Chickens with Nigerian Dwarf goats

[crazychics4me]

Hi everyone. I am new here and have a question for all the experts. We started our mini farm with chickens this past spring and love it. SOOO, now we want to expand & have some dairy goats. We were told that the goats cannot eat chicken food as it is extremely toxic to them so not to have them fenced in together. If we were careful about making sure that the goats could not get to the chicken feeder (like by keeping it closed in the coop) would it still be a bad idea?? IT would not be long term (we are getting new fencing up now), but I would hate to endanger either the goats or the chickens. THANKS so much!!!

Jenn
10 RIR, 3 WL, 4 guineas, 2 baby BO & hopefully 2 nigerian dwarfs soon.....

 

[BostonBryce]

I have 2 nigerian dwarf goats that i have had penned up with my chickens for a few weeks at a time.
The goats ate alot of the chiken feed in the first couple days, so i finally had to just dump food on the dirt for the chickens to scratch for.. Goats still try to lap up the chicken food, and still eat some of it, but i have not seen any issues with my goats. I also milk them and drink the milk.... and no problems there either. Not saying its not bad for them, just saying I didnt see any changes in my goats.
-Boston, in AZ

 

[toochicky]

This is a great question! I had planned to do something very similar to you. Never knew that chicken feed was harmful to goats.. Guess I am going to have to make a pen for one or the other.

Good Luck!

 

[TigerLilly]

There is an ingredient in the chicken feed that is NOT good for goats--I just cant remember what it is ATM!
I have goats (no more NDs) of the pygmy & pygerian variety. I keep my chicken feed in the coop. I try not to let the girls out of their run to free-range until eggs are laid. In the event that I let them out early, I shoo the goats & cows out of the main penned area so they can free-range on the rest of the 2 acres. I shut the main penned area so the chickens can go in & out of their coop/run as they wish. NO GOATS (OR COWS) IN THE CHICKEN FEED. Everyone needs their own space...