🍼 Goat kid

A goat kid is a baby goat. A goat carries her young for about 150 days. Twins are most common, but there can be one kid or three.

In its first hours of life a kid needs colostrum, the mother's first milk, full of protective substances. It must be given as early as possible, ideally in the first few hours and no later than 18 hours. After a day the gut almost stops absorbing these substances. If kids are hand-fed, colostrum is given in small amounts several times a day. Extra colostrum can be frozen for orphans.

After that, the kid's main food is milk. It is best given often and in small amounts, so the kid does not get a stomach ache. At first, milk bypasses the rumen, the large part of the stomach meant for grass. The rumen grows once the kid starts eating hay and grain. So from as early as two weeks it is given feed and good hay. Kids are usually weaned off milk at about three months.