If you are thinking: “Goats can eat anything, I don’t need to read this”
YOU ARE WRONG!!!
Goats CANNOT eat just anything!
I used to think that when we first got our goats, because people would say “oh we just feed them all of our leftovers, some hay every now and then, and some grain in the morning and at night.” I couldn’t help but think about how wrong everything about this was! This leads to overweight & unhealthy goats!
Fresh Forage. Good Quality Grass Hay. Goat Grains. Loose Minerals. Goat Friendly Treats.
These 5 things are what is going to make you a fabulous goat owner… and fresh water but we’ll talk about that later.
1. Goats are herbivores! Their bodies cannot handle meat or meat byproducts in their food.
2. They also cannot tolerate dramatic changes to their diet -if you have a routine or they had a routine with a previous owner, you need to keep that feed regimen and gradually switch them to your new feed regimen for them. Ease it into their system, don’t just flip it over night. This can cause Ruminal Acidosis.
3. Goats have a 4 chambered stomach rumen system, just like cows, so you should see them chewing their cud. If you don’t notice they are chewing for no reason there is a problem! -I know that sounds silly, but it can be detrimental to their health.
4. Goats love to graze and eat all the grass and weeds and plants they can find! So make sure you are ready to have all of your grass and weeds gone. Make sure you’re ready to move pastures throughout the seasons, depending on how many goats you have and how much they are eating, you will need time for grass in one area to grow back. If they can’t graze they will be bored when they’re not eating and they will get into things they’re not supposed to or try to escape!
5. Goats tend to like weeds, trees, and bushes more than grass.
Who Gets Grain?
Pregnant does…Bucks in rut…Does in milk…Kids under 1 year old…underweight goats <– theses are your grain culprits, and they should only get about 1 cup of grain a day fed out of a mineral feeder.
Now don’t be fooled, all goats will eat grain and they LOVE IT, but a goat that has too much grain is a risk for goat bloat, which left un treated can cause death.
Grain should not be any more than 10% of their diet!
Over feeding pregnant does can led to ketosis and hypocalcemia. It can also cause kids to be large which will make it more difficult for the mom to push her baby out.
Bucks & wethers should NOT have grain after 6 months, unless they are in rut.
What Kind Of Grain?
Goats need more copper than sheep, so any feed labeled “Sheep & Goat” will usually not have enough copper for your goats. You should be looking for a bag of Goat Pellet Feed with a min. 35ppm of copper. It should be non-medicated, they do not need medicated feed unless you have a reason to feed them medicated feed.
I usually pour this into a metal feed container and add in some Diatomaceous Earth to help keep pests out and it acts as a natural dewormer for goats! This should not be their only form of dewormer, but it can assist in the process in keeping your goats healthy!
Kids should have grain that has 16-18% crude protein in it -this will help with rumen development. Kids can start eating solid foods at about 8 weeks. Make sure you are watching their bodies and making sure they are peeing and pooping regularly, especially on this milk to solid food transition.
Here are some great things to add in their feed:
Black oil sunflower seeds
Beet pulp
Kelp
Corn
Wheat
Barley
Oats
Baking Soda
Goat loose mineral
If for some reason your goat isn’t eating…first of all make sure they are ok, and then you can stimulate their appetite by mixing 1 part molasses and 2 parts corn syrup to pour over grain. They don’t need a lot of this, just a little to give it an extra flavor.
I always have a mineral feeder full of loose goat mineral and another feeder full of baking soda for them to eat throughout the day as they please.
You can add these into their feed if you don’t want to have them out to free feed off of.
Loose Goat Minerals are just used to compensate for what they are not getting from hay or foraging. If they are getting feed regularly, you don’t necessarily need loose minerals but it won’t hurt them having it out. They will only eat what they want.
Baking Soda has a lot of benefits for goats, but it’s mainly to keep their stomachs happy. It can help treat goat bloat and toxicity!
Hay Goat Hayyy!
What hay will my goat eat?
Goats can be very picky eaters! They usually will only eat hay that is true grass hay, and green at that! If the hay is on the ground just forget about it, you might as well find another use for it, goats will not eat any hay that is on the ground. Picky, picky, picky. *eye roll*
A good quality grass hay is perfect for goats, they do not need alfalfa hay. Alfalfa hay has the highest protein content and can be given to does in milk.
Goats can and should be eating about 2-4 lbs of hay a day. A normal small square hay bale is roughly 50lbs, so 1 goat should go through 1 bale about every 2-4 weeks. If you have 4 goats they will eat 1 bale roughly every week. Obviously give or take a few days.
Did Someone Say Treats?
Goats, just like every other animal love treats! They will eat the whole bucket of treats in seconds if you let them.
Make sure you don’t feed them too many treats, just like us humans don’t need to eat (we definitely could but its not good for us) the whole cookie container, neither do goats.
Good Treats for your Goats:
Bananas
Sweet Feed
Fruits -no pits
Tree Leaves -not fruit trees
Corn
Vegetables (Carrots, lettuce, & cucumber are my goat’s favorites!)
Sunflower Seeds
Your leftovers…if you’re a vegetarian
Do NOT Feed These Things To Your Goats
Raw potatoes
Avocados
Kale
Chocolate
Peanuts
Chicken feed
Dog food
Meat
French fries
Eggs
Ice cream
Poisonous Plants To Goats
Rhododendron
Mountain Laurel
Azalea
Bracken Fern
Lantana
Wild Cherry -wilted
Oleander
Yew
Larkspur
Delphinium
Boxwood
Nightshades
Pit fruit trees -wilted
Poison Hemlock
Water Hemlock
Holly
Lilac
Morning glory
Lily of the Valley
Burning bush
Irises
Don’t Forget To Water Your Goats
Goats need fresh water constantly. Back to being picky… goats will not drink dirty water. I mean I can’t really blame them, but still!
You can add Diatomaceous Earth to their water to act as a natural toxin and algae preventative.
Add electrolyte mix or organic apple cider vinegar to their water for extra digestive support and as an incentive to drink more water.
SUMMER TIME TRICKS:
On hot days fill a feed pan with water and add ice cubes and black oil sunflower seeds as an incentive for them to drink more water!
WINTER TIME TRICKS:
In the cold months Add 1-2 sealed water bottles filled with 1 cup of salt and the rest with water (salt water bottles) to your buckets to prevent freezing! Although sometimes the top of the water will freeze over so you have to go out and break the ice so they can drink their water! We just use this trick for the buckets outside, we use plug-in water heaters for the buckets inside their goat house.
I usually have several buckets spread throughout their pen with water so that they don’t all have to drink out of the same bucket at the same time, especially since they are with the chickens as well and the chickens will sit on the sides of the bucket and drink. While this is not convenient, it’s just what works for us at the moment.
