The instinct of a Nanny goat is amazing. This beautiful red boer Nanny is nudging her baby doeling to get her up to eat. When goat babies are laying down napping the Nanny goat will wake them up to eat after a certain period of time.
From the time of birth to about a week old she will patiently stand and let them nurse as long as they want. This Nanny had triplets and she does this with all 3! Even I think it exhausting and I am just observing.
However, by the time they are 2 to 3 weeks old they are lucky to get in a 15 second nursing sessions. At this age they typically nurse every hour or two. Twins will punch the Nanny's bag so hard to get her milk to drop, they raise both back feet off the ground. They also drink more milk at a much faster rate. They get more aggressive with nursing as they age.
The Nanny goat starts to teach them to browse and nibble from day one. They want to be just like Mom so they will do what ever she does. We are raising a set of twins that a first time Mom rejected. We make sure these twins spend all day in the pasture with their baby goat friends so they can pass along everything their Nanny's are teaching them to the twins. They have taught them how to eat grain and hay. We did not do this with our first bottle babies and we could never understand why they didn't eat grain although everything I studied said to have it available to them at all times.
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