Goat pellets vs whole grains and other thoughts about feed.

[Sussex19]

I don't know about anyone else, but for some reason my goats don't seem to do well on pellets. Tried different brands etc. and I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with them, just the pellet form of feed doesn't seem to suit goats.
They just don't have that same 'bloom of health' when fed them, and seem more susceptible to getting indigestion from other things; as if their stomach isn't in as good working order.
I now feed daily (as well as grazing, and odd tree branches) per nine goats (the amount I have) three double handfuls of whole barley, two double handfuls of cracked lupins, and one of sunflower seeds.
The barley gets soaked for 24 hours, and in the water is one spoon (its a plastic spoon, bigger then a teaspoon, but smaller than a tablespoon) of copper sulfate, a tiny pinch of borax (our soil is low in it) and a dollop ACV. I then drain any left over water, and add a spoon of sulfur, dolomite, and a heaped spoon of seaweed meal.
This gets mixed with three big handfuls of lucerne chaff.
The goats look so much better when fed like this!
Most of it is based on the Pat Coleby's book, Natural Goat Care, with some tweaking by trial and error. I just thought it would be interesting to bring this up, and see what anyone else's thoughts are on feeding goats pellets, and what you might feed instead : )
I must say, willow branches are so good for goats! If any are feeling under the weather, they are one thing they will almost always eat, and are pretty beneficial. Very easy to grow, to!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I can't speak for your local feeds, but I know here in the US, the pellets I usually use (one because its cheap, the other because its sometims convenient) are both low in copper for my grazers. As all goat owners know, copper deficiencies in goats are readily apparent and show quickly.

I go thru goat mineral pretty quickly - none of my herd would strand still for a bollus, even if they were ever in stock.

Digestive issues have a lot of causes, but yes, bloat from gorging pellets is a comon cause.

 

[Sussex19]

I can't speak for your local feeds, but I know here in the US, the pellets I usually use (one because its cheap, the other because its sometims convenient) are both low in copper for my grazers. As all goat owners know, copper deficiencies in goats are readily apparent and show quickly.

Digestive issues have a lot of causes, but yes, bloat from gorging pellets is a comon cause.

What do you think of feeding copper sulfate for copper? Its one of those things that seems very controversial. I must say I haven't seen any adverse effects from feeding it, and they look very healthy so I don't think its doing any harm.
According to that book, (a long time ago now) some vets in the UK tried to do an experiment with it, to see how much some goats good take. They fed them very high amounts, and basically waited for them to die. At the time of writing the book, they were looking healthier then ever!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

addendum - mine like to eat blackberry. The bramble, they don't care about the fruit (chickens, otoh, will absolutely denude a blackberry bramble of fruit, then hide a nest under the thickest part of it...)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

What do you think of feeding copper sulfate for copper? Its one of those things that seems very controversial. I must say I haven't seen any adverse effects from feeding it, and they look very healthy so I don't think its doing any harm.
According to that book, (a long time ago now) some vets in the UK tried to do an experiment with it, to see how much some goats good take. They fed them very high amounts, and basically waited for them to die. At the time of writing the book, they were looking healthier then ever!

I've not done enough research to have formed a solid opinion - in part because I can only get copper sulfate in liquid form for pool treatment, at insane expense, so its not a practical solution for me.

I don't know NEARLY as much about feeding goats as I do about feeding chickens,

 

[Sussex19]

I've not done enough research to have formed a solid opinion - in part because I can only get copper sulfate in liquid form for pool treatment, at insane expense, so its not a practical solution for me.

Here you can just buy a bag of it in any farm shop. Very different soil types in different places to, so while in some areas they might not need that much extra, in others they need loads.
Another interesting thing according to the same book, is that apparently dolomite treats copper sulfate toxicity. So if you over dose them, giving them a drench of dolomite will save them.
I find it slightly harder to believe that one, and haven't been able to find anything else out about it.

 

[lomine]

Most goats don't really need grain. I only give it to my heavily pregnant and milking does (it's a whole grain mix, not pellets). Kids start to get a little when I separate them at night, but that's mostly because it helps me lure them away from mom. There's a lot of things that can go wrong if you start giving a goat too much grain (urinary calculi, polio, bloat) and it can even result in death.

There's that myth that goats can eat anything, but I think they're actually pretty sensitive. It's a bit of a balancing act and you have to find the right diet for your specific goats and your specific land. It's a bit of trial and error too.

 

[Sussex19]

Most goats don't really need grain. I only give it to my heavily pregnant and milking does (it's a whole grain mix, not pellets). Kids start to get a little when I separate them at night, but that's mostly because it helps me lure them away from mom. There's a lot of things that can go wrong if you start giving a goat too much grain (urinary calculi, polio, bloat) and it can even result in death.

There's that myth that goats can eat anything, but I think they're actually pretty sensitive. It's a bit of a balancing act and you have to find the right diet for your specific goats and your specific land. It's a bit of trial and error too.

One does need grain here for a lot of the year.
There just isn't a enough for them to eat, and the soil is very poor. It is a struggle keeping weight on them even with grain.
I think thats maybe why pellets don't work though, for those very reasons. Whole barley, lucerne, and lupins seem to go down fine though.
I would much prefer it if they could eat just shrubs, trees, wilder type grasses, and I suspect they would be healthier on it.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

We don't always feed our goats much. We moved away from dairy goats because it was getting too expensive to feed them right. Now we have minis, some of which I think get fat on nothing .
We feed just hay (lucerne), when they paddock has plenty of grazing. When the paddocks are quite bare (and whenever they have kids) they get barley and chaff (lucerne again, sometimes oaten too) as well, often there's molasses mixed in. They get a big mineral block in each paddock. We did get a bag of pellets recently because the new goat lost a lot of condition during transport.
When we had the dairy goats they got a multi ingredient mix, I don't even remember everything that was in that.

 

[Sussex19]

We don't always feed our goats much. We moved away from dairy goats because it was getting too expensive to feed them right.

Yeah, ours are angoras and rangelands (well, one rangeland and her two daughters) and I think they have the same problem. Surprisingly for the rangeland, but they really seem to thrive where they can eat heaps of browse rather then grass, and we just don't have the fences to keep them into our bit of bush; so paddocks it is for them.
I'm kind of thinking of moving away from goats and go to sheep instead, but I just love them so much!
How is your Boer as far as feed goes? I'm thinking they may be better doers, and might be worth getting a boer buck for my girls for next year.