Lesheffer
Exploring the pasture
I have a 2 year old Alpine doe, who is a dairy cull, freshened beginning August. We got her the end of August. She is hand milked twice daily, giving about 3-4 pounds of milk each time. Her temp is normal, good rumen sounds, normal defecation. Fecal is within normal range per vet. Famacha is 4. We are working on fixing her copper deficiency. Has free choice hay and pasture. She eats hay well, but won't eat any grains. We've tried our custom dairy mix from our feed mill, goat feed from another local mill, Prince goat feed, Nutrena 17% dairy goat feed, Empower horse supplement, calf manna, manna pro goat balancer, 12% all stock sweet feed, a 14% horse sweet feed, Nutrena calf starter, BOSS, alfalfa pellets, and timothy pellets. I've tried every different combo of all these feeds, as well as feeding all of them separately (plain and adding molasses) We even soaked her feed thinking she had teeth issues. She barely nibbles at all of them (at best about 4 mouthfuls of plain calf manna). She will only eat soaked beet pulp with Manna Pro goat skin & coat added. I'm looking into adding either soybean meal with added dyne supplement or prince hog concentrate (a meal form also) to her beet pulp. If she won't eat this, I am out of ideas. She is losing condition. I'm at a loss. I've never encountered a goat who won't eat sweet feed. Does anyone have any suggestions on what other feeds to try? I'm willing to try anything at this point to get her to at least maintain.