She definitely doesn't look fat as I can see her hip bones and feel her ribs. I think I will drop the grain on all of your recommendations and just keep giving the young girls as much hay as they'll eat. Leela eats it like it's candy and when she runs out, she comes to the gate and yells to me to bring more! What about the alfalfa/timothy pellets? Can I keep feeding them those at about a cup a day? When i put my milker on the milk stand I like to have something to give them as well.
Once you gain some confidence in determining your does' body condition, you'll feel more comfortable about adjusting their individual feeding programs.
I quit feeding grain to pregnant yearlings a long time ago after seeing too many big single kids. If the doe is in good body condition, she doesn't need grain. And if she doesn't need the calories, it goes to her kids. The last two years we haven't been feeding grain to hardly any of our does even at the end of pregnancy because our hay quality has been outstanding, and we've also been feeding some Chaffhaye, which is kind of crazy high in protein. Once we run out of Chaffhaye, though, we won't be buying any more.
I am just so worried about overfeeding my preggo yearlings! Leela is due in 4 weeks and she is really big (besides her udder!). I feed her (and the other doeling) 1/4 cup of sweet feed with a half a cup of alfalfa/timothy pellets twice a day and they get plenty of good hay (not really free choice though because I've had to buy chopped hay in-a-bag from my local feed store). If I drop to only hay for Leela who is in her last month, will she get enough to eat? There's almost no browse out there now and I do take them some treats everyday (carrots or raisins etc). I realize no one can tell me what to do, but suggestions are greatly appreciated! She looks like she's gonna drop kids any second even though I know she isn't!
We have to adjust our feeding protocol yearly based upon the quality of the hay we are able to buy. We've had years where it looked like straw and other years where it looked good enough I was tempted to eat it. ;-) It's frustrating that it's hard to get consistent quality for something that is such a big part of their diet.
I personally have really high quality hay, and have ended up with very large kids because of graining. Toxemia can occur in underfeeding AND overfeeding, so for my goats, simply making sure that they have access to their hay at all times has been enough for them. I have to avoid graining until delivery, or kids end up very large here on my farm. Not just in one doe.
This is probably the reason you see so many answers to the question. It's one of those instances where the answer is very dependent on farm specific details. If you don't have quality hay, it's much more likely that graining at the last stages of pregnancy will be necessary. For my does, everyone has access to free choice hay. All day long. They have browse around their yard/area, but not a large amount. They have access to free choice loose minerals, and water. In order not to upset her rumen, when she kidded, I gave her a very small amount of grain, and have been increasing the amount each day. I started with about 1/2 cup and have been increasing by that much so now she's at about 2 cups a day.
Thanks for answering. My two dry girls are both first fresheners and were (are) still growing, that's why I feed them a small amount of grain morning and night. I have a friend who just lost one of her does to pregnancy toxemia so it scares me to death that I will UNDERFEED them while they are still growing. I have one senior doe too, she had a difficult birth with triplets last summer for my 1st kidding. She lost one (and nearly lost HER) because I was too new to know what to know quite what to do. They were very large (like yours I remember!) and the last one was quite stuck. Anyway, she is still milking but I will soon dry her off and give her no grain until just before kidding as I'm sure I must have overfed her before her last kidding. There is SO much to learn and I spend many hours reading forums (here and TGS) and books every day. Each situation is totally different. I too adore all my boys and girls (two bucks, three does) and spoil them rotten.
Oh, my, Julia, I am such a poor person to ask since mine are apparently overweight. Within the month (or next two weeks), each girl will get their fill of alfalfa pellets twice a day for up to half an hour, then I'll remove the rest. That has to do with when my barn is finished and I can feed them separately. Regarding grain, because of what happened last year, there will be no grain until two weeks prior to due date then it will be only 1/4 cup or so just to get their system accustomed to it again. That is my plan and I hope it is successful and that I (and my doe) never go through again what I did with my senior doe last spring.
