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HELP PLEASE what can I feed my 2 new goats?

Posted by Amy Sousa on May 27, 2010 at 11:37pm in Health

Hi ! I am bringing home 2 new baby goats this weekend and would like advice on what to feed them.

I have been reading advice online and there is A LOT of conflicting advice, includung what the breeder that I am buying from is telling me.  She said to feed the same grain that I give my horses, and NOT to buy feed made specifically for goats. another breeder wrote that Purina Goat Ration along with grass hay is best because it has copper that they need. Also what type of mineral block or loose ration should I buy?  I really want to do whats best for them. (they are 8 week old does)

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  • Melissa Johnson March 12, 2011 at 12:56pm
    thanks for being so specific!!  that's exactly what I needed. :)
  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 12, 2011 at 12:34pm
    I use Purina Goat Chow as the basic part of my feeding program. During lactation, I also add the black-oil sunflower seeds to increase butterfat. For a couple months after kidding, I add 1/4 cup of Calf Manna for added protein, because they used to lose so much body condition in the first two months. When I milk (rather than my daughter), I mix one part alfalfa pellets with two parts Goat Chow, because I am a slow milker. For goats that are really fast eaters, I have to add even more alfalfa pellets, or they get too much grain and can get diarrhea. We just have a really bad problem with copper here. I used to think it was because our water was so high in sulfur, but we got a water treatment system last year that removes a lot of it, but still they seem to need the COWP even though I'm feeding the Purina, and they have free choice minerals.
  • Kare March 12, 2011 at 11:37am
    Deborah, do you give them Purina Goat Chow instead of COBB?
  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 12, 2011 at 8:21am
    Goat Chow is the name of a goat feed made by Purina, so it IS grain with high protein. People may use the phrase generically, but it should have a little (TM) after the words, if we were all writing about it correctly -- like Kleenex (TM). Purina also makes Noble Goat (TM) and Show Goat (TM) and others, but Purina Goat Chow (TM) is the only one with 40 ppm copper, which is why I use it.
  • Melissa Johnson March 12, 2011 at 1:57am

    I am always confused by this - would the goat chow - take the place of textured grain with the high %??

     

    so if you were using goat chow - that is all you would feed other than hay?

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 11, 2011 at 12:05am
    Goat Chow is just the name of one of the Purina feeds. Purina actually makes four or five different goat feeds, but only one is called Goat Chow. It is also the only one that has 40 ppm copper, which is why I use it. Most of their other feeds only have 20 ppm.

    Melissa Johnson said:
    what's the difference between goat chow and regular textured 16% protein sweet feed?


  • Melissa Johnson March 10, 2011 at 11:31pm
    what's the difference between goat chow and regular textured 16% protein sweet feed?

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
    If they have free-choice minerals available, and you don't have sulfur in your water, they should be in good shape. The last two weeks of pregnancy, I'd start giving them two cups of Goat Chow a day. I only give sunflower seeds when they're milking, because it increases butterfat, but it's not going to hurt then to give them some now. They're just more expensive than other feeds, at least in my area.


    Adrienne said:
    Interesting discussion!
    My two hopefully prego does are getting 1 cup a day of a mix that I made under the advisement of my mentor. (3 cups alfalfa pellets, 1 cup Goat chow, and 1/4 cup black oil sunflower seeds.) Do you think that they are getting enough copper with this mix Deborah? When they get closer to kidding time, my understanding is that the mixture and amount will go up...
  • Tammy Lee Birrer March 10, 2011 at 10:18pm
    Thanks!

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
    That sounds good. If she starts to lose condition too much, you might want to increase the grain a little, like maybe another 1/2 cup a day, but what you're doing sounds about right for a doe nursing twins. If she turns out to be a really heavy producer, she'll need more. I think the Purina bag says one pound of grain for every three pounds of milk, but that's not enough for some goats, in my experience.

    Tammy Lee Birrer said:

    Hi Deborah,


    I have been looking on the site for nutrition info and I specifically want to know about how much grain I should be giving my doe that just kidded with twins.  I started with 1 cup of Purina goat chow twice a day and have increased to 1- 1/2 cups per feeding.  I don't want mismanage the grain.  This is along with Alfalfa and minerals.

