Hello, nice subscribers to BYC,
I am now facing another issue, always related to knowing more and more about raising goats. As some of you might know, I have 4 Nigerian Dwarf Goats (three does and one wether). The problem now is the amount of hay they waste. I have to admit that this is about me paying the price of my freshman year at the «Raising-Goat-Learning Program», so there we go..
I recently increased the amount of Timothy Hay a few weeks ago. I decided to use 4 medium size plastic buckets which I attached to the wall inside the barn, but there's a problem definitely in connection with the wrong containers I decided to use to feed them.
I have noticed that these guys have not been doing the right thing : every time they get in the buckets, they stick their head all the way down to the very bottom of the bucket, pull their head out, and start chewing the food. The problem is that when they pull their mouth and head out of the bucket, big chunks of hay are also dragged out of it, which makes a lot of food wasted as it is true that once the food reaches the ground (wooden platform as part of their sleeping shelves) they won't eat it. To solve this matter, I just purchased two Hay Bags Tote with Poly Net, which are basically designed to feed horses (if anyone have heard of these bags, then you'll know what I'm talking about) as these bags have a sort of net in the center which would let part of the hay stick out enough so that the goats get only what they need and will stop them from wasting food. I haven't done anything with such bags yet, but I'm now sensing that these goats are going to start yelling at me like "Hey!, you don't have to change the containers out of which we've been eating so far! What's going on, man? We are now going to refuse to eat from these nasty bags ! "
So, perhaps I will come up with some further ideas later on, maybe I will build some containers made of wood... or maybe you guys come up with some better ideas, in particular those of you who have already come a long way in dealing with goats.
Thanks, in advance, for your nice feedback on this concern.
nicefarmer4U.
I am now facing another issue, always related to knowing more and more about raising goats. As some of you might know, I have 4 Nigerian Dwarf Goats (three does and one wether). The problem now is the amount of hay they waste. I have to admit that this is about me paying the price of my freshman year at the «Raising-Goat-Learning Program», so there we go..
I recently increased the amount of Timothy Hay a few weeks ago. I decided to use 4 medium size plastic buckets which I attached to the wall inside the barn, but there's a problem definitely in connection with the wrong containers I decided to use to feed them.
I have noticed that these guys have not been doing the right thing : every time they get in the buckets, they stick their head all the way down to the very bottom of the bucket, pull their head out, and start chewing the food. The problem is that when they pull their mouth and head out of the bucket, big chunks of hay are also dragged out of it, which makes a lot of food wasted as it is true that once the food reaches the ground (wooden platform as part of their sleeping shelves) they won't eat it. To solve this matter, I just purchased two Hay Bags Tote with Poly Net, which are basically designed to feed horses (if anyone have heard of these bags, then you'll know what I'm talking about) as these bags have a sort of net in the center which would let part of the hay stick out enough so that the goats get only what they need and will stop them from wasting food. I haven't done anything with such bags yet, but I'm now sensing that these goats are going to start yelling at me like "Hey!, you don't have to change the containers out of which we've been eating so far! What's going on, man? We are now going to refuse to eat from these nasty bags ! "
So, perhaps I will come up with some further ideas later on, maybe I will build some containers made of wood... or maybe you guys come up with some better ideas, in particular those of you who have already come a long way in dealing with goats.
Thanks, in advance, for your nice feedback on this concern.
nicefarmer4U.
