Every day the human looks at my girl Pebbles and says, "Don't you think you should wean those girls?" or "You might want to think about weaning them."
What do you think? Do they look like they are ready to wean? They're only four months old, still babies really. Meg seems to think they are too big for nursing.
I say there's nothing like mother's milk to have big healthy babies. If you don't believe me look at these two.
It's Mo and Heather, two of Scarlet's triplets. Look again at how nice and healthy they are.
Poor Misty is the third triplet. I don't think she gets much milk at all anymore. That's because we goats are not supposed to have litters of kids, and Misty was always just a bit weaker.
Life stinks when you're the third triplet and there's only two spigots to drink from. That's why I only have one or two babies at a time. How about these two?
They were great until the human ran out of real goat's milk for their bottles, and they don't like the milk replacer (who can blame them?). Now they are a lot like Misty--wormy, scours, pot-bellied things. Don't worry, the human has treated them for the worms. Eventually, they will grow and eat the herbal wormer and get their stomachs settled down, but it isn't the best way for a kid to start.
As far as I'm concerned, Sugar and Spice are perfectly fine still nursing!
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Our Tardy is four months old as well, and he still nurses at every given opportunity. I must say he has been taller than his momma for a couple of weeks now. People who come to visit don't believe us that China is the momma nd Tardty is her baby boy, born in the last week of February..
Do you keep milking the momma as soon as you wean the babies? If not, does she dry up by herself?
Pebbles is a bit "don't touch me unless there is corn," and she sometimes thinks the human is evil. She'll just dry up on her own. I'll get milked as soon as my babies are weaned.
Maybe if you weaned your babies you could let your human share some of your milk with the other little ones that need it? LOL I am guessing that idea would go over big with you :O).
So far all our does have singles or twins. No triplets.
Oh, I so don't see Pebbles letting that happen. I have been the victim of nursing bandits myself, and I must say, we have to take care of our own.
We try and wean at two months here but it doesn't always work. The kids go into a separate pen at night at one month so the nanny can be milked in the morning and then we try and place them at two months.
But Matthew stayed on the farm and he nursed for close to nine months as much as we tried to discourage him.
That's even longer than Joe. She was about seven months before she finally quit nursing.
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