    Thank you,

    Tammy


  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 10, 2011 at 2:52pm
    That sounds good. If she starts to lose condition too much, you might want to increase the grain a little, like maybe another 1/2 cup a day, but what you're doing sounds about right for a doe nursing twins. If she turns out to be a really heavy producer, she'll need more. I think the Purina bag says one pound of grain for every three pounds of milk, but that's not enough for some goats, in my experience.

    Tammy Lee Birrer said:

    Hi Deborah,


    I have been looking on the site for nutrition info and I specifically want to know about how much grain I should be giving my doe that just kidded with twins.  I started with 1 cup of Purina goat chow twice a day and have increased to 1- 1/2 cups per feeding.  I don't want mismanage the grain.  This is along with Alfalfa and minerals.

    Thank you,

    Tammy


  • Tammy Lee Birrer March 10, 2011 at 2:47pm

    Hi Deborah,


    I have been looking on the site for nutrition info and I specifically want to know about how much grain I should be giving my doe that just kidded with twins.  I started with 1 cup of Purina goat chow twice a day and have increased to 1- 1/2 cups per feeding.  I don't want mismanage the grain.  This is along with Alfalfa and minerals.

    Thank you,

    Tammy


    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    All goat feeds are not created equal, which is why you'll get conflicting advice on what's best, if someone is just comparing goat feed to horse feed. If I had a choice between Nutrena goat feed and horse feed, I'd go for the horse feed because Nutrena has about 1/4 as much copper as goats need. Most vets don't even realize this. I thought my goats were copper deficient, and FOUR vets told me that was impossible if I was feeding a "complete" goat feed, which they all claim to be. But Nutrena has 1/4 the amount of copper that Purina Goat Chow does. How can they both be complete? There is not an FDA recommended daily allowance for goats (or other animals) the way there is for people's nutrition, so each company decides what they think is best.

    After I had a goat die from copper deficiency, which was proven by testing her liver, I did a LOT of research on goat nutrition, including reading veterinary journals and even talking to vet professors and researchers from Texas A&M and the USDA. Research has shown that goats need 40 ppm copper daily, yet I could only find three companies that actually put that much in their goat feed -- AND just to make life even more confusing, it varies within the companies. Purina Goat Chow has 40 ppm, but their other goat formulations do NOT (Noble Goat, Show Chow, etc). Dumor has two different goat formulas -- one has 40 ppm; the other does not. So you have to read the labels and make sure that you're buying a feed with 40 ppm copper. It's ridiculous for any goat feed to have less than that. The loose minerals just need to compensate for deficiencies that you might have in your hay or pasture. They can't compensate for a deficiency in the total diet.

    I originally fed Nutrena, which was the only goat feed available locally, and after a couple years, I had all sorts of fertility problems (20-30% goats not getting pregnant or aborting), and I had some really excellent bucks die. The necropsy results always just said parasites, but finally I insisted on a copper level, which they don't normally do. In fact, the vet told me I was wasting my money to order it. When it came back at 4 ppm (normal is 25 to 150 ppm), he still insisted that I didn't have a copper deficiency problem in my herd -- that was just one goat, he said. I've switched feeds, and I'm also doing copper boluses now, and the difference is amazing. In the last three years, I've had one goat who didn't get pregnant, and I have 18 does kidding this year.

    As for minerals -- definitely get a loose mineral. There are a couple problems with blocks for goats. First, they have very soft tongues and often they can't get enough from a block. If they get really desperate they might start to use their teeth on the block and chip a tooth, which opens a whole new set of problems. The Purina mineral is good, but it has a VERY high amount of salt in it. (It was 40% last time I looked, but it might have changed.) If goats don't like that much salt, they won't consume the minerals. If you think your goats might need more salt, you can always put that in a separate mineral feeder. I currently use Sweetlix Meat Maker. I don't use the Sweetlix dairy mineral because it has less calcium than Meat Maker. It is for does that are getting a high amount of alfalfa, and my does are on pasture all day and only get alfalfa in the barn at night, so I don't want to risk a calcium deficiency.

    I hope this has been helpful and not just confused you more! If you have any specific questions, or if something is not clear, just holler!
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