How do we get momma goat to recognize her 2 day old kid?

Question

New kid is 2 days old. Momma & baby were doing very well. They had bonded and kid was nursing well. This evening hubby & I checked baby's navel. I had read in book you should put Iodine on it to help prevent infection. So we put some Iodine on baby's cord. Also had went by farm store and they had premixed colostrum with vitamins. Since it is so cold here I thought that might help give baby a boost. We got a small amount of it down baby. However when hubby sat baby down in stall, momma goat would not have anything to do with baby. She keeps pushing baby away. It has been several hours now and baby is crying for momma and vice versa yet they are in same stall. It is horrible because baby can't figure out why momma keeps pushing her away. Is there any way we can get momma to recognize her baby. Is it the Iodine smell that is causing her to push baby away? Please, Please help. We are really attached to this little baby. It is our first. (I guess you can tell that!)

Answer 1

I doubt if it is the iodine smell, we iodine every baby and have never had a rejection due to iodine. Also, we handle our babies daily from birth and even with the most wild of moms, it has never caused one to reject her baby. We HAVE had babies rejected before, but it was caused by things like a sore udder (too full), or a first timer with more than one kid, that would only care for her firstborn. The first thing to check is Mom's udder. Check to see that she has adequate milk but not too much, if the udder is hard or warm to the touch, or does not milk out easily, she may either be overly full of milk or be starting to get an infection called mastitis. If her udder is too full, it will be sore and it will also be difficult for the baby to latch on and get a meal. You will have to milk her out some to soften up the udder so it's less painful and the baby can latch on. This is a very common problem heavy milkers with only a single kid. The baby simply does not take enough milk the first few days to keep mom comfortable....she starts to hurt and then doesn't want baby anywhere near her udder.

If that isn't the problem, it's most likely that she smells the colostrum you fed the baby. She can smell milk that didn't come from her. The way goat moms recognize their babies is that they can smell their own milk. To counteract....you need to milk her and feed the baby so the baby smells "right" again. You may have to do it a few times. Keep trying to get them together, but don't leave them together unsupervised if Mom is getting violent toward baby. Just pushing away isn't going to hurt the baby, but if she is headbutting her hard don't leave them together. If the baby is cold, a safe source of heat is an outdoor heating pad meant for dogs. Just make sure that the baby can get away from the pad if he/she wants to, because they can also get too warm. The baby doesn't need any supplements as long as mom is healthy and producing enough milk....she has everything her baby needs.

As for the iodine, it should be put on as soon as possible after birth. The infections can be picked up because the cord is wet and they can travel to the navel via the damp cord. At 2 days old the cord should have already been dry and it's debatable whether the iodine would even be able to prevent anything at that point.

Answer 2

All of the above answers are good so far. It definitely isn't the iodine smell. I have goats and we always put iodine on the navel after they are born to prevent infection. Our goats have never rejected their babies because of this. Goats recognize their offspring by the smell of their rear end (and what comes out of it). It is most likely the colostrum that you gave the baby- If the baby was already nursing, you didn't really need to do that unless the mother rejected the baby immediatly after birth and the baby wasn't getting any milk. The smell of the kid's rear end was different and that's why she's not letting it nurse now- It doesn't smell like her kid. You could tie her up and try to get the baby to nurse, but that's always a pain in the butt and very frustrating. You could also milk the mother and feed the kid her milk until she lets him nurse again. Or you could try putting a small amount of vick's vapor rub on the mother's nose and see if that works. We have done this successfully in the past to get a goat to let another goat's offspring nurse off of her. If all else fails you can bottle feed the baby. I hope this helps and good luck!

Answer 3

Try putting some of the iodine on the mother goat.
I think the smell if the iodine is foreign to her, but if she smells it all the time, maybe she will re-accept the kid.
Then again, maybe it isn't the iodine, but the colostrum you gave the kid. Mother goats can tell their kids by the smell of their own colostrum. You shouldn't get involved with feeding the kid at all if it's healthy, best thing is let nature take it's course. If you can't get the mother to feed the kid, you will have to feed it every 2 hours yourself.

