Tiny goats?

I haven't actually held my goats and stepped on the scale but I have 5 does and a buck that are about 6 months old. I used a sewing tape measure and measured their heart girth (is that the right term? Right behind the front legs) anyways, the does were about 19 inches and the buck 23 inches. The chart I found says the girls are about 23lbs and the buck 28lbs. Isn't this tiny for a 6month old? I'm not giving grain just alfalfa hay,minerals, and I let them out to pasture 2x day. I also give treats of raisins or BOSS or something. Am I doing something wrong? I've only had them 2 months so I worry about everything! Also one of the does has a white discharge. Does this mean she's in heat? My buck wears a "goat apron" to block him from getting the girls pregnant.

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  • Are all of those minerals in separate feeders? Unless you have about a dozen minerals out for free choice (especially zinc and selenium), you should also have a multi-mineral available such as Sweetlix Meat Maker or Purina Goat Minerals.

    There is not one dewormer that is universally better than the others. They all work unless you have parasites that have become resistant from a dewormer being overused, so what works on one farm may not work on another one. If your goats have not had a chemical dewormer, then hopefully anything will work. The only issue then is using one that works for the specific worm that your goat has. Barber pole is the most common in the US, and all of the dewormers kill that one, but you need to double the dosage on the label.
  • I do keep minerals available for them. I have kelp, baking soda, dolomite, copper sulfate, sulfur, and diamond v yeast in the free choice feeders. What chemical wormer do you recommend?

  • Yes I have free choice kelp,baking soda,dolomite,sulfur,diamond v yeast, and copper sulfate (I think I listed those correctly)
  • I personally have not found an herbal dewormer that works when a goat is already anemic, so you need to check the eyelids daily, and you should see them getting darker within a few days if it worked. If not, you might consider a chemical dewormer.

    Get a goat feed with at least 35 ppm copper. (Check the tag hanging on the end of the bag.) Purina Goat Chow and Dumor (TSC) Sweet Feed for goats both have that much, but you have to get exactly those. Other Purina and Dumor goat feeds have only half as much, which means you either need to feed more or your goats might not get enough copper.

    Also, do you have a free choice loose mineral available for them?

  • They're light pink...I plan to make dosage balls this afternoon and give them. Do I need to get some goat feed? If so what kind would be best?
  • Check their eyelids tomorrow to see if they are red, pink, or white.

    Either they have parasites or they aren't getting enough nutrients, so if they don't have parasites, you might need to give them a little grain every day.

  • Our pasture has quite a bit of green, their poop is pebbles sometimes maybe 2x week its pebbles stuck together, I haven't checked their eyelids, they nursed until 4 months when we got them.

  • Brown hay has very little nutrition in it, so if you have more brown than green hay, they're not getting much nutrition. Same thing with the pasture. If it's all brown, they're not getting much nutrition from that either. 

    Are they pooping pebbles, or does it look like dog poop? Have you checked their eyelids to see if they're anemic?

    Do you know how long they nursed?

  • My husband picks up alfalfa from the feed store so I don't know if it's 1st,2nd,or 3rd but it's somewhat green with some brown mixed in. I was feeding Chaffhaye for awhile but haven't had time to stop by and get some. I try and keep the feeder full. I'm in central Texas and our weather has been pretty decent today's high was 67 with saturday's high 87 but back to 50-60 next week. We are planning to fence the perimeter of our property pretty quick so I can't let them out all day but I let them browse twice a day for about 2hrs each. They're pen is 30x30 with a 10x10 barn. I just bought an herbal wormer and haven't been able to get them to each their whole suggested amount. I plan to make peanut butter,oatmeal, wormer balls and see if they'll eat them that way.

  • Tell us more about your hay. Is it green? First, second, third cutting? Leafy? Big stems? Is it free choice? If not, how much do you give them? What part of the country are you in, and what is the weather like there now? Is there a reason they are not outside all day? Is your pasture mostly grass, weeds, browse?

    Have they been checked for parasites? Have they been dewormed? If so, when and with what?

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