mind she would have rocked it, but having a LITTER of babies was a bit much for Mama.  Thankfully, I have enough milk from all my milk does I milk and I can just pour the warm milk straight from the milking jar into the bottles.  It’s pretty easy.  Please do not use milk replacer for goat kids… it is teeerasshhhhh… quite literal garbage.  Whole cow milk is a better option than that stuff, but that’s a whole different rant that I will encourage you to research on your own.  Replacer powder is also insanely expensive.

I digress.  The main reason I don’t pull the kids and instead allow the doe to feed them is because I simply don’t want to.  That’s quite literally it.  I do not want bottle-raised kids if I can avoid it.  I don’t like the extra work, I don’t like washing bottles, I don’t like their behavior or sucking on everything, I don’t like guessing how much to feed them, and it’s just too much work that I don’t want to do when my does have perfectly good udders with warm milk on tap 24/7.  Plus, you’re going to have healthier kids if Mama is doing it and feeding them on demand with her timing and instincts.  Nine times out of ten she knows absolute best.  Goat kids raised by Mama in normal settings will always grow faster and be healthier than bottle kids unless you really know what you’re doing.

Goats also have pretty complex digestive systems and are sensitive to over feeding.  New goat owners with limited experience aren’t going to know that a goat kid is always going to be STARVING and they feed them to death.  They will always be dying of hunger even if they’re not.  And they do it to their dams, too.  I’ve watched kids bug their Mom so stinkin’ much wanting to nurse that she has to lay down to get away from them.  And it’s always most definitely Rori’s kids… she has the most obnoxious babies here!  This is the number one reason why if I have a bottle kid or kids, I DO NOT sell them unless they’re going to a very experienced goat owner I know.  It’s risky and can be a death sentence for the kid until they’re older and well established.

Another reason I don’t pull babies to purposefully bottle feed is milk production.  I have found personally, that allowing the doe to dam raise her kids to 10-12 weeks old has made the best increasing change in milk production.  All of my does hit a higher peak lactation production if they have dam raised their kids than if I am bottle feeding them.  I think that is because of the demand… they’re nursing more often off mama which is stimulating more production.  It’s the same as breast feeding when your precious newborn is cluster feeding that first day or two and then weeks in.  It’s stimulating more milk production!  

Making the Choice to Bottle Feed or Keep Trying

Something I also hear quite frequently is a first freshener won’t hold still to feed the babies.  And it used to drive me crazy, but now I have some insight as a Mother of 2 that breastfed… I get it… I danced around too!  Sometimes a first and even second or third or tenth time freshener needs reminded of how to do things.  I disagree with folks leaving their herds during lambing or kidding time for survival of the fittest, because a little intervention is both being a good steward of your livestock and God’s creation and also sometimes necessary due to environmental or nutritional issues and doesn’t affect the overall health of the kid once its grown.  

I have no issue holding or tying up a doe to get a healthy kid nursing and full of colostrum.  Normally once they are, they get going pretty quickly and both kid and Mama figure it out from there.  Sometimes it takes a couple tries of you holding the doe or tying her to get them nursing.  Way too often folks don’t do this before pulling the kids and bottle feeding them when it would have been entirely preventable with some encouragement and a little intervention on your part.

The first hour after birth is critical to your success with dam raised kids.  Those kids need colostrum within 30 minutes in my opinion whether they get it off Mom or if they’re a bit slow and you tube it to them and work with them on nursing again in an hour or two (I’m looking at you Harry and Lloyd from this year, aptly named).  That allows them to get the strength and immunity they need right off the bat for the best start.  Colostrum replacers or paste aren’t it.  They don’t do justice to the real thing.  

Once the kids are nursing on their own, you can always feel their belly by placing your hand under their flank to make sure they’re eating.  It should feel like a water balloon, full, not empty, but also not hard and bursting.  Once they figure out nursing though, they’ll be full as ticks and the doe will take care of it.

The Art to Bottle Fed Goats

As someone who has also raised bottle calves, there is a significant difference between how calves and goat kids are raised and folks don’t realize that.  With a bottle calf, you can easily get away with twice daily large feedings and the calf will do amazing.  Goats will not thrive on that right away and if you claim you did that, you got lucky and I will never agree with that.

Some people will use a scale and track the birth weight and their weight gain when bottle feeding.  That’s amazing and I wish I could be that organized.  But.  I honestly would not remember and it would add another thing to my plate that I would constantly be forgetting to do.  Body weight records would absolutely come in handy if you’re unsure the bottle-fed babies are thriving but I’m confident in my methods and my assessment skills so I’ve never really employed that.  As a newer goat owner, watching their weight gain may be an amazing tool for you to be certain they’re eating well and to take some anxiety and guess work off your shoulders!

The first 24 hours of their life is critical.  They need small feedings every 4 hours around the clock.  NOW.  I personally am only getting up to do through the night feeds if the kids are weak.  If they’re doing great and strong, I will give them an extra ounce right before I go to bed and make sure their stomach where I told you to feel is nicely rounded, but has a soft water balloon feel and then get up early the next morning to feed.  We’re talking 9pm feed and then a 5am feed.  They do just fine.  I leave the kids with the dam if she isn’t harming them.  I rarely bring a goat kid in the house unless it’s having hypothermia issues.  I prefer to leave them in the environment they will live in with their herd.

After 24 hours of life, I feed the kids 4 times per day, about every 4-5 hours, giving them enough to fill those bellies to a nice water balloon feel, again. My routine for the next 3 days of life is feeds at 7a-11a-3p-7p.  You will see charts ALL OVER the internet telling you how many ounces to feed per pound of weight or ounce of goat or breed, and I’m telling you, you may get lucky, but if you learn to go by feel of their stomach quickly, you will learn how much they need and it’s very easy.  Right now, my quadruplets are 3 weeks old and eating 10 ounces each feeding and they’re filling up nicely.  You’ll increase feed sizes about every week-ish for a few weeks and they usually plateau for a bit and then they’ll start eating hay and grain.

