This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bottle Rearing Fawns with Goat Milk

8

8ReindeerSteve

Joined Apr 2011
40 Posts | 0+
Kenosha, WI
Does anyone have advise about bottle raising 2012 whitetail fawns with goat's milk? I am entertaining the idea, but not sure to go with milk replacers or goat's milk.



Have experience bottle rearing hoofstock like reindeer calves, goat kids, nilgai, zebra foals, beef cattle, bison and others. Nearly always used good quality milk replacers...



Used Land O' Lakes Lamb milk replacer with the reindeer, fed with prichard teat and soda bottles.



Those of you using goats milk, do you pasturize or no?
 
We have pretty much gone to feeding cows milk and milk replacer, but we have used unpasteurized goats milk transitioning to milk replacer quite a bit in the past. It would, of course, be better to use pasteurized, but we had very little problem as we did it. I no longer think it's worth the extra money to use goats milk, however.
 
Jeff,



When you say cows milk and milk replacer, are you mixing the milk replacer with the cows milk (in place of water)?
 
Straight cows milk is the easiest and you will have very good results. We feed them all they want til their bellies are full. You can not do this with replacers cause they will bloat but with straight whole milk you can and they do great.
 
2 years ago i used goat milk and had excellent results. I was concerned because it was not pasteurized and decided to go with straight red cap ( cows milk) right off the grocery store shelf. I had excellent results again and will continue to use red cap. It is also ALOT less expensive than goat milk and is pastuerized. I may go with a cup of replacer per gallon this year simply because it can provide some additional beneficial nutrients.
 
In my humble opinion (IMHO)- next to mamma's milk, there is no better milk than GOAT milk that has been pasteurized, from a healthy goat (with no Johnne's disease). I have never seen pellets as nice as with those produced from goat's milk.



Land o' lakes milk replacer?. I have not heard good things about it at all.

Fox Valley is well-reputed, but expensive.



See Fawn care guidelines, by Dr. Clifford Shipley

http://www.deerfriendly.com/management/fawn-care
 
First I would like to say thank you to all of you who posted responses. It is nice to hear what works for different people!



I have read some postings from the old forums, and saw that although several used Land O' Lakes, many thought bad things of it.."weak bones"....and "no added calcium"



Is this true? We have used it for years with the reindeer. However, we started mixing the powdered replacer with whole milk as a substitution of the water portion, and it worked great. Best weight gain we have had on a bottle reared reindeer calf.



But getting back to goat milk. I would like to give it a shot. I agree, wouldn't want it coming from dairy goats with a history of Johne's. Perhaps a Johne's free certified goat dairy?



Lanasvet thanks for the links, checking that out now:)
 
In Iliinois if you don't use pasturized goat milk the herd you get your goats milk from also have to be TB tested and bruccelocous certified or you will lose your accredication We used straight red cap cows milk with good results/
 
Steve,

Yes, we mix whole milk (red cap) and milk replacer. It increases the fat and protein content of the milk. Maybe goat milk is better, I just can't say that from experience. (Although many on here have more experience than me.) Also, we haven't had problems with bloating doing it that way (replacer + cows milk).
 
Tried goat milk this year and was very happy!!!!! will not go back to replacer!!

Big healthy fawns!! Good Luck!!



Scott Neeb

Chanllow Farms
 
Virgil,

More or less. We have a given amount we shoot for, but when we leave they aren't climbing up for more, nor is there usually much left in the bottles. Some of that depends on the schedule, too. How many times a day you feed can determine how easy it is to get a filling amount into them. The milk replacer we use has a probiotic/prebiotic in with it, so I think that helps too.
 
Goat's milk is hard for me to find so I went with replacer for one year and did not like it so I went to red cap. I have had great result's with my bottle fed's since I switched to red cap. I do mix 1 cup of replacer with 1 gallon of milk. Also mix probiotic's in the first and last bottle of the day and give the fawn's Albon in the last bottle of the day for the first 3 or 4 day's. I do not feed all that they want, I know some do and have good luck that way as well.
 
Steve,

Key Calf 2 by Agri King (they are based in Illinois, but have a lot of regional reps in my area). I used to work for them, so I knew about it from that. It has their probiotic/prebiotic mixed in it and works great. It is very reasonable priced as well. We have had almost no scours using it.
 
Our first year fawning we used goat milk and lost all but 1 then we went to vit D milk and re placer and had the biggest fawns and they where very healthy will be using it again this year good luck to everyone itll be here before we know it ps we used 1/2 cup replacer to 1 gal of vitD MILK
 
Hello to all,


 


My question is when feeding a fawn goats milk do I water it down or give it straight?  Can they be fed cows milk or should I stick with goats milk?  At what age should I start weaning her?   Thanks to all who answer
 
Goats milk is the best. We fed it straight and no problems. We got ours from an Amish goat farmer and it was raw!!! Yes raw I even drank it!!!
 
we have a large goat dairy [ my parents and brother]  and i raise whitetails we fed pasterized goat milk this year, first year bottlefeeding no probs so far deer look great,  no doubt raw milk is always better nutritously,  it can kill your fawns.  just food for thought.  deer can get diseases from goats even if the goats are clean, not counting salmo, ecoli, etc from RAW goat milk, we can also get sick..  we have a disease free closed goat herd and i will not feed my fawns raw goat milk.  I have drank raw so have my kids, just here and there though.
 

Similar threads

B
Fawn needs help!! Already lost one!!
Replies
3
Views
2K
Mikesmith79
M
jerrilee cave
bottle raising fawns
Replies
27
Views
11K
2023doefawn
2
D
Losing fawns. Need advice ASAP please
Replies
27
Views
7K
yranchwhitetails
Y
T
? on increasing fawn milk
Replies
6
Views
2K
The Legacy Studio
T
R
Questions about Feeding A Fawn
Replies
2
Views
4K
IndependenceRanch
IndependenceRanch