Feeding Milk Back

When a goat is lactating, she is putting a lot of the calories and nutrients that she eats into her milk. They go through her, but don't benefit her. Sometimes, does have a hard time to keep from losing weight, especially the first few months after they kid. One thing some folks do to help reverse this weight loss is to feed some of the does' milk back to her, if she will drink it. I don't recommend feeding another goat's milk to her, as this could sabotage safe herd disease management. However, feeding some of her own milk back provides calories and nutrients, and can help to improve overall condition.

How do you convince a goat to drink a bucket of her own milk? Well...we just suggest it by putting it near her face. Either she drinks or she doesn't. Some of our does won't drink warm milk, but we have one doe who will bury her face almost up to her eyes in a warm bucket of milk, and drink it all as fast as she can. We have to watch her now, because if she gets the opportunity she will dive head-first into any unattended milk bucket. She is quite proficient at getting the lid off!

Now...we have never had a self-sucker on the farm, and I don't believe feeding the milk back will encourage it. All the goats I have known about who will drain their own udders dry were lacking in minerals. When they were put on a quality goat mineral, they stopped the self-sucking.