How often bottle feed...

[aoconnor]

I am babysitting two 1 week old kids. Both are bottle babies as their mom got mastitis shortly after their birth. How often do I feed them daily? I only have them until tomorrow afternoon late, but they didn’t leave feeding instructions! I know how much per feeding, but not the number of feedings.

Thanks in advance😁

[mzgarden]

I copied this from my own notes to myself re: bottle feeding kids. This would apply for full sized dairy. I feed based on size/weight of the kid rather than age. Maybe this will help.

At birth Ensure kids remain with dam to nurse colostrum
**or**
Remove kids at birth, milk Mom of colostrum and drench/feed newborns
Kids must have colostrum within 1 hour of birth
If they will not suck the bottle, drench or tube feed to ensure colostrum
Warm milk to average goat body temperature to avoid shocking their system.
When very young, better to feed smaller amounts more often than to over feed.

At 5 # 3 oz 4x
7# 6 oz 3x
10# 7 oz 3x
15# 9 oz 3x
20# 12 oz 3x
25# 20 oz 2x
30# 20 oz 1x

[aoconnor]

Oh my, I’m feeding too much at one time. I am feeding a baby bottle full to two week old Nubian kids. The little doe is tiny and only weighs near 1 pound, she had not eaten in a week except by dropper full, and the owner wasn’t able to get her to take a bottle. The buckling is only a couple of pounds at best but he was willing to be bottle fed. They are both very hungry babies, I know the owner was feeding bottle full to the buckling so I did the same only with a baby bottle instead of a sprite bottle they brought for him:-)

I already fed them this morning, the doeling took a full bottle over a couple of times off and on the bottle, the buckling sucked down almost his whole bottle at once. They sure were tail wiggling and felt much better this morning after finally getting some good milk last night!