# Goat drinking her own milk???



## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

I just bought a Saanen doe who lost her baby and is still producing milk. She seems healthy, but a little on the thin side. This evening after milking her I turned my back and she was drinking out of the bucket of milk. I figured it was ruined, so I let her have it. Is this ok? I will let her have more if it will help her gain some weight.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Not a problem.


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## Eunice (Feb 9, 2005)

Health wise, drinking her own milk is good, but if you want to use it for house or others, it can be a bad habit. I have a six year old Alpine that loves milk. She will empty every bucket she can get her head to. I just have to make sure I don't set it down where she can reach it.


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## Heritagefarm (Feb 21, 2010)

Yes. Once they drink their own milk they have to put down, otherwise it can create SEROUS health issues





NO just kidding!! I'd only be worried if she managed to drink out of her own udder...


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## shiandpete.1 (Aug 13, 2008)

We have one who loves her own milk! The night she kidded I had to wrestle the bucket away from her so I had colostrum for her babies.


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

Just don't let her drink anyone else's milk.


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

I have fed milk back to does who produced very heavily or were in poor condition. It helps put the flesh back on them. You can also give her black oil sunflower seeds and good hay. The more grain you give her, the more she'll produce, which will make her thinner. 

As long as she doesn't self suck, you don't need to get rid of her or put her down. But if you want the milk, you will have to put it somewhere else before you let her out of the milking stand...not a big problem in my book.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Drinking her own milk is fine, and yes she is likely to put on weight faster unless their are other causes for the thinness.
Don't let her drink anyone elses milk.
I don't encourage this type of behavior for the simple reason that one a doe starts she is always on the look out for a bucket of milk to get into.:teehee:


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## Heritagefarm (Feb 21, 2010)

What I'd like to know is how the doe would even have access to the bucket.:huh:


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## mpete (Mar 4, 2008)

A friends goat, who had never drunk her own milk kidded triplets one day, tried to drink her milk and then ended up dying of hypocalcimia the next night. Could drinking the milk be a symptom of low calcium?


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## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

It is extremely annoying to have a doe who nurses herself. May your goat never discover this evil tendency. Some goats like people are very oral, and I had a saanen/lamancha doe who had a nice long body but not long enough. While she was laboring with her first kid, her dam stood by concernedly, and allowed the laboring doe to nurse. I don't know how she made the connection to her own teats, though. She kept the drugstore in cash for all the medical tape I used to tape her teats. Trouble was, she was a generous milker with easy teats and stood for me like a dream.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Heritagefarm said:


> What I'd like to know is how the doe would even have access to the bucket.:huh:


I let her off the milking stand and turned my back for a minute...and there she was with her head in the bucket!!!


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