Most of our goats this winter have no cottony insulation :). I was wondering if they have a deficiency of something.
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We do give copper bonus, so assuming this is not the problem. How would they get too much calcium? With what you describe I'm thinking it might be zinc deficiency. One goat especially is even losing her hair. Her coat is very poor and she has dry, flaky skin, and tends to be a little itchy. Have checked for lice.....some, but not overloaded. Thanks for your help!
I haven't heard of a whole herd not growing cashmere in a cold climate before, but if it did happen, I'd say it was some sort of nutritional deficiency. Copper and zinc are two minerals associated with hair. If a goat is deficient in copper, their color would fade (black to rusty red, red or gold to cream, cream to white) and they might not blow their winter coat in spring in a timely manner. Zinc deficiency causes hair loss, so if you had goats losing hair at this time of year, I'd say it was a zinc deficiency.
Copper deficiency can be primary or secondary. Primary copper deficiency means they are not getting enough copper. Secondary copper deficiency means you have something that is interfering with copper absorption, such as too much sulfur or iron in the water.
Zinc deficiency is usually caused by too much calcium in the diet. The only time we've had zinc deficiency here was in our bucks when we were feeding them calcium through the winter several years ago.
Only some of us. <g> Fortunately, after our first unseasonably cold stretch (and Capri getting pneumonia), they developed their winter coats and became quite "wooly" compared to usual for the next bit of extreme weather. It was bad that it was warm so long and then it took such a extreme plunge in temps; the poor girls had little insulation.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Are you in one of the warmer parts of the US this winter? I know the West Coast is having some unusually warm weather.
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I haven't heard of a whole herd not growing cashmere in a cold climate before, but if it did happen, I'd say it was some sort of nutritional deficiency. Copper and zinc are two minerals associated with hair. If a goat is deficient in copper, their color would fade (black to rusty red, red or gold to cream, cream to white) and they might not blow their winter coat in spring in a timely manner. Zinc deficiency causes hair loss, so if you had goats losing hair at this time of year, I'd say it was a zinc deficiency.
Copper deficiency can be primary or secondary. Primary copper deficiency means they are not getting enough copper. Secondary copper deficiency means you have something that is interfering with copper absorption, such as too much sulfur or iron in the water.
Zinc deficiency is usually caused by too much calcium in the diet. The only time we've had zinc deficiency here was in our bucks when we were feeding them calcium through the winter several years ago.
Only some of us. <g> Fortunately, after our first unseasonably cold stretch (and Capri getting pneumonia), they developed their winter coats and became quite "wooly" compared to usual for the next bit of extreme weather. It was bad that it was warm so long and then it took such a extreme plunge in temps; the poor girls had little insulation.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Are you in one of the warmer parts of the US this winter? I know the West Coast is having some unusually warm weather.