After that, they’re 4 days old and I decrease to 3 feeds a day.  You can keep up the 4 smaller feeds a day by all means, but for my sake, I have to do 3.  By this time, the kids are kept with my dairy herd with the other kids with a creeper pen set up they can get to to get away from the adults if need be.  I feed them by stomach feel and continue this until weaning.  Buckling kids get bottle fed to around 10 weeks of age and doe kids are fed to about 12 weeks depending on how they grow.  The bucklings seem to grow quickly like weeds and the does need a couple extra weeks of milk to catch up.  I make sure the kids are eating hay and grain well before removing the mi-day feed and decreasing to 2x daily feeds for 5 days, watching for any digestive issues like diarrhea or poor appetite, and if all is well, decrease to 1 feed a day for 1-2 weeks before completely weaning.  If the kid gets diarrhea or stops eating, start an extra feed back up and treat for coccidiosis using oregano oil.  Check out my holistic protocol I use here!

How Do You Get Any Milk When Dam Raising?

I separate the kids.  Yep.  It’s that easy.  Starting at around 2 weeks old or when the kids are completely emptying the doe, as I feed and check the does twice a day to make sure they’re getting completely milked out or I will take the excess the prevent mastitis since I have some massive producers.  Once the kids are eating everything the doe has, I start separating overnight.  The kids are already familiar with what I call the creep feeding or “creeper” pen where they can get in to hang out and have snackies without the big kids and Mama’s bugging them.  I close it off after the evening milking, milk the does the next morning after an 11-12 hour fill, and then put the babies back with the doe for the remainder of the day.  After a couple weeks of this, the kids get familiar to my routine and know that treats are waiting and they’ll be standing in the creeper pen waiting on me to close them in.

I set the creeper pen up inside the pen with the does with a fancy gate my husband made for me that the kids can slip through but the bigger goats cannot.  In their little kid pen there’s hay, fresh water, some grain, and a space for them to hang out and play.  Frequently, you’ll find my goat kids hanging out in their separate pen to get away from the big kids rather than pestering Mom for more milk.  They love it!  Everyone can see and even touch each other which leads to low stress since everyone is in sight and can talk to one another.  

This has worked very well for me and for weaning when the time comes to completely cut them off, at around 3 months of age, and wean them from the doe, as they’re used to the pen and the routine and are used to me.  Less stress leads to a stronger immune system, less bouts with things like coccidiosis and parasite loads from being stressed, and better solid food consumption since it’s nothing super new.  Most of my kids that are dam raised are more obnoxious and friendly than my bottle babies because they come up to me wanting snuggles and scratches rather than chewing my knuckles off thinking they need a bottle.  They respect me as the human of the herd rather than the giver of the bottle which instantly means MAUL THE HUMAN FOR MILKIES.  

Once the kids are weaned and doing well, I usually wait about 2 weeks before allowing them to go to new homes just to ensure they’re thriving and not going to do anything crazy.  Some breeders don’t do that, but I think it’s best to do, especially if you’re selling to someone who is raising goats for the first time.  Give them the best chance to do great.  It’s a lot of work for you as the farmer, but pays off in word of mouth and experience as a breeder in the long run… people talk, and when they have good experiences they’ll tell people… and more often, if it’s a bad one… everyone will know.  

Obviously, the amount of milk I’m getting is like half of what I could get if I bottle fed the kids, BUT, I also think I’m probably doing okay since their milk production is higher anyway from the stimulation of nursing and raising their babies rather than a milk machine.  My opinion, but also a hill I will die on.  I would also be feeding half that milk I milked off back to the kids anyway… sooooooo…… and my favorite part? If I’m sick or busy or would have to leave town for something, I can put those little furry four legged milk machines with their Mamas and let them do the work while I’m gone.  That’s the beauty of kid sharing.  It may not work for you, but it certainly works for me!

Today, the goat market is saturated by irresponsible backyard breeders pumping out babies just for the color and blue eyes and thinking they have a gold mine and not giving a rip about their health. There’s also a lot of bad advice out there and it’s hard to discern what’s right and what’s not, especially when you’re new. I am to help you form your own opinions by sharing my successes and failures.  It’s frustrating to me to see, but all I can do is my best to educate people to know what to look for when purchasing goats.  And I’m also not saying I’m perfect and never have I claimed to be.  

I share quite honestly about my goats, especially on social media, and all the good and ALL the bad… especially to help folks learn from my mistakes when I could absolutely have done better.  I almost lost my Boer buck, Chad, last fall to my own negligence.  I was busy and I ignored the signs.  I shared it anyway so folks could learn from my mistakes and everything turned out fine in the end, but I almost lost that sweet menace to society.  So, if someone tells you they bottle feed all their babies to make them friendly, RUN. That’s a ridiculous reason to bottle feed anything if I’ve ever heard one.

I hope this post helps you gain some insight on why I don’t prefer bottle feeding baby goats and that simple human contact and the way your treat your herd goes a long way in having tame and friendly kids and healthier goats without bottle feeding them.  The health and behavior of a dam raised kid is always preferred over a bottle kid.  When I sell wethers for pack goats projects for 4H kids, my dam raised kids always go first.  Their personalities are always preferred even when I don’t tell the buyer right away if they were bottle fed.  I will always say, dam-raising kids is the best option!

If you’re new to goats and getting started, check out these other helpful posts I’ve written!