My goats are endangered....

[LocoPollo]

Help! My goats are driving me crazy!!!! They will not eat their hay. They were getting really skinny for awhile and I gave them some alfalfa hay, which they went crazy for and ate all up. I kept that up for three weeks but it was too expensive so now I am back to orchard hay and they wont eat it. It has been three weeks and they have only eaten two bales. They scream at me constantly like they are starving and they look skinnier. I do feed them some grain every day but that is a supplement. Their screaming is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do to make sure they are well fed.

I am really really REALLY close to taking a couple to the processors and selling the kids.

 

[bockbock2008]

Is it possible the grass hay has molded? They usually won't eat it if it has.

 

[ksacres]

Well, goats are picky

Is your hay green? Does it smell good? If it doesn't smell/look good to you, it won't to them either.

Right now we are feeding both grass and alfalfa, but I have fed straight grass before and straight alfalfa before.

Don't worry about it, they will eat the grass hay when they get hungry enough-provided it isn't moldy/dusty.

 

[LocoPollo]

Well the hay is brand new. They ate one bale and left the others. They hollering they do is awful. They bay as loud as they can and it gets on my last nerve.

 

[FarmGirl01]

That happened to me. They didn't want to go back to grass hay after the taste of alfalfa hay.

But they did. It took a while. Goats are sooo picky.

 

[abluechipstock]

there must be something wrong with the hay, mine eat timothy/orchard grass hay, mine also love alfalfa, buy a bale from another sourse and see if they eat it, do you have cats that spray the hay or chickens that poop on it? just trying to think why

 

[Badhbh]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. My two boys are SO picky, and they'll only eat a few select bits of hay. The rest, they dump on the ground.

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
Even if the hay is new to you, that doesn't mean it's perfectly ok for them. Did you break open the bales and look at it?

They WILL go back to grass hay. They just have to get hungry. Chances are good that they haven't lost "weight" what you are seeing is much less full rumen, when they decide to eat the grass, they will fill out again. They didn't really "gain" weight when you gave them alfalfa, they had just overindulged and had filled their rumens to peak capacity.

As for the hollering, some goats are just more vocal than others. As soon as they decide to end their self-imposed starvation mode, the hollering should tone down a bit.

 

[Love my Critters!]

Mine do the same thing, they are on grass hay right now that they are not crazy about. There is nothing wrong with it, they are just "not in the mood" for it. They SCREAM so lound all the time and it can definately drive you crazy! Mine are probably on the verge of being overweight though. I hope you can get them some goat alfalfa pellets or something that will help tone down the griping. I agree that if they were really "starving" they would eat the hay. Just wanted to let you know you are not the only one out there that has picky - loud goats

 

[agnes_day]

you guys must have some weird goats..or mine are weird because they eat everything off the ground! they eat the hay in their rack,and then eat every bit of green stuff they can find on the ground.