I have been reading about what everyone feeds their goats and finding it very interesting.
Then I start to wonder if I am not feeding enough or am I being a bad goat owner by not giving them lots of treats etc. This also then leads into feeding my does who gave birth at the end of feb.
I will break down what my goats got before kids and what I am doing now.
Our goats when we don't have snow! Have paddocks that has mixed forage. Grass, trees, bushes etc. They are given free choice hay, sunflower seeds as a treat and have free choice baking soda, kelp, black earth and goat mineral fresh water. Depending on the season we have found they love the dried tops of the garlic, dried fall leaves. They only have grain once a week when I do their herbal wormer. In winter we cut branches down for them to chew on and they have hay and sunflower seeds as a treat.
When our does where pregnant they got grain once a week with herbal wormer and then 4 weeks before due dates I would give each goat a small handful of grain morning and evening. A week before I added a few alfalfa pellets too as we did not get any 2nd cut last year.
Once goats gave birth and I have a first freshner they are getting a cup of grain in the morning and evening with alfalfa pellets, and free choice hay and all the free choice minerals. My older doe seems fine, my FF is fine she is eating she has always been a slow eater but she is looking thin. So I am little worried for her. (I might be an over protective mama and you are more than welcome to tell me to stop worring!) Wondering if she is thin as she is a FF. I have also wormed the goats after pregnancy as well. My first FF is a great mum, kids are feeding she has milk I did milk her two days ago into a strip cup to test for signs of mastitis and all is fine. I also have been giving them warm water with molasses in as well.
The grain I have has oats, barley, corn a protein pellet in it and has molasses over it.
Please remember I am in Canada and have no idea what BOSS is would love to know what is in this mixture that you all chat about. Should I be adding anything else, shredded beet pulp etc.
As every thank you for any advice you can give.
Replies
I'm not sure but I THINK to much BOSS is bad, you might want to check on that IF they are eating a lot. I think most people feed them 1 or 2 Tablespoons each if I am not mistaken, I just scoop a handful into a dish for mom and babies and a couple of handfuls into each dish for the boys and their wives that are in the pen with them!
Julianna I am glad you brought up the calf manna,I had forgotten what a great product that is, it is one of the really old products on the market with a great rep. First learned about that one ages ago when my horse trainer suggested it for my Quarter/Arab cross. She was always thin and petite looking (Nothing like a quarter, very dainty with the Arab head), anyway it is great and I think I will get some of that for Dawn and Tilly!
Do you know how much they should have based on weight? I don't want to make them TO fat with it, especially if they have kids in there.
Thanks Juliana, Someone else had mentioned Calf Manna I am going to look into it. Our vet also mentioned putting a tbsp of soy bean meal into what I am already feeding them. At present my girls seem more interested in eating the BOSS than anything else!
So glad you got that figured out!
Fecal test is back and all clear! Fill like I could do a happy dance! Just need to find a feed mill that produces a good grain mix for goats!
Update!
Fecal is with vets waiting for results! We got a new food yesterday which is a meant purely for goats. The other feed was for goats and sheep so did not have a lot of copper in it. Problem is we mixed a small amount of the new feed in with the old feed and both goats eat all the way around it! lol! I don't actually blame them as it does not smell that nice! They are still not interested in this morning.
Vet out today to dis bud. He checked Eva over said she was looking good, not too thin happy with her fat layer, did recommend a bit more protein in her food. But gave us the thumbs up!
I can stop worrying now!
Will continue the search for better goat food.
Once again a huge thank you for all the advice.
Thank you all so much. Have added the amounts of copper onto my list so I can check everything tomorrow. I will keep you all posted on how it all goes. Once again thank you all for taking the time to add your responses.
Excellent point about the copper, Margaret! Copper can be very complicated, and goat feeds in the U.S. have anywhere from 10 to 80 ppm copper in them, so they are obviously not all created equal! The amount of copper in mineral mixes can also be quite variable. Your feed should have about 35-40 ppm copper, and the mineral mix should have at last 1500 ppm of copper sulfate. And if you have any copper antagonists in the environment, that can certainly complicate matters, such as sulfur in your water, which would mean you would have to give even more copper than what is in the feed and mineral pre-mix.
I think you should go with your instincts, and if you think your doe looks thin, you should check out every possible avenue. Sounds like you have a great plan for tomorrow!
Thanks Margaret! I think the mineral they have is designed for goats and has copper in it. I am going to check the mineral bag and see and do some more research. I am heading to the feed mill tomorrow for more grain and I am going to check to see if they add copper to the grain as well.
Thank you so much everyone for you advice so far. Eva is just such a love and I have just been in and checked on her and she has just looked at me to say "what are you worrying about women!" Her two kids where up on the hay bale asleep and she was pulling straw out of another bale and eating away!
I have the longest list of things to do tomorrow I am going to the vets so he can do a fecal test thought it best to check and do all I can, I am also going to see if he has a Famacha (hoping I spelt that right) chart and then of to the feed mill to check feed etc. My husband has just called from work and told me to stop being a worry wart!
Sally, I am also wondering about copper! Do you give them cowp or anything? I know you use minerals,but do you know that they frequently have copper problems even when they have minerals and that when they receive cowp they seem to not have as many parasite problems? Just thought this might be of some interest to you.
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