Goat bathroom different?

[SmallFarmChick]

Dear Friends,
I know this is the wrong fourm, I should be on BYH, but I can't retrieve my password and I would like some help.
My two goats, Kisses and Betty, are not milking or pregnant, so I just feed them hay everyday and cracked corn every other day.
I noticed today that their poo is a different. Not dark brown and hard, but light/slightly green colored and softer. No worms or anything else. I do have a mice problem, but they don't get into the feed because I store it in a bucket they can't get into. Am I too worried?

SmallFarmChick

 

[farmchick897]

If concerned take stool sample to a vet and have it checked for worms and coccidea.

 

[Stacykins]

Corn is definitely not good for goats. It doesn't even provide them anything nutritionally, other than some sugar. It is very low in protein and minerals.

I'd suggest stop feeding the corn, and instead getting them an actual goat feed. It has higher amounts of copper and selenium, which goats need to be healthy. Instead of giving a lot every other day, give them a little each day. Start off with a tiny amount, when you do the switch, too, like a handful per goat. Heck, since they aren't pregnant or nursing, all they'd really need each day is a handful anyway.

Also, are you giving them any kind of minerals? If not, you really need to. Not a mineral block, those are almost all NaCl (table salt) and provide almost no trace minerals in the amounts a goat needs. Feed them a loose mineral mix designed for goats, those are almost all minerals and very little table salt. I feed in a small dish attached to a wall, where it stays clean and dry. They lick it up as needed, and I refresh it when it is empty.

To address the scours, stop the corn, totally. Don't even give them a goat grain until it clears up. I second getting a fecal test done, to see if there are any worms and/or coccidia (two different things, treated different ways). Feeding just hay will help firm up their stool and help settle their digestive system. Some probiotic paste given every day until it clears up won't hurt, either.

 

[SmallFarmChick]

Thanks ya'll... Did not know that. WIll do what you said.

 

[cassie]

Corn is definitely not good for goats. It doesn't even provide them anything nutritionally, other than some sugar. It is very low in protein and minerals.

I'd suggest stop feeding the corn, and instead getting them an actual goat feed. It has higher amounts of copper and selenium, which goats need to be healthy. Instead of giving a lot every other day, give them a little each day. Start off with a tiny amount, when you do the switch, too, like a handful per goat. Heck, since they aren't pregnant or nursing, all they'd really need each day is a handful anyway.

Also, are you giving them any kind of minerals? If not, you really need to. Not a mineral block, those are almost all NaCl (table salt) and provide almost no trace minerals in the amounts a goat needs. Feed them a loose mineral mix designed for goats, those are almost all minerals and very little table salt. I feed in a small dish attached to a wall, where it stays clean and dry. They lick it up as needed, and I refresh it when it is empty.

To address the scours, stop the corn, totally. Don't even give them a goat grain until it clears up. I second getting a fecal test done, to see if there are any worms and/or coccidia (two different things, treated different ways). Feeding just hay will help firm up their stool and help settle their digestive system. Some probiotic paste given every day until it clears up won't hurt, either.

Why would you say corn is not good for goats? Corn is an excellent feed for goats. It is high in energy. When I had my dairy, I fed my milkers COB, which is rolled corn, oats, and barley or rolled corn with whole cottonseed. However, dry non pregnant goats, especially nubians and pygmies do not need any grain. If fed grain, they tend to get too fat. Hay yes. Grain, no.

 

[Stacykins]

Why would you say corn is not good for goats? Corn is an excellent feed for goats. It is high in energy. When I had my dairy, I fed my milkers COB, which is rolled corn, oats, and barley or rolled corn with whole cottonseed. However, dry non pregnant goats, especially nubians and pygmies do not need any grain. If fed grain, they tend to get too fat. Hay yes. Grain, no.

Because corn is such a poor source of nutrients, other than sugar. Over half the protein content in corn is what is known as bypass protein. It doesn't even get digested by the animal. It also has a terrible calcium to phosphorus ration. Feed should be as close to 2:1 as possible, two parts calcium to one part phosphorus. Corn's calhos ratio is 0.2:1. That is bad unless it is offset with a huge amount of calcium from another source, and goats can easily get urinary calcifications and also become calcium deficient if fed feed with a poor calhos ratio.

Feel free to look up the data, if you think I am making it up.

 

[cassie]

Corn and barley are the two grains with the most energy. They are not complete feeds by any means. You have to balance the ration. For many years I lived in one of the largest milk producing areas of the country. Guess what grain the dairymen, and by that I mean both cow and goat dairymen, feed? Corn and/ or barley, depending on price. They may use some other grains too, but corn and/or barley make up the great bulk of the grain ration. If the animals didn't do well on corn the dairymen wouldn't feed it. In addition to the corn, dairy rations have other ingredients. In my area, beet pulp, almond hull meal, an oil meal (linseed, cottonseed, or soybean meal) for protein, a mineral supplement mix of some sort, and molasses are commonly used. For roughage, the cows get primarily corn silage (corn again) and alfalfa. Dairy goats are fed mostly alfalfa although I know a couple goat dairies that feed some corn silage along with the alfalfa hay.