We had to do just the opposite of what you did.
One goat had 3 kids and another had only one.
In general if you don't manage the mom with the 3 kids, the weakest one will perish.
We saw that happening and decided to do something different.
First we put a minute amount of perfume on the rump of the kid that had no siblings and made sure mom would accept the kid back. Then we took one of the healthier kids from the mom with 3 and gave it to the mom with only 1 after putting some of the perfume on it..
At first the mom was confused, but eventually after sniffing both kids, she eventuall nursed them both.
Once her natural colostrum got into both kids, she treated them equal.
One more interesting note, we once had a goat that had 5 kids born at once, the runt died soon after birth, but managing the feeding ( letting all the kids have a turn ) , 4 kids survived.
One more important thing, if you have more than 1 mom raising kids at the same time, be sure the kids can't get away from the mother. If if gets near the other mom who's feeding her own kids, she might kill it to protect her own.

Answer 4

I don't have goats but I have had sheep for 20 years. It might be the iodine but I would suspect the colostrum. Mothers bond with their babies early by the smell of the (kid in your case) but later with the smell of the rear end. Sheep can smell their own milk passing through the lamb and will push away anything that doesn't smell right. Newly born animals are very fragile and you don't have a lot of time. If the mother is still pushing the kid away for another day you have to bottle feed. I have found that the bond between mother and lamb is pretty good but when it goes wrong it stays wrong. I have read tricks that you can use. One is to restrain the goat allowing the kid to feed. After a day of that the goat will start to smell her milk in the kid. Don't feed any other supplements during this time unless you need to save the kid. The other suggestion I have if you cannot restrain is to milk the goat and feed the kid the mother's mile accomplishing basically the same thing. Keep the kid warm to slow the loss of calories while this is going on. I have bottle fed and it isn't the end of the world. The 2am feedings only last a week and then 4 times a day aren't that hard.

Answer 5

It could be the iodine smell or the colostrum from another animal. Try to tie the momma's head to a corner so the kid can nurse. I think that one the kid is nursing on the momma's milk and smells just of that milk, it'll be OK. I have heard of doing this with sheep if the momma dies. You tie the foster mom so she can't push the orphan away and in 48 hours, she will usually accept the new baby as her own.

I hope this helps!

Answer 6

You just need to let them alone. The more human stuff you do to the kidd the more the momma won't deal with her. We had goats when I was a child and we had to stay completely away from them for the first 3 months. If momma still won't feed the kidd tomorrow then you will have to take over and bottle feed baby to keep her alive. The colostrum that you gave to baby may have had a smell from another momma about it and now she will not have any thing to do with baby. Let nature take it's course from now on with the farm animals so that things go the way they should. I am so sorry you had to learn this the hard way but you will be able to keep kidd rock alive yourselves if momma refuses again. Good luck!

Answer 7

No, it is not the Iodine.

We have been raising goats for 6 years and dip every navel.

Is this her first kid? Sometimes they don't know what to do.
Milk some milk from her and drip it down his/her back.
This will put her scent there and MAKE sure the kid is drinking 1-2 ounces of milk every two hours. Colostrum is VERY important for the kid to have, so milk her and use her milk.

You can email me directly if you need more help, but get the milk in is the best advise I can give right now.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Aww, we just had our first baby goats! =] Congrats on that. But as for the mama, she smells you on the baby, or she smells the iodine. My mom raises puppies and we have had this same problem. I would try to make the baby smell like her mama again... put the mama and rub the smell on the baby, rub the bedding on the baby, whatever you can do. If that doesn't work, you could try and make the mom let the kid nurse, but that's ot a guarantee. It could be too far gone. You may have to raise this little baby yourself. I wish you the best of luck! You will love this baby, they are quite hilarious!

Answer 9

Maybe the iodine is messing things up - mothers and babies bond through smell more than anything. Maybe wash off the iodine and cover the kid with its mother's smell using a towel or something she's laid on, then do the same with the kid and the mother.

Answer 10

this is the idea i have... b/c you and your hubby have put "your" smell on that baby the momma may have just pushed it away for that reason. momma goats are funny like that you may have to raise the baby yourselves or take an old towel or shirt and rub the momma where the smell will be on that item and then rub the baby with that item and give that baby that smell again!!