photo of the Rosevine Cottage Girls with their animals goats,
Menu
  • Start Here
    • About Us
    • Work With Us
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Devotionals
      • Keep The Faith
      • Spiritual Battles
      • Dry Season Devotional
      • Hope In The Storm
      • Knowing God
      • Godly Parenting
      • Christian Relationships
    • Recipes
    • Home and Garden
      • Animal Care
      • Celebrations
      • DIY Projects
        • Kitchen Remodel
      • Farmhouse Decor
      • Garden Resources
      • Orchard Care
      • Household Hacks
    • Reviews
    • Travel
  • Podcast
  • Books
    • Downpour Learning From Life’s Storms
    • The Garden Journal
    • Christmas Planner
    • The Herb Garden Handbook
  • Shop
    • Our Store
    • The Mercantile
  • Courses
Menu
baby goat laying down | How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

Posted on April 8, 2021April 18, 2021 by Rosevine Cottage Girls
Spread the love

So it’s finally time to wean off those adorable baby goats, but just how do you go about it? We’re going to cover everything you need to know about how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat and make sure the process is easy and as stress-free for you and your goats as possible. 

 

Pin For Later!

young Nigerian dwarf goats | How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

This post contains affiliate links, read our privacy policy for more information.

 

How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

Contents hide
1 How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat
1.1 What Does It Mean To Wean A Goat?
1.2 What Age Should Baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats Be Weaned?
1.3 How Long Does It Take To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat?
2 Guide To How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat
2.1 How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat From A Mom
2.1.1 How To Separate Baby Goats From Their Mother
2.2 How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat Off Of A Bottle
2.2.1 Methods For Weaning A Nigerian Dwarf Goat
2.3 Tips For Successfully Weaning A Nigerian Dwarf Goat
3 What Do You Feed Baby Goats After Weaning
3.1 Related posts:

 

How to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat is really going to depend on your unique situation and will look a bit different on every farm and if your goats are dam raised or bottle babies. 

 

What Does It Mean To Wean A Goat?

 

Weaning is when the milk is removed from the diet of a young goat (called a kid). Usually – but not always – it coincides with the separation of the young from their dam.

 

What Age Should Baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats Be Weaned?

 

When goat kids are offered good quality hay or pasture plus a creep feed, they can be weaned as early as 30 days of age, however, it’s better to wait until 6 to 8 weeks. A better way to decide if our goat kids are old enough to be weaned is by weighing them. When they weigh at least 2 to 2.5 times their birth weight and are eating hay well they can be weaned from their dams or a bottle. 

 

How Long Does It Take To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat?

 

How long it takes to wean a goat is really going to vary and depends on what method you choose to use to wean your goat. For my goats, I like to ease my goats off of milk and on to solid food to reduce the amount of stress my animals are under.

 

Guide To How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

 

The first step to how to wean a goat is deciding when to wean them. Everyone has a different opinion about when to wean Nigerian dwarf goats, some choose to leave their goat kids on a bottle or with their dams longer, while others choose to wean them sooner. Personally, I decided to wean my bottle babies at about 3 months, by this age they are eating hay and grain well and grazing properly. 

 

Before you pick an exact date to wean your goats, figure out what else is going on that week in your life and your goats. You want to minimize the stress on your goats (and yourself) as much as possible. Stress and our goats do not do well together, so you don’t want to add to that by having travel or other stress-causing events while you wean your goats.

 

 Shop Now!

 

Step 2 in how to wean goats is deciding on a method, there are many hybrid ways to raise your got kids. But we’re just going to cover dam-raised and bottle-raised goats. 

 

How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat From A Mom

 

Weaning a baby goat from its dam may be a little easier, typically they learn to imitate other goats from an early age and are foraging and drinking water on their own. Sometimes their mothers will decide when it is time to wean them but if not, you’ll need to decide when to wean them. 

 

How To Separate Baby Goats From Their Mother

 

Often your doe and a baby goat are very closely bonded so separating the baby goat from its mother for weaning can be very stressful on both of them. When it comes time to wean baby goats try separating them for a few hours at a time so they can slowly get used to being away from one another. A good way to do this would be putting them on either side of a fence where they can see each other but the Nigerian Dwarf kids can’t nurse through the fence. 

 

An important thing to remember when it comes to how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat is its dam, you don’t want to remove the goat kids from its mother and then not milk her. If you plan on using the milk for yourself [check out our homemade cheese recipes] you can continue to milk the goat twice a day. If you don’t wish to use the milk you can dry your goat off.

 

How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat Off Of A Bottle

 

How to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat that’s been a bottle baby can be quite a bit easier because they are already used to being away from their moms. Weaning a goat from a bottle is a simple process of offering fewer bottles and less milk per feeding until they are eventually weaned off of the bottle completely. 

 

Methods For Weaning A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

 

One method for how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat is to slowly decrease the number of bottles you are giving your baby goat until you have it to one bottle and then drop that one-off. 

 

Another method for how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat is to decrease the amount of milk in each bottle and then slowly drop off the feedings one by one until they are weaned. 

 

Another way to wean your goat is to simply stop giving them a bottle altogether. This method can be more stressful and may cause lots of complaining on your goat’s part. 

 

Tips For Successfully Weaning A Nigerian Dwarf Goat

 

  • Before you decide how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat, make sure your kids get off to a good start, it’s really important that they have the proper nutrition from birth. 
  • Make sure your kids have a safe, clean environment to be weaned in with plenty of bedding and shelter to keep them out of the storms. 
  • An important thing to keep in mind when it comes to weaning your Nigerian Dwarf goats is to ensure that your weaning pen is secure enough to contain your goat kids. Make sure they can’t squeeze through the fencing or jump over it,  and that gates are low to the ground so they can’t slide under. 
  • Another really important aspect of how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat is to make sure they have plenty of fresh clean water to drink. Adding electrolytes to the water for the first couple of days post-weaning gives kids a boost during what can be a stressful period

 

 

 

 

What Do You Feed Baby Goats After Weaning

 

Once your baby goats are weaned make sure they have plenty of hay, plus access to forage and minerals. Fresh clean water is always important when it comes to goats, so make sure they always have water. 

 

Did we answer all your questions about how to wean a Nigerian Dwarf goat? If not drop them below and we will do our best to answer them.

 


 

 

Before you go, check these out!

  • The Beginner Guide For Caring For Nigerian Dwarf Baby Goats
  • How To Bottle Feed A Nigerian Dwarf Goat Kid
  • Should You Raise Guinea Fowl And Chickens Together?
  • 80+ Of The Best Gifts For Homesteaders

Related posts:

Should You Raise Guinea Fowl And Chickens Together?
Chicken Frostbite | How To Identify And Care For Frostbite In Your Flock
Duck Coop: The Beginner's Guide To Housing Ducks

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Meet The Rosevine Cottage Girls

Hi we’re the Rosevine Cottage Girls, Brianna, Cheyenne, and Tracy. A Mother and twin daughters living in beautiful middle Tennessee with our veteran dad and husband Mr. Cottage. We’re always up to something here at Rosevine Cottage whether that is redecorating some space in the house, working in the garden, or playing with the animals. Read more…

Connect With Us!

The Latest

  • Making Butter In A Jar In 7 Easy Steps
  • How To Wean A Nigerian Dwarf Goat
  • The Best Homemade Ketchup Recipe
  • Does God Care? A Lesson From The Woman Who Touched Jesus’s Hem
  • The Beginner Guide For Caring For Nigerian Dwarf Baby Goats
Shop Now!

Legal Stuff

  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Sponsored Content Disclosure
AntiqueFarmHouse
©2021 | Design by Superb