Nigerian Dwarf Goats wasting lots of hay---

[cincyfarmgirl]

Hello, nice subscribers to BYC,
I am now facing another issue, always related to knowing more and more about raising goats. As some of you might know, I have 4 Nigerian Dwarf Goats (three does and one wether). The problem now is the amount of hay they waste. I have to admit that this is about me paying the price of my freshman year at the «Raising-Goat-Learning Program», so there we go..
I recently increased the amount of Timothy Hay a few weeks ago. I decided to use 4 medium size plastic buckets which I attached to the wall inside the barn, but there's a problem definitely in connection with the wrong containers I decided to use to feed them.
I have noticed that these guys have not been doing the right thing : every time they get in the buckets, they stick their head all the way down to the very bottom of the bucket, pull their head out, and start chewing the food. The problem is that when they pull their mouth and head out of the bucket, big chunks of hay are also dragged out of it, which makes a lot of food wasted as it is true that once the food reaches the ground (wooden platform as part of their sleeping shelves) they won't eat it. To solve this matter, I just purchased two Hay Bags Tote with Poly Net, which are basically designed to feed horses (if anyone have heard of these bags, then you'll know what I'm talking about) as these bags have a sort of net in the center which would let part of the hay stick out enough so that the goats get only what they need and will stop them from wasting food. I haven't done anything with such bags yet, but I'm now sensing that these goats are going to start yelling at me like "Hey!, you don't have to change the containers out of which we've been eating so far! What's going on, man? We are now going to refuse to eat from these nasty bags ! "
So, perhaps I will come up with some further ideas later on, maybe I will build some containers made of wood... or maybe you guys come up with some better ideas, in particular those of you who have already come a long way in dealing with goats.

Thanks, in advance, for your nice feedback on this concern.
nicefarmer4U.

I don’t use buckets for feeding hay, so that isn’t my problem but I have found that my two Saanen goats as well as my two Nigerian dwarf goats waste an awful lot of hay. It ends up as bedding in the stall. Should I just simply feed them less hay or is it that they don’t like the hay I’m feeding them, so they’re pulling it out and putting it on the floor?

 

[cassie]

You are going to have to get some decent hay feeders. Look on line for a livestock supply catalog. You ought to be able to find some reasonably priced hay feeders for sheep. Buckets are not going to work as you found out.