People often express shock at a goat having 4 or 5 (or even 3) kids but actually quads and quints are pretty common with Nigerian Dwarfs and (to a lesser extent) Mini Nubians. Even 6 is not unheard of and 7 is the recently set world record. Three is probably the “average” litter size and no big deal. Most does handle birthing and feeding three kids like it’s nothing, unlike humans who would be pulling their hair out at the thought! Here at the farm we usually end up with several litters of 4 or 5 kids per year. It is a lot more work but is very exciting.


Many breeders immediately pull one or two kids from a litter of quads or quints, only allowing the doe to feed 2 or 3 of her kids. They do this for various reasons and each breeder has to decide what works for them and their goats. Here at Prancing Pony Farm we prefer to dam raise kids whenever possible and large litters are no exception. We usually only completely bottle raise a kid if the doe outright rejects it or there’s some other issue. (Last year we had a KID reject his mom. Go figure!) Otherwise we leave the kids with mom as we feel it’s in the best interest of the kids and does, it’s less work for us and we prefer the personalities of dam raised kids over bottle babies, at least on a large scale. (Bottle babies can be VERY pushy and are not necessarily friendlier than dam raised kids.) As we’re fond of saying, we do have a few goats that were bottle babies, and we love them very much, but a barn full of them would drive us bonkers, lol.

​We find that some of our does can completely feed 4 kids on their own and they can even do a pretty good job of MOSTLY feeding 5. But you do want to be sure that all the kids are getting enough to eat! Instead of pulling kids what we do is we leave the kids with the doe if she accepts them all. Then we go in once or twice a day starting the first day and offer a bottle to each kid. Some kids are obviously hungry pretty quickly and take to the bottle right away while others fight it tooth and nail. We just keep offering every day for a while and see what happens. Sometimes the kids never take to the bottle and the doe seems to be able to feed them by herself. This is more common with quads. But sometimes, especially with quints, one or two of the kids will decide they like the bottle eventually. Sometimes it’s a tiny one and sometimes it’s a bigger kid who knows a good thing when they see it! Either way by giving a supplemental bottle a couple times a day to one or two kids it ensures that all the kids have enough milk but they all also still get to nurse and be with mom and live a normal baby goat life, which, we feel, is very important.

We use fresh raw goat milk from some of our other does in the bottles. Never goat formula! Many breeders consider that stuff to be very bad for goats and we agree. Baby goats should drink goat milk, if at all possible. We have mixed goat milk with whole cows milk from the store in a pinch and have bought goat milk from a friend when we didn’t have enough on hand. One year we had a lot of large litters and only one extra doe in milk so we were unprepared. It was rough! Now we try to stagger breeding so we always have a few heavy producing does in milk before the next bunch kid and we also stockpile frozen goat milk and colostrum for later use.


Usually we offer the supplemental bottles for 5-6 weeks, until the kids are eating hay really well. Then we wean them off the bottles so they are just nursing from mom and eating hay and minerals. (Babies that are ONLY getting bottles are bottle fed until 9-16 weeks, or longer, but if they are also nursing from their mom we figure they can be weaned off of bottles a bit sooner.) We find this method works really well for us because the kids get enough milk but aren’t totally dependent on us like bottle babies would be. It’s kind of the best of both worlds!

So far Lotte’s kids aren’t showing much interest in the bottles and are happily nursing, but we’ll keep offering. We often find that does have more trouble feeding the kids on their own when they have several bucklings in the litter than when they mostly have doelings. Those boys like their milk! So much that they will often sneak nurse from other does besides their own dams. The biggest danger in a large litter is that the big, strong boys will push away any girls or tiny boys and those kids won’t get enough to eat. If you’re not paying attention they can die from starvation or malnourishment so we watch them very carefully. Lotte has 3 big boys and a tiny girl and boy so it’s the little ones that we pay special attention to when we offer the bottles. Time will tell who, if any, take to the bottles but so far they are all doing great!

Grain:
​We don't feed much grain since goats are ruminants and get most of what they need from high our quality alfalfa (and grass or forage) hay and free choice loose Crafts-Min minerals. Roughage (hay, trees, etc), not grain, is what makes milk and keeps goats healthy, so that's the foundation of their diet, while the minerals balance everything out. We do give some grain to does on the milk stand. Our bucks don’t get any grain. Grain is not good for male goats as most grains are high in phosphorus and can cause urinary calculi! Please, don’t feed your male goats grain, especially pet wethers. It can lead to a very sad end. (Alfalfa is ok for bucks and wethers as it actually helps prevent UC. Just don’t overfeed it or they can get too fat!) We have not found a need to feed our bucks grain even during breeding season because they get everything they need from alfalfa hay and CraftsMin loose minerals.

​We don't like to use commercial feeds because of all the GMO's, soy, etc. We also refuse to use any commercial feed that doesn’t use a fixed formula. Therefore we feed either whole oats or rolled barley (or both) to does on the milk stand, nursing does and kids and as an occasional treat to dry does. Sometimes we add a little BOSS (Black oil sunflower seed) for variety.

​Electrolytes:
​When it’s really hot out we give electrolytes to keep the goats hydrated, especially does in milk and young kids. Our brand of choice is Sheep and Goat BlueLite, which we get at Premier 1 Supply.

​Treats:
​We use large alfalfa/grass hay pellets or Manna Pro Saddle Snacks horse treats from Tractor Supply as a treat and the goats and horses love them. If you see the goats or horses mugging my pockets they are looking for these treats! 😆 Some of our goats also enjoy things like animal crackers, raisins, apples, mandarin oranges and such. And a few will knock you down for a banana. We feed all our overripe bananas to them, peels and all. ☺️

That’s the basis of a healthy goat diet: sweet and simple, and relatively inexpensive, when you’re only feeding a few goats, at least! 😆 And in exchange for these food we get plenty of sweet, delicious milk, adorable babies and goat kisses! 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