Hey guys...here is one dilemma I have. I am feeding home mixed whole grain (well, I did last year and I will once the girls are milking). It is not a complete feed & not foritified with anything.
Think I could just give them a children's chewable for vitamin/mineral supplementation? I am sure their RDAs of certain things might be different than a human, but I don't have a good enough grasp on it to know whether it would be safe...
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well...they are fat, shiny & all got pregnant on the first try. :) Well, Velvet's not fat. But she is healthy-looking.
The only one who is still wimpy looking is Bliss & he eats tons of complete feed. But that's a good idea and you are right that that list can't be complete. I have had this problem with Countryside products before, the descriptions are lacking. For instance they sell a "Dairy Supplement" with NO other info. Pellet, powder, feed, mineral, contents ???? no info. I will write to them and ask for a better analysis of the mineral.
Oh, right! I remember that thread now! I'd probably just pay close attention to their body condition, fertility, etc, and deal with any deficiencies that pop up.
The Healthy Mineral analysis is not complete because with kelp as the #1 ingredient, they should be showing iodine. You might want to contact the company and ask them for a complete analysis. For one thing, it lists copper sulfate in the ingredients, yet no copper is listed on the analysis, so it is definitely incomplete.
I wonder if I just gave them weekly treats of baby spinach, carrots, apples...lots of vitamin rich stuff like that, if they'd just be alright?
Deborah- I am going to drive down to the organic co-op for some ingredients and they do carry Fertrell. However, the Countryside Organics goat grain contains that and when I used that grain for my goats, they would pick the grain up and carefully leave every bit of powder at the bottom of the bowl. If I mixed molasses into it they wouldn't touch it at all (which is weird because they will lap up mollasses if it's plain). So I strongly suspect if I sprinkle the Fertrell on my mix they will just eat around it like before.
I usually keep Sweetlix out for them in their stall but they just won't eat it. Not wild about making them eat it since I am not wild about the ingredients... I was going to buy an organic, green food source vitamin.
They have Healthy Minerals free choice & eat it like crazy:
Calcium, maximum 9.50%
Calcium, minimum 8.50%
Phosphorus, minimum 4.00%
Salt, maximum 12.00%
Salt, minimum 11.00%
Magnesium, minimum 3.00%
INGREDIENTS
Dried Kelp, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Magnesium Oxide, Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate, Diatomaceous Earth, Sulfur, Garlic, Dehydrated Apple Cider Vinegar, Copper Sulfate, Selenium Yeast.
Just the ingredients & profile seems short compared to Sweetlix for instance. But it doesn't really matter what's in Sweetlix if they don't eat it! They had a tub of that for a solid year that they never ate, and I changed it to keep it fresh and clean. Brought in the kelp stuff and they just went nuts over it.
Should I just assume this is enough of everything for them? I also supplement them with blackstrap mollasses when they are ever anemic.
Sweetlix Meat Maker is only 10-12% salt, and it has a few more minerals in it than Fertrell. You could use it to topdress their grain also. I've attached the Meat Maker tag so you can compare them.
Sweetlix_MeatMaker-11682.pdf
I'd be nervous about doing that. One line of thinking is that if you have a free-choice mineral available, the goats should consume enough. However, that probably is not true if it is a high-salt mineral like Purina, which was 40% salt last time I checked. You might see if there is a Fertrell dealer near you. I've attached the feed tag for their goat mineral, which has almost no salt in it at all. You could add 1 ounce to their grain daily and then offer it free choice in case they need more.
Goat_tag38.pdf