What do you feed your goats?

[laci04]

I need to know if I can feed sweet feed to my male goat? If I can how much is to much... Will it heart him?

 

[Desert Nights]

I need to know if I can feed sweet feed to my male goat? If I can how much is to much... Will it heart him?

Yes you can feed sweet feed to your goat if it's formulated for goats. Although my preferences are for pellets since I live in the desert and sweet feed does not store well here. My goats are show animals. I grain my bucks three days a week in the evenings. Each Buck is given 1/2 cup grain, 1/2 cup rolled corn. 1/4 cup calf mana and a table spoon of black oil sunflower seeds.... Plus 1/2 flake of alfalfa 2x a day (no browsing here in the desert). My suggestion would be to talk to other goat owners in your area to determine what is best for your animals. Your area might require different feeding program then say mine. Hope this helps.

 

[H Diamond]

I need to know if I can feed sweet feed to my male goat? If I can how much is to much... Will it heart him?

Is this a buck or a wether( castrated male)? The problem with grain and male goats is that they are more prone to urinary calculi ( think kidney stones in humans). These can block the urinary tract and become fatal if not treated. The thing you need to look at is the overall diet of the goat, and the calcium phosphorus ratio. In lieu of typing all the info out, please go read this article: http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/urinarycalculi06.html it explains it all very well. If you still have questions after reading it, please let us know!!

 

[cindywolkens 72]

My daughter got a fainting wethere given to her before winter. He was with a donkey that was very mean to him and wouldn't let him eat. We put him with our horses and he loves it. He gets all the hay he can eat and his own water bucket and 1 cup of goat grain a day that we got from TSC but he seems too skinny for me. The worst part of winter is over but you can feel every bone in his body it seems like. I bought a goat de wormer. Any suggestions to get him to put weight on? Thanks in advance!

 

[H Diamond]

My daughter got a fainting wethere given to her before winter. He was with a donkey that was very mean to him and wouldn't let him eat. We put him with our horses and he loves it. He gets all the hay he can eat and his own water bucket and 1 cup of goat grain a day that we got from TSC but he seems too skinny for me. The worst part of winter is over but you can feel every bone in his body it seems like. I bought a goat de wormer. Any suggestions to get him to put weight on? Thanks in advance!

Collect a fecal sample and take it to your vet to see what if any worms you are dealing with. If it's not a worm issue, then we can look at other things. You are sure the horses are keeping him away from the hay? After worms, there is a whole lot of things to consider and most fall under nutrition, deficiencies or diseases. First and foremost though I would check his worm load and then go from there. I'm going to guess you bought Safeguard as your wormer? ( fenbendazole is the generic name) Safeguard doesn't work in probably 90% of the situations. I know it will cost a few dollars (and if you don't have a good vet or one that charges too much, let me know and I can get you info on the place where I send in my fecal samples by mail) but it's the only way to know for sure.

 

[cindywolkens 72]

I did buy Safeguard. Thanks for the advise. I got a hold of a vet that's coming out next week. Thanks

 

[chrisarvor]

How do you get the age of a goat by looking at the teeth please ?

 

[H Diamond]

How do you get the age of a goat by looking at the teeth please ?

http://goat-link.com/content/view/14/31/#.VRn7ApHnbqA

 

[chrisarvor]

Hi there Diamond thanks for that link very informative

Another question is do you castrate your own goats ,and at what age do you do this?

I have a two year old Cameroon male ,is it to late to castrate him
Would it calm him down even though he is able to be stroke and feed him etc

 

[H Diamond]

Hi there Diamond thanks for that link very informative

Another question is do you castrate your own goats ,and at what age do you do this?

I have a two year old Cameroon male ,is it to late to castrate him
Would it calm him down even though he is able to be stroke and feed him etc

I do castrate some of my male goats. It depends on when I"m planning to sell them.
If I want to keep the goat as a wether or have him sold as a wether, I usually castrate around 2-3 months. I use a bander on my goats.
If you don't know what that is, it's basically a type of pliers that spread out a really heavy duty small rubber band that goes around at the base of the testicles.
The bad keeps shrinking and keeps pressure on the area and the testicles eventually shrivel up and fall off.
Now as for your two year old goat... You could theoretically band him if you have one big enough. That being said, I wouldn't.. I would take him to a vet and probably have a surgical castration done. You want to do it when there isn't a big threat of flies. Basically they cut off the end of the sack and pull the testicles out and/or cut the cords.
As for if it will help your buck.. I doubt it. He just won't spend so much time wanting to ride other goats, etc.