Hi guys, later this month we will be bringing home our goats. We will start of with 1 wether, 1 buckling, and 1 doe (hopefully pregnant).
I have read a lot about the different mineral needs of males & females due to urinary stones, but am very confused.
Can someone recommend a loose mineral that I could safely feed all 3? They will be housed together at least for the first couple of months.
BTW I am not interested in SweetLix after I read the ingredients (feather meal? eeeww) We are feeding organic grain and pasture, and I want to find something non-GMO, that doesn't contain any freaky dead animal ingredients.
Thanks!!
Replies
Oh about the buck and doe: she is an adult now (4yrs). We also are getting a buckling from this same breeder. He will be about 2 months when they come home.
We did not want to wait for him to grow up enough to breed her unless we have to, we'd like milk sooner than that. PLus I'd like a second doe- so our breeder is trying to breed her to another buck of hers right now which is why we haven't brought them home. If it takes, she'll already be pregnant by this other buck, and if she has a doe, that can be my second milker when she grows up.
By the time she kids by the breeder's other buck, I'll have acommodations to move the buckling and the wether away from her. IF it seems that it didn't take, then she'll stay with buckling until he's old enough to get the job done, then be separated.
I can understand the due date problem...but when I've bred horses we really gauged it more on their body changes than anything. Do people sleep in the barn with their does? I camped out for two weeks waiting on a foal and when I went home for fifteen minutes to take a shower, she popped him out. She was like, "no thanks, I can do this" lol.
Copper is lower in the Manna Pro -- 1350 ppm vs 1800. I think the zinc might be low too, but it's harder to gauge because it's in ppm on Manna Pro vs a percentage on the Sweetlix. If your goats become copper deficient, you can supplement with COWP. There are several discussions on here about that.
You can check websites for Sweetlix and Purina to see if there is a distributor in your area. The only thing I don't like about Purina is the 40% salt, so I worry that the goats won't consume enough of it. When I put it side-by-side with the Sweetlix, they ate all the Sweetlix before they touched the Purina. I was extremely surprised to see that my tiny little grain elevator five miles away carried Sweetlix. They ordered the minerals for me and will order anything else I want.
We moved out here nine years ago to start growing our own food organically, and today we grow all of our own meat, eggs, dairy and maple syrup, as well as lots of fruits and veggies. Yes, livestock feed can be really disgusting. It's frustrating that it has been impossible for me to find organic grain nearby for my goats. I found a company 2-3 hours away that has organic grain, but their goat formula has ZERO copper in it. I called and asked why, and the woman said that their nutritional expert knows what he's doing, so that was the end of that discussion. I told her I'd had goats die from copper deficiency, so would never feed anything that didn't have copper in it.
You should re-think your idea about keeping the buck with your doe. She should not be bred until she weighs at least 35-40 pounds, or you could be looking at some serious issues with her being big enough to give birth safely. The other thing is that pen breeding can make you a little crazy because you don't have a due date. There are a couple discussions on here about that.
Okay sorry, it was the Sweetlix roughage balancer that had the feather meal
Molasses Products, Plant Protein Products, Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Magnesium Oxide, Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Oil, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Zinc Sulfate, Mineral Oil, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate, Sodium Molybdate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement and Propionic Acid (as a preservative).
Let me tell you, there is some scary stuff in animal feed! We are producing our own milk, eggs and chicken meat in order to get away from the factory farmed stuff...and we ahve realized it is really hard to find suitable livestock feed that is non gmo etc. Did you know they include poultry litter and other feces in some grain mixes? And the protein source in lots of chicken feeds in ground up male chicks which are killed at birth in egglayer facilities.
Sorry, I digress.
So...Sweetlix loose mineral is okay then. Any reason why that is better than the Manna-Pro? (I know MP is sold locally, it would be nice not to have to order and pay shipping...)
I do not intend to feed grain to the wether...not sure if the buckling needs it or not. They will all share housing until doe is near to kidding. By then I'll have seperate accommodations ready
This is from the manufacturer:
Sweetlix Meat Maker loose minerals
Ingredients
Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Cane
Molasses, Soybean Hulls, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Copper Sulfate,
Yeast Culture, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganous Oxide,
Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Molybdate, Iron Oxide (as a coloring agent), Sodium
Selenite, Zinc Oxide, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement,
Vitamin E Supplement, Mineral Oil and Caramel Flavoring.
You really got my attention with this message! Please link to where you read that Sweetlix has feather meal in it. I've just re-read the Meat Maker ingredient list three times, and feather meal is not listed.
Grassfed cattle ranchers are really into Fertrell and Helfter. I do buy some Fertrell products, but their goat minerals don't have enough copper in them for my herd. I still have to bolus even with the higher level of copper in Sweetlix, so I'd probably be bolusing two or three times as often if I switched to Fertrell. I don't understand why, but Fertrell has the lowest level of copper I've seen in any mineral. Helfter has cafeteria-style minerals, so you put everything out individually.
As far as buck and doe minerals, the only thing that buck minerals have in them is ammonium chloride, which prevents urinary stones, but if you're not feeding grain to your bucks, you probably don't need it. I've never used it and never had a problem with UC. You could just buy a little ammonium chloride from Hoegger and keep it on hand for the bucks, if needed. Some people just mix the AC into their minerals for the bucks because they are not housed with does anyway, so they need separate mineral feeders.
A "protein bucket" is a mineral mix, so you either feed that or a mineral, not both.
Hi again,
I am leaning toward Manna Pro goat mineral......thoughts?
Do they really need a protein bucket as well? It contains soybean meal that is almost certainly GMO.