Sweet feed

[meno460]

Is sweet feed ok to feed as a treat? I have plenty of it for my goats and the chickens seem to love it

 

[sourland]

It is fine as a treat, but a general rule of thumb is that not more than 10% of a diet should be treats.

 

[centrarchid]

If the birds are free-ranged / co-mingled with goats then you not be able to control the consumption by the chickens. If chickens also able to access quality forages, then most will spend time after other options to balance out diet. That is where breeds reputed to be good foragers come into their own. Typical production birds may not be so good in that they will over fill on the sweet feed. If that occurs you will likely see depressed egg production or growth. Watch for birds getting overly heavy in the lower abdomen.

 

[waddles99]

Sweet feed isn't for chickens, and its not so great for goats either. Im not trying to tell you how to keep your herd and flock, but if I were you I would get rid of sweet feed and feed a real formula especially for goats and especially for chickens.

 

[meno460]

I don't feed that as a main diet for the goats. I have some very skinny goats that showed up on my property so I was feeding that along with their feed to put some weight on them.

 

[waddles99]

I don't feed that as a main diet for the goats. I have some very skinny goats that showed up on my property so I was feeding that along with their feed to put some weight on them.

Ah, gotcha. I just like to make sure, goats can get stones and mineral deficiency when being fed sweet feed, as well as becoming overweight like you said. It really is just calories with no nutritional value whatsoever.

 

[meno460]

I don't feed it everyday. It's an every other day thing for the goat and just a little bit at that. She's already looking 100 times better. She showed up her about a week ago with her baby that is about 3 months. They saw our Pygmy goats and decided to stay so we dewormed and are trying to get them back to health