Caring for our new furry family members!
We adopted two Nigerian Dwarf goats recently and we wanted to open up and tell you about how we care for them and what their schedule looks like. They need to eat every three hours during the day. I feed them at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, and 8pm. After the last feeding I put them to bed and they sleep a full 12 hours, which is amazing!
They get up at 8am and we let them run around the house for a bit to get some of their energy out. I then make their bottles, which consist of goats milk. We buy the goats milk, we do not use replacer. Some people use replacer when they bottle feed an animal, but we have found that goats milk works the best. You can get it from a local farm that has goats, or usually you can get it from your local health foods store, this is how we get it.
We warm the milk up in a baby bottle and you want the temperature to be about the same temperature as your skin. It’s just like when you are warming up a bottle for a baby, you don’t want it too cold or too hot. We warm up a bowl of water, then you put the baby bottle with the milk in it into the bowl of warm water. This way the bottles warm up evenly and it doesn’t damage any of the nutrients in the milk.
One really cool thing about goats milk is it’s universal. Most baby animals can be fed goats milk, it’s a lot easier for them to digest than other types of milk. Last year when we got our baby lambs we fed them goats milk, it was so much gentler on their stomach then the milk replacer was. If you ever need to bottle feed kittens or puppies you can use it for them as well.
We have done different ways through the years on how we feed our new babies. These two are just using a baby bottle with a normal nipple on it that has just a bigger slit in it. In the past we had used a Pritchard nipple, it worked really well! It is a red nipple with a yellow screw-on, you have to put it on like a water bottle. That worked really well for goats and lambs as well.
When they are in their pen at night we do not have diapers on them. We put down blankets, towels, or washable pee pads for them. We always make sure that they have hay at the one end of their pen for them. Once they get up in the morning and we let them out of their pen is when we put diapers on them. I put little onesies on them because it helps to keep their diapers on, but also they just look so cute in them! They stay out and play from about 8am to 11am, we feed them, then we put them back in their pen so they can take a nap.
I usually keep them in their pen until about 2pm, which is time for their next feeding. They come out to play and I change their diapers usually when I am feeding them. Once the weather gets nicer I then will take their diapers off and they will get a bunch of time outside to explore and play.
These two love to be held, they would let you hold them all day if you could! I hold them when we are sitting watching tv or we are just being lazy and laying around. They also love to jump around the room, they love jumping from the couches, coffee tables, the dressers, anything they can get up on and jump off of they will.
This is their schedule for right now, as they get older it will change. Right now they are eating five times a day, we will go down to four times a day. They will be eating fewer times a day, but will be eating more food. They are currently eating between 4-5oz every three hours during the day. Eventually they will eat 5-6oz every four hours. How much they eat depends on the size of th
Once you get into a routine their schedules become a lot easier. At first it can be overwhelming, but with time and lots of practice it becomes simple. I have been doing this quite a few years now so I have had lots of practice. I love watching the bond between the kids and the new babies. Watchin them feed them it just creates an even stronger bond and it’s just so sweet to watch!
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