Prior to our unusually cold weather in December, I was giving them limited alfalfa pellets with their hay. The milkers were getting grain, whatever they wanted until finished milking. Hay has always been free choice but that is because they are on a city lot versus pasture so their browse/graze is limited. If they had a five-acre pasture, they would have only a certain amount of hay each day, what they would readily eat twice a day and likely no alfalfa pellets except during the winter months. Minerals are always, of course, free choice. They get treats every day so they are a little spoiled though many think they are very spoiled because I take them warm water two or three times a day. (There are people here who said they will never let their goats talk to my goats. <g>)
Keep in mind, with all this said, that I am a very new goat owner, two years in two weeks, so certainly have very few answers and with limited experience to arrive at those. My greatest value is that I love my four-footed sweeties. I stumble through with all the other newbies. :-)
Thanks Glenna! I'm so excited that she is on track to be a wonderful producer! She is one of two of my first "baby" goats and is turning ONE this week. I paid well for her and her niece because they came from great milking lines although the farm I got them from never milked. She was a single birth (!) and her dams second kidding! She's always been big for her age and matured more quickly than most. She's getting really big and looks "well loved" as do all my girls but I'm very careful not to overfeed them (tho they act like they will starve!). Fortunately they have good quality hay and can eat as much as they want plus I give my preggo (dry) girls 1/4 cup of grain and 1/2 cup of alfalfa/timothy pellets with a tbsp of boss twice a day -- is that enough or too much in YOUR opinion? I've read about this stuff until my eyes bleed but there's so many differing opinions LOL. I could use some input if you don't mind! I give them pine boughs too and veggies for snacks.
That is a nice looking udder. My FF last spring had her udder several weeks ahead of kidding; it was barely visible and then a week later, there it was, bigger than her mother's had ever been! She had triplets and was an excellent producer. She gave me 3 cups plus in the morning at two months while feeding her triplets with them doing extremely well. Color me extremely pleased when I started milking her. Not only did she produce well, she had excellent milk stand manners and was extremely easy to milk. Most who saw here were skeptical she was a FF. I am sooooo looking forward to next year when her doeling freshens!
With that said, my senior doe, bred Christmas, looks like she is going to burst but no increase in udder since drying off. She is as big now as she was just before kidding last year with big quads. Due mid-May, she is getting a huge cut-back on alfalfa pellets now the cold weather has passed. She will not die of starvation, nor will her babies, if her diet is primarily hay! Of course, that is not going to make her happy but they would all eat sunflower seeds, carrots, apples, and other treats exclusively if allowed. Part of this weight gain may be the massive amounts of fir boughs I gave them after our recent storms. I figured that natural dewormers will not hurt them. All four of my girls are "well loved" in appearance - I love the way Deborah worded that last fall instead of telling me they were little fatties. <g>
Can they "overdose" (overeat) browse?
Congrats on that beautiful udder! I wish you as good mannered a milker as Summer is, every owner's dream.
Replies
She definitely doesn't look fat as I can see her hip bones and feel her ribs. I think I will drop the grain on all of your recommendations and just keep giving the young girls as much hay as they'll eat. Leela eats it like it's candy and when she runs out, she comes to the gate and yells to me to bring more! What about the alfalfa/timothy pellets? Can I keep feeding them those at about a cup a day? When i put my milker on the milk stand I like to have something to give them as well.
Once you gain some confidence in determining your does' body condition, you'll feel more comfortable about adjusting their individual feeding programs.
I quit feeding grain to pregnant yearlings a long time ago after seeing too many big single kids. If the doe is in good body condition, she doesn't need grain. And if she doesn't need the calories, it goes to her kids. The last two years we haven't been feeding grain to hardly any of our does even at the end of pregnancy because our hay quality has been outstanding, and we've also been feeding some Chaffhaye, which is kind of crazy high in protein. Once we run out of Chaffhaye, though, we won't be buying any more.
I am just so worried about overfeeding my preggo yearlings! Leela is due in 4 weeks and she is really big (besides her udder!). I feed her (and the other doeling) 1/4 cup of sweet feed with a half a cup of alfalfa/timothy pellets twice a day and they get plenty of good hay (not really free choice though because I've had to buy chopped hay in-a-bag from my local feed store). If I drop to only hay for Leela who is in her last month, will she get enough to eat? There's almost no browse out there now and I do take them some treats everyday (carrots or raisins etc). I realize no one can tell me what to do, but suggestions are greatly appreciated! She looks like she's gonna drop kids any second even though I know she isn't!
We have to adjust our feeding protocol yearly based upon the quality of the hay we are able to buy. We've had years where it looked like straw and other years where it looked good enough I was tempted to eat it. ;-) It's frustrating that it's hard to get consistent quality for something that is such a big part of their diet.
I personally have really high quality hay, and have ended up with very large kids because of graining. Toxemia can occur in underfeeding AND overfeeding, so for my goats, simply making sure that they have access to their hay at all times has been enough for them. I have to avoid graining until delivery, or kids end up very large here on my farm. Not just in one doe.
This is probably the reason you see so many answers to the question. It's one of those instances where the answer is very dependent on farm specific details. If you don't have quality hay, it's much more likely that graining at the last stages of pregnancy will be necessary.
