2010 Red Cap Users

Rick you provided me and alot of other people with your formula for red cap. I have only raised one other fawn. This year I decided to raise a doe fawn just to get my family involved. Your formula, at least for me has been nothing but outstanding. She is bigger than some of my fawns in the enclosure. She eats extremely well and has been starting to ween herself. Thanks for taking the time to let us all know the formula. Todd

I second that motion.Mine are growin crazy fast and 2 of my little bucks have freakin bumps already showin on their noggins...Thats crazy at 2 months old!!!!!!!!!!

Straight red cap is workin great for me my doe fawn weighed 32 lbs. last week we had to bring in a week born earlier buck fawn for treatment (wheezing) from the pasture and it weighed 35 lbs.

Dean

Rick

can i get a red cap scedule. And info



send to

john d stoltzfus

5835 n 1000 w

shipshewana in 46565

Here's another update from me...



We are in week 7 with these fawns; still using Rick's method and still going great. I'm still at 10oz 3x a day currently and unless they go the full 12 weeks, I think I'm going to stick with 10oz until weaned. I foresee them beginning to wean themselves anytime now. They're eating grass like crazy, not big on the hay at all really (but would you eat hay when you've got plenty of fresh grass available? lol), and they are also chowing down on the Trophy Image 20 pellets which I've been top-dressing with Probios.



I recently went on a 4 day trip to IL to visit family and had a friend take care of feeding the fawns for me...I swear they've grown considerably just since I've been gone. I think they may be bigger than all our nursed fawns out in the field, which are also all older than they are...some a month or so older.





Taken 7/20/10 - 6 weeks, 1 day old

Say It Ain't So Shadow/Geronimax doe fawn. Shady is so calm that she lets my 6 yo daughter ride her

My fawns are doing great this year, at one time i was feeding 8, but i sold two last month and I will be finishing up with 6 on the bottle. Mine currently range from 9-11 weeks old. They are eating 10 oz. twice a day of red cap mixed with ultra 24 replacer. They are eating grass, alfalfa hay, grain, and sweet corn and apples as treats. They are all as big as mother feds. I am going to 10 oz. 1 time a day this weekend, and will do this for three weeks until finished up. There are several that are weaning themselves of the milk right now anyway. This is my best year for bottlefeeding, and i thank the Lord for that. Also it is great to have this forum when any issues come up, such a helpful bunch of people on this site.

Another update from me... I'm on week 11 and have begun to wean my two girls off. I'm still feeding 10 oz red cap (1 gal mixed with 1/2 cup formula)...but instead of 3x a day, I'm now at 2x a day. Will drop to 1x a day on Monday and the following Monday they'll be on their own. They're eating plenty of pelleted feed and grass so I'm sure they'll be fine.



My plan to help keep them calm is to keep them separated from the main herd until next spring so I can continue to work with them even once they've been put out in the big field...I'll probably put their mom out there with them since she's calm and we don't intend to breed her next season.

Final update from me on this topic...my girls were officially weaned off Sunday. Today was the first day they received no bottle whatsoever. Aside from the runs in the very beginning which were cleared up almost immediately and permanently using Sulmet, everything went VERY well...they're both very large and exceptionally healthy. Once again, thank you Rick for experimenting with this diet and passing the info on to all of us...you can add my two girls to your success stories. I'm just glad to finally have a chance to sleep in... as of today, I've worked 43 days without a single day off work (82 days straight with only a 4 day weekend total this summer)...not usually a huge deal except I live 10 miles from work so feeding 3x a day without actually sticking around doing any other work still meant quite a bit of driving between home and work.



Anyway...just wanted to finish off with the updates...hope the rest of you folks who were using the red cap diet had the same great experience as I did.

This was my first time with red cap. I started weening my fawns last week and just have two late fawns still on the bottle. I have to say that this years fawns were easy to take care of and never had a problem with them. They are all big and healthy, did not lose a fawn this year. I plan to feed em the same way next year.

For those of you talking about nutrient contents of of replacer vs milk. Milk replacers were made famous by the milk industry because they were cheaper to feed the baby cows than the milk they were selling. They realized that if they crank up the nutrient contents they could get the cow to market quicker and they didn't really care about scoures as they could medicate them as long as they pulled the meds x ammount of days prior to slaughter. This then spiiled over into other industrys.... goat/sheep etc. If you look at the nutrient content of raw goats milk VS. Raw cows milk it is very close and even very close to human milk. In fact if you look at the data most breast milk is in this nutrient range give or take a few minor differences and all of them have half the protein and half the fat content of the best replacer. So the argument of red cap vs replacer is simply do you want a more natural approach or a quicker approach with a greater chance of problems which can cause setbacks ( which explains why real milk fed deer can out grow their replacer fed cousins.) Also, it is common knowledge that replacers kill kids in the goat industry not very many goat farmers will feed replacers unless absoutly necessary.

Harley, even though this particular thread is already a year old, Id say 2 questions need to be asked and answered. Too many had asked what the milk lacked, and why replacers? Or better, why we mix both. Simple answer to go research...copper and butterfat. Those of you on lamb replacers, ask yourselves if sheep cant have high copper levels, yet fawns require copper for growth...? Also, check fat level requirements for different species. I dont think we can call just milk, or any fawn feed schedule a success in the first year. Follow through until its an adult, and the rumen is developed, etc, and see how performance has proven it. I hope we are all on the right track!

lol Crap bill I didnt even realize it was a yr old. And yes Copper is important animals should have free choice minerals from birth as well IMO. But like you said they have to have the proper ammounts. I leared early in my goat rearing days that sheep and goat feed from rural king didn't have enough copper for goats. My critters get damn near enough minerals from their native browse though it takes them almost 8 mos or better to work down a mineral block. They hit the minerals harder in the winter when most of their roughage is cheap hay and their carbs come from grain.