No Kidding Around - How to Care for a Baby Goat

But if you are to keep a baby goat as a pet, you need to get well-versed with the basics of its care. You have to understand what is good for it, what is bad for it, and so on.

Just like in the case of other animals or humans, the kid has to be left alone with the mother goat for the first few weeks, especially the first 24 hours. The lining of the goat's digestive system is only able to take in the colostrum within the first 24 hours of its birth, after which it changes.

Colostrum is the first milk produced by mother goat after giving birth. It is rich in various nutrients, proteins, antibodies and thus, helps in protecting the kid from various diseases.

The next thing that you have to make sure is to have a place where the kid can sleep. The place should be warm and dry, and should be protected from the rain and sun. Make sure that the place is not drafty. Pile up some hay for the kid to sleep on. If it's winter, make sure that you have a heat lamp placed in the shed or the barn to keep the place warm.

Baby goats have to be fed regularly. Since it has a small stomach, you might have to feed the kid at least 4 to 5 times a day. This is yet another reason why it's best that you keep the baby with its mother the first few days. You can feed it goat's milk with the help of a feeding bottle. The kid will refuse at first, but you have to be patient.

In order to prevent any health problem, you will have to take proper care of the baby goat. Deworm it on a regular basis, trim its hooves, give it required vaccines when it is three weeks old. For vaccination, you can contact a vet who will guide you with the same. With a warm and damp cloth, clean its ears, legs, hooves, and face regularly.

Now that you are familiar with the caring aspect, it's the time for you put on your thinking cap and come up with a good name for it.