Hello All,
It has been a while since I have posted with a question and am grateful for all the past help. When I was early in my goating years Tammy had posted that during the times of the year that good hay was hard to get, she fed the hay pellets in addition to suboptimal hay. When my young ND goats were 6 months old I weaned them off of grain and thought that the hay pellets would make a trasitional food for them. That was 4 years ago and I've just recently realized that I have been overfeeding them all along. Today I looked on the Standlee brand orchardgrass pellets and it said that feeding recommendations are a maximum of 4 percent of body weight. I don't know their body weight and have been trying to work with the body condition scoring and think they are between 4 and 5 or are a firm 5. In either case, I have finally realized they are too heavy.
I have a good hay source and they have had hay available at all times along with hay pellets daily and I've been giving them dry leaves I collected in the fall because they like them so much.I am thinking of cutting back considerably on the hay pellets and let them transition towards an all hay diet. Does that make sense? Aside from removing the pellets, I don't know what else to do to allow them to begin shedding pounds, especially in this hard winter where temperatures are about to plummet again, here in Pennsylvania. Am I making a mistake in giving them a 5 gallon bucket of loosely leaves daily? (a lot of them fall to the ground uneaten). I'm attaching a couple of pictures and video for you to see them.
Thanks so much! I am chagrined that I haven't done a better job of paying attention to their feeding!
Ann Bodling
Replies
Hi Ann!
Oh yes! You have yourself some chunky monkeys :)
Are these wethers or does? It can be hard to get weight off of of wethers because they don't really have much in the way of stress to impact them. Same thing with dry does kept as pets. I had a very obese buck come into my herd this past year and he shed weight like crazy when heavy rut hit. Of course, not giving him the animal crackers he was showered with at his previous home helped as well.
The obese doe that came is having a harder time slimming down. It is just slow and steady.
They don't need pellets. And honestly, with all that various forage in their enclosure, they don't even really need to have a large volume of hay available to them. If forage gets scarce you can always increase it. What kind of hay are you feeding?
Are they getting anything else at all besides hay, pellets, and gathered leaves? Any sort of 'snacks'?
Tammy
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for writing back. They are wethers. I'm not exactly sure of what grass is in the hay, as I buy it from a farmer who has beef cattle and sells hay as well. It is all grass though and not much in the way of weeds. I did have some for the last few months that was a stemmy first cut with a good bit of weeds and the goats scattered more than they ate. But they were gaining at that time, obviously. As for treats, I cut up a few horse alfalfa treats, so they are smaller, and have been giving them at the end of the mucking out and hay replenishing time, but I guess it is time to stop those too. I hadn't thought there was enough browse in their enclosure to be enough for them, but you are right that in the summer there are a lot of woody vines.
How do I know they are getting enough fiber if I were to reduce their hay? Would I just watch their droppings and see if there is any change?
Thanks so much, Tammy. And for not being disdainful as you have seen my lack of good husbandry. I am determined to do what I can to help them lose at least some of the weight so I appreciate your help!
Ann
I can't attach the video as it is too large, but here is another picture of them
Well I have to say they are super cute!!!
They will need hay throughout the winter until pasture forage returns.
As long as they are getting hay and/or graze and browse they will have plenty of fiber in their diet. A problem can come with just feeding pellets because it impacts their rumen health in a few ways.
A healthy rumen forms a mat at the top of the contents and that comes from all the vegetation they eat. In addition, chewing hay, browse, and other forage stimulates the production of bicarbonate.
I would find out what is in your hay. If it has a mix containing alfalfa, clover, or another legume it is much higher in protein and nutritional value than plain grass hay.
How many flakes of hay are they eating daily?
How much have you been offering in pellets?
2-4% of body weight is a pretty standard recommendation for hay/forage daily intake. As wethers, closer to the 2% mark should be adequate.
I would also consider adding some exercise activities for them. You can get creative with small amounts of hay spread far apart so they must walk to different spots to eat instead of standing in one place all day.
Various levels of resting perches also encourage some effort to get to a premium spot. Some people use wooden spindles but those do need to be replaced periodically. We constructed a jungle gym out of big cedar logs and cut some of the big trunks into free standing perches.
We also have various levels of elevated wood en 2x4 'shelves' that the goats love to navigate. These are both inside their shelters and scattered around our pastures. Some have ramps for access that require a running start and some have stairs or a level low enough for them to jump up.
Tammy