# Introducing bottle baby to herd?



## weisemaries (Apr 13, 2011)

I have a bottle baby that will be 3 weeks old on Wednesday. So far he has lived in my kitchen in a big box with dailey romps outside with my daughter. I am ready to evict him from his box. When would it be safe to put him in with my little herd? I have two yearling does. One is due to kid early June and I do not think the other one took. Do you think he would be fine with them, or should I put him in a pen by himself til he gets bigger? He is a Lamancha and they are nubians. What would you do in same situation?


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

I would not put them in with the does. Could you get him a buddy around the same age and then put him in a pen outside? I have three bottle babies here now that only go out with the herd if I am out there with them. They are 8, 10 and almost 12 weeks.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

Our youngest babies are a month old and the oldest baby is three weeks older. The two bucklings went into their own buck pen, but we put the doeling in with the does. She does fine out there.


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## CaliannG (Apr 29, 2005)

Doelings go in with the does and bucklings go in with the bucks at a little over a month. But I built "escape areas", like creeps, where just the babies can get into if they need to get away from the older ones.

I would also get the baby a friend near his age.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

If your barn and pens aren't crowded, the baby should have ample area to get away from the other goats. Offering secondary housing if it gets butted out of the barn is a good idea. Perhaps a dog cage in a separate place in your barn (where your other goats can't ram it) would be ideal for night time quarters, and let it out with the rest of the herd during the day, at least at first. I've moved bottle kids out with the main herd as young as a month old or so, even singles, and they did fine. The older goats WILL rough them up but they shouldn't HURT the kid, especially if they're used to it following you around while you do chores. Get them used to one another and slowly transition it to outside. No need to go find another goat, IMO.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

We put ours out with the herd which includes does, young weathers and a buck. They will always get picked on a little bit but not usually hurt. Have had a couple of times over the years where one of them was limping for a couple days from being butted. I don't like it but what are you gonna do. They need to be with the herd to learn to browse, eat hay, drink and just be a goat.


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## FrogTacos (Oct 25, 2011)

Mine all went out into the general population as soon as they were taking the bottle well (3 days to a week old.) I penned them at night as it was cold so they would stay good and warm, but otherwise no special precautions were taken.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I've noticed that goats are generally gentle with NEW babies. They butt them away gently. Once they get older, they butt them harder because they can generally take it. 

Your main problems at this age are going to be introducing them slowly to their new herdmates, and making sure you have ample room for babies to access housing, feed, hay, water etc without having to compete too much.


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## weisemaries (Apr 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the replys and good advice! We are going to put him with the does for a couple of hours after we get home from work this evening and see how they do. He will come back in the kitchen for the night. We will work him in slowly. Tried looking for a buddy, but all of our deals keep falling through. We keep lining them up, but someone picks them up before we do.


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## wintrrwolf (Sep 29, 2009)

I didn't get a buddy for Pebbles because well I didn't want to risk disease. Pebbles was in the house (large dog crate) until a week ago. Moved the dog crate out to the doe stall and she is now sleeping there. I go out and give her her bottle but she spends her time with my 2 does, the area is large enough for her to get away from them with her crate as a safe area. She still follows me around when everyone is out for graze time, but she is finally learning to be a goat


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