How to Feed a Baby Goat

How to Feed a Baby Goat

There are a few different ways to feed a baby goat, they can be dam raised or bottle fed when raising goats. Each has its unique benefits and drawbacks. The option you choose really depends on your ultimate goal for the goat. You can check out our How to Raise a Baby Goat Course, it goes into extensive detail about this topic, but for now let’s dive into each method of feeding baby goats.

Dam Raised

Dam raised goats are those who feed on the milk of their mom. The benefits to this is that the mothers milk is the most nutritious substance they can get. Additionally, it has a natural coccidia preventative agent in it. That is important because Coccidia is a bigger killer of baby goats. The drawbacks are that the baby goat will not be as bonded to humans because they aren’t reliant on you as their source of life.

Bottle feed

Bottle feeding baby goats is what causes a deep connection between humans and the goat. As mentioned above, they begin to associate you as their source of life. Goats that are bottle raised are a lot more amicable and docile. Depending on the type of milk you use those can have an impact on the overall health of the baby. Also, something to be very wary of is milk replacer. A lot of milk replacer has salt in it and babies can die from salt toxicity. You can’t trust the label on most replacers as they are not formulated specifically to goats. Sheep milk replacer can be harmful to goats. Please be wary of milk-replacers. We do not recommend them. 

Conclusion

If you are not concerned about bonding with the goat and want little time investment, dam raised is the way to go. If, however, you want a well bonded goat devoted to you then we suggest you spend the time to bottle feed your babies. For more information about how to feed a baby goat and everything you need to know about raising a baby goat in it’s first year of life, check out our How to Raise a Baby Goat Course!