For my does, everyone has access to free choice hay. All day long. They have browse around their yard/area, but not a large amount. They have access to free choice loose minerals, and water. In order not to upset her rumen, when she kidded, I gave her a very small amount of grain, and have been increasing the amount each day. I started with about 1/2 cup and have been increasing by that much so now she's at about 2 cups a day.
Thanks for answering. My two dry girls are both first fresheners and were (are) still growing, that's why I feed them a small amount of grain morning and night. I have a friend who just lost one of her does to pregnancy toxemia so it scares me to death that I will UNDERFEED them while they are still growing. I have one senior doe too, she had a difficult birth with triplets last summer for my 1st kidding. She lost one (and nearly lost HER) because I was too new to know what to know quite what to do. They were very large (like yours I remember!) and the last one was quite stuck. Anyway, she is still milking but I will soon dry her off and give her no grain until just before kidding as I'm sure I must have overfed her before her last kidding. There is SO much to learn and I spend many hours reading forums (here and TGS) and books every day. Each situation is totally different. I too adore all my boys and girls (two bucks, three does) and spoil them rotten.
Oh, my, Julia, I am such a poor person to ask since mine are apparently overweight. Within the month (or next two weeks), each girl will get their fill of alfalfa pellets twice a day for up to half an hour, then I'll remove the rest. That has to do with when my barn is finished and I can feed them separately. Regarding grain, because of what happened last year, there will be no grain until two weeks prior to due date then it will be only 1/4 cup or so just to get their system accustomed to it again. That is my plan and I hope it is successful and that I (and my doe) never go through again what I did with my senior doe last spring.
Prior to our unusually cold weather in December, I was giving them limited alfalfa pellets with their hay. The milkers were getting grain, whatever they wanted until finished milking. Hay has always been free choice but that is because they are on a city lot versus pasture so their browse/graze is limited. If they had a five-acre pasture, they would have only a certain amount of hay each day, what they would readily eat twice a day and likely no alfalfa pellets except during the winter months. Minerals are always, of course, free choice. They get treats every day so they are a little spoiled though many think they are very spoiled because I take them warm water two or three times a day. (There are people here who said they will never let their goats talk to my goats. <g>)
Keep in mind, with all this said, that I am a very new goat owner, two years in two weeks, so certainly have very few answers and with limited experience to arrive at those. My greatest value is that I love my four-footed sweeties. I stumble through with all the other newbies. :-)
Thanks Glenna! I'm so excited that she is on track to be a wonderful producer! She is one of two of my first "baby" goats and is turning ONE this week. I paid well for her and her niece because they came from great milking lines although the farm I got them from never milked. She was a single birth (!) and her dams second kidding! She's always been big for her age and matured more quickly than most. She's getting really big and looks "well loved" as do all my girls but I'm very careful not to overfeed them (tho they act like they will starve!). Fortunately they have good quality hay and can eat as much as they want plus I give my preggo (dry) girls 1/4 cup of grain and 1/2 cup of alfalfa/timothy pellets with a tbsp of boss twice a day -- is that enough or too much in YOUR opinion? I've read about this stuff until my eyes bleed but there's so many differing opinions LOL. I could use some input if you don't mind! I give them pine boughs too and veggies for snacks.
That is a nice looking udder. My FF last spring had her udder several weeks ahead of kidding; it was barely visible and then a week later, there it was, bigger than her mother's had ever been! She had triplets and was an excellent producer. She gave me 3 cups plus in the morning at two months while feeding her triplets with them doing extremely well. Color me extremely pleased when I started milking her. Not only did she produce well, she had excellent milk stand manners and was extremely easy to milk. Most who saw here were skeptical she was a FF. I am sooooo looking forward to next year when her doeling freshens!
With that said, my senior doe, bred Christmas, looks like she is going to burst but no increase in udder since drying off. She is as big now as she was just before kidding last year with big quads. Due mid-May, she is getting a huge cut-back on alfalfa pellets now the cold weather has passed. She will not die of starvation, nor will her babies, if her diet is primarily hay! Of course, that is not going to make her happy but they would all eat sunflower seeds, carrots, apples, and other treats exclusively if allowed. Part of this weight gain may be the massive amounts of fir boughs I gave them after our recent storms. I figured that natural dewormers will not hurt them. All four of my girls are "well loved" in appearance - I love the way Deborah worded that last fall instead of telling me they were little fatties. <g>
Can they "overdose" (overeat) browse?
Congrats on that beautiful udder! I wish you as good mannered a milker as Summer is, every owner's dream.
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