Bottle Babies

No. My kids are always dam raised unless something happens to make it necessary to bottle feed.

I am new to this also but I have decided Dam raised is best for me, I could have never took my does kids from them unless I had to. They love their kids and would be very upset if I took them. Everyone has to decide for themselves what is best in their situation.

Are the babies tame and very friendly

If you choose to bottle raise, it is easier to pull them right away and bottle them from the beginning.

There are a lot of threads on here about it. Just do a search.

I bought bottle babies and loved it. But when I start having babies and still have the does then they can do all the work. It is fun the first time. But I won't do that again unless I have to. I lost one of my babies to and it was a killer heart break. It will still be sad if I lose babies but maybe not as bad since I won't be bottle raising them. I think I hot to attached. Lol

ryork said:

Are the babies tame and very friendly

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My kids are 10 days old, 6 days old, and 3 days old. The 10 day old buckling climbs all over me and treats me just like he treats his Mom. The twin 6 day olds the buckling is friendlier then the doeling, but she lets me pick her up and pet her and does not run from me she just prefers Mom to me. The 3 day old twin doelings let me pet all over them and pick them up but also prefer Mom to me. My bucklings seem a lot more independent then my doelings so that may be why they are friendlier. I have spent a lot of time handling them from birth and helped my does clean all the babies so I believe they have known my scent since birth. The very friendly buckling was crazy and wild even before he was born so we would play with him in Mom's belly. We even called him by name before he was born.

Ryork, if you are raising on CAE prevention, you pull before momma can sniff or lick.

I prefer to dam raise as well. I have a mixture of bottle babies and dam raised. If you give all the kids tons of love, they all grow up equally friendly. My friendliest doe is Patti, she was dam raised. This year I had quads ... two were given the bottle, two were not. They were all equally friendly as well.

I've had friendly bottle kids, and not-friendly bottle kids. It's not a guarantee, all of the kids need lots of love and socialization.

If you want a mixture, you could leave on momma, then teach the kids to take a bottle and just supplement them with a bit of milk. That way you get a bottle baby, that still gets to be with momma. If I had a herd too large to socialize all the kids, that's what I'd do.

It's a personal choice! Try it one way, figure out what works for you. :thumb:

My dam raised kids are very friendly( almost PITB friendly!)....I think it has to do with spending time with them, not necessarily feeding