My goats wont eat anything.

[Thehuli]

Hi all.

New here and have fussy goats.

So i bought a couple of cross breed minatures from a mobile farm barn.

Awesome goats ican sit with them and pat them and heneralky just hang out

The problemi have is as follows.

They are roaming a approx 800sqm paddock.

We have a market garden just next door to them

Everything i have fed them they love for about 24hoirs and then will never touch it again.

They now dont eat luceryn, hay, any green edibles from the garden, no house scraps. No carrots, basically they only eat apple branches and grain.


I am running out of apple branches and dont want to feed them grain for obvious reasons.

I just gave them some rubbard, some microgreen herbs, and a bunch or weeds and small stuff. Didnt touch a bit of it except the apple branches of which they are now chewing up the bark.


They love tree bark and grain.

Any ideas on how to get them onto the cheap stuff like hay it seams most people say goats eat anything but mine would turn there nose up at pretty much anything unless its grain on a silver plate.


Please help with any ideas.

 

[Quackers3211]

They will eat when they are hungry. My goats refused hay at first but when we took away the other options they eventually ate the hay and are now fat and happy eating it.

 

[cassie]

Did you say rhubarb? Rhubarb leaves are toxic.

 

[cassie]

Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid. Just how toxic they are depends on what you read. That said, I wouldn't eat them myself or feed them to any livestock.

 

[Mylied]

They young goats? They look young in the picture. I'd give them some grain along with the hay (bermuda is good, they love alfalfa, perennial peanut hay is high in protein). Do they have grass and weeds in their enclosure? If so, you don't really need to give them extra stuff. Are they male or female?

 

[Thehuli]

Sor

Did you say rhubarb? Rhubarb leaves are toxic.[/QUOTE

Sorry not the leaves but the stems. There ok arent they?

 

[Thehuli]

They young goats? They look young in the picture. I'd give them some grain along with the hay (bermuda is good, they love alfalfa, perennial peanut hay is high in protein). Do they have grass and weeds in their enclosure? If so, you don't really need to give them extra stuff. Are they male or female?

Yeah they are pretty young maybe 6 months old. They seam to graze a fair bit but love stripping branches of there bark. I could be worrying to much but they seam super keen on getting out and eating our fennel, tree branches and the bosses prized day lilies.

They have plenty of grass in their enclosure but not so many weeds.

They seam pretty keen on poking there heads through the fence to try and get at whatever they can except what I feed them.


They are a Mae and female.

 

[Mylied]

They need grain when young. They got a loose goat mineral free choice? Sounds like they are missing something. Goats much prefer brush and weeds over grass. They'll eat annoying things like poison ivy and brambles too.

 

[Thehuli]

Yeah interesting.
I have been giving them grain which I may have failed to mention and are ravenous for it.

I was trying to ween them off it as they love it so much. Should I get them a mineral block?

They need grain when young. They got a loose goat mineral free choice? Sounds like they are missing something. Goats much prefer brush and weeds over grass. They'll eat annoying things like poison ivy and brambles too.

 

[Mylied]

Yeah interesting.
I have been giving them grain which I may have failed to mention and are ravenous for it.

I was trying to ween them off it as they love it so much. Should I get them a mineral block?

No. Loose minerals are better. Here's a good website: http://fiascofarm.com/goats/index.htm