A face only a mother could love?

[b.hromada]

Quote:
Yep!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
Oh you are right! And yes, I guess I've never been spooked out by a horse's eyeballs because they are so dark and limpid and sweet and lovely....

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
Bingo. That's what I was heading toward.

Get that handsome fellow a goat mineral block.

Ummm...close, but not exactly..

Quote:
Goats don't get enough out of a block to do much good, and that's despite the fact that most blocks I've seen are made of fairly low quality forms of trace mineral.

Look for a good loose mineral mix for cattle, if you can't find one labeled specifically for goats. Flip it and read the ingredients; if you see the words "Copper Oxide" put it down and pick up something that costs more. If it says "Iron Oxide" or "Ferrous Oxide" without the words "(for color)" and doesn't also include an iron or ferrous sulfate, put it down and keep looking.

You're looking for sulfates...copper sulfate, ferrous sulfate, etc.. You'll almost always see "magnesium oxide," and perhaps "zinc oxide" -- and those are ok as oxides, but primarily you want sulfates -- especially in copper. And if you can find "proteinates" or "chelates," that's straight up awesome. The goal is bioavailability, and copper oxide is garbage in terms of bioavailability.

Once you find a good loose mineral mix, offer it free choice in small quantities, and keep it refreshed very frequently. Offer, say, no more than an ounce (by weight) per head at a time.. Eight head = half a pound of mineral. That *should* last them a day or two, and that's about all the supply you'll want out at any given time. More than that and it'll get stale and/or the salt will wick nasty funk moisture out of the air and kinda soil it...or they'll poop in it or something...point being that if you leave it out more than a day or two, they'll begin to ration themselves on it and that's not what you want.

You want to keep it fresh and tasty so they'll eat the CRAP out of it..

Seeing as how this dude appears to be suffering from a fairly severe case of mineral deficiency, the sooner you get some loose mineral out there, the better off you'll be. Looks can be deceiving, of course, but...well, if he's on a block right now, my advice would be the same even if he looked perfect.

You may also want to consider copper bolusing this guy.. Copper deficiency alone is often the culprit when black goats turn red, and copper bolusing may help...

Something else to think about, perhaps, would be putting him on about a week's worth of Red Cell drenches.. Red Cell is basically liquid vitamins and minerals, made for horses.. The only problem with Red Cell and male goats, though, is that it contains a fair amount of supplemental magnesium... Magnesium is one of the 3 chemical/mineral components of "struvite" stone, which is typically the type of precipitate indicated in typical cases of Urinary Calculi.. In other words, it's wise to be careful -- or at least aware -- when using Red Cell on males.

In my opinion, anyway.

Good luck with him.

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

thanks everyone for the info - we are going shopping now

 

[Dutchgirl]

???

 

[Laurieks]

Quote:
/agree

how could any decent human (maybe that's the problem!) call a goat ugly!

 

[dieselgrl48]

Simply Adorable!