Here's a little bit about our feeding schedule. It's pretty simple: The goats always have hay to eat--it never runs out, but they don't love it. However, during the growing season, we start the day by giving them two enormous armloads of brush--honeysuckle and euonymous, mainly, which they do love. And by enormous, I mean, I am like the cartoon villain who "hides" behind a tree as he sneaks around.
The problem is that those enormous loads are decimated by noon, and their hay goes untouched. When they see us, they scream, and if we restock with more brush, they will tear into it gladly. But we are not willing to stop midday to get them more brush. I don't feel like it's too much to ask that they help us out by eating hay, but I'm concerned whether they will harm their health by holding out for something better.
Thoughts? Am I just a silly helicopter granny? Or is this a real risk?
Replies
There is definitely a difference in what kind of hay our goats will eat in the middle of January and what they will eat in the summer. If they were eating that hay all winter, it's unlikely that they'll starve themselves. They're just hoping for more of the really good stuff.
It isn't wonderful, and they really don't want it. I completely understand and sympathize with them, and am continuing my search for a long-term supplier. But it is what they were eating before the leaves started showing up on our invasives. Their condition was fine on just hay all winter (plus a handful of fruit & veggie scraps once a day with a bit of BOSS). We just started cutting them the invasive shrubs in the last two weeks.
I suppose we'll just keep an eye on their tails as the season progresses, and hope we can locate better hay this summer.
Thank you for the reply! I couldn't use the site for a lot of the day today; I wonder if there was something going on that prevented discussion.
I'm surprised you have not received half a dozen comments on this! It's typical. Contrary to the idea that "goats eat anything," they are actually quite picky. Is the hay quality good? Is it green? If it's not great hay, that could be why they're not eating it. They'd probably eat it if they're starving, but otherwise, they don't want it.