I need to wean my first mini, advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Whispering_Pines]

Hello Everyone-

Little Tilly is 5 months old, and I need to start weaning her, I am in the process of finishing up our new barn and without that being finished I can not wean her, it should be ready within the next 3 weeks or so. I only have two options of who I can put with Tilly and one of those options is her two goat friends, the other option is a 3 year old little mare, who tolerates her just fine. How do I go about this weaning thing. Tilly is doing fine,eats hay, grain, is halter broke etc. She will wander all over our property, not much caring where her mom is (though I am sure she knows at all times) I have been dreading this day!

Val

 

[AnnaC]

Hi Val, good to hear from you again! It sounds as though Tilly is well on the way to being weaned naturally. When you are ready perhaps you could leave Tilly with her two goat friends and use the 3 year old mare to keep Momma company? Just decide on a day and go ahead and separate them into their two groups, job done! Be prepared to keep an eye on Momma mare's udder - it will probably fill up once Tilly stops suckling, but should reduce slowly over the next couple of weeks as the milk supply dries up, providing you dont get tempted to milk a little off to ease the 'swelling'. I would keep them apart for a couple of months just to be sure that Tilly doesn't try nursing again - I have had a few that do and some mares will let them! Once everyone is well settled, they can all go back to living together again if this is your plan.

Good luck - it would be lovely to see some pics of the girls.

 

[Marty]

No to the goats. And if they have any kinds of horns, no never with the goats.

I've never ever had a problem weaning and as far as nursing, I do it cold turkey. I'm not one of those that lets them nurse a little bit at a time and go back and forth with it. Once the day arrives, that's the end of the nursing completely. By 5 months old, they are nursing much less anyhow. I remove usually the mare and allow the baby to stay with already established friends. Its that easy. As long as they can see each other, they are fine. I've not had any crying problems or pacing or any of that. Put her with the 3 year old little mare but be sure she can see her mama and all should be well without any drama. Be sure you don't lock either of them up away where they cannot see eachother, for instance like one in the barn and the other one outside. .That's how you get in really big huge trouble and then all heck will break loose. They always need to have each other in view even though you think they don't care much about it, they do need access within their sight when they want it. Just not any access to the nursing. Just mama in one fence and the baby in another fence. Then a stall for each, preferably side by side where they can still nuzzle. They both can be in at the same time and they both can be out at the same time. The day you begin to wean is the day you 'starve" your mare as feed/grains is what produces the milk and mama will dry up nicely for you. Hay/grass only. NO food. Once they are weaned, I don't put them back in the same fenced in area for many months and that is because I had a couple of sneaky ones that began to nurse a couple of months after I weaned. By all means feed your filly well and you can make 3 feedings a day for her. I'd suggest creep feeding but that would be hard with the other mare involved. With all this being said, I also start my weanlings on ulcer meds and probios a few days ahead of the weaning process to cover my bases. Ulcers in babies is very common and I learned early on that will save you a bunch of headache later on. Best wishes to you.

 

[Whispering_Pines]

Okay-Thanks for your advice- I can seperate their stall in the barn so they can touch noses but that would be about it, there would be a fence between them in the pasture, but again they can touch noses. I get so many different opinions on the goats, they have been with Tilly since the day she was born, they have never been seperated. One is polled and my female goat does have horns, but honestly I don't worry about her. My gelding was more of a harm to Tilly than anyone else, he attacked her this summer when she accidently got over to his side of the fence, she still has the lump on her back to show for it. The goats for miniature fainting goats, half the size of Tilly. What ulcer preventative medication would you give her and for how long?

 

[Whispering_Pines]

Here are some fun pictures from the summer. School visits and our nursing home visits.

 

[MiniNHF]

At least with our TB babies, we would wean them all together in the same field and make sure they were on the opposite side of the farm from the moms. Once they settled down we would graduate a older horse in with them, most of the time it was my gelding. If we had any colts, when it was time we would seperate them from the fillies and the fillies would go back with the mares and the colts would stay with my gelding and get seperated down the road as they matured.

The first time we ever weaned our TB babies (which was gosh back in 1997), the next morning we found them back in the fields with their moms. Some how the broodmares untied and unlatched the gate of their field (tied with a lead rope) and then went across the farm to the other field and untied and unlatched the gate to the babies field to get them back. To this day we still couldnt believe that. Lets just say we changed the locking mechanisms on the gates after that even though they were bran spanking new and "horse proof" before.

 

[Miniv]

I agree with Marty's advice.

To add.... The Farmers Almanac gives a date or dates that are best for weaning in each month. I've used that and had success. We wean our foals very much like what Marty described. We also do the buddy system since we have more than one foal close in age at a time. Because you have only one baby, keeping her with the other mare who she's familiar with is better than the goats, in my opinion.

 

[Whispering_Pines]

Well I have officially weaned them and they have been seperated for over 24 hours. Though I am sure I did this different than others have, but at this time it is working for us. Tilly was with the other mare, but that mare was not very nice to Tilly and kept trying to bite her. I then swtiched that mare around with the goats that were with Ginny and put them with Tilly. That is working, Ginny and Deliliah are getting along fine. Tilly and Ginny can touch noses, they share the same stall in the barn sperated by a gate, that is Tilly proof. No crying for each other yet. I think Tilly had been self weaning for a bit already, nursing very little throughout the day.