Best Food to Start baby Goats On...

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

We have a really hard time finding goat food around here and seems like this is all I can find. I'd like you guys to take a look and let me know which one is the best. Thank you!

Noble Goat Grower:
http://www.goatnutrition.com/OURPRODUCTS/PRODUCTS/NobleGoatGrower16/default.aspx

Purina Goat Chow:
http://www.goatnutrition.com/OURPRODUCTS/PRODUCTS/GoatChow/default.aspx

Or

Modesto * Organic Goat Dairy Pellets #5030
http://www.modestomilling.com/livestock.html

 

[SheepGirl]

I really try to limit pelleted feeds. My sheep feed is textured and it contains pellets, but not a lot. Pelleted feeds, unlike textured feeds, make the rumen inflamed.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I though the babies were supposed to have free feed pellets and hay?

 

[SheepGirl]

IMO textured feeds are best (and it's what I feed my sheep). I would say use Purina Goat Chow, started at about 2-3 wks old.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Ahhhh! That makes more sense.

 

[julierx1]

I offer my kids a calf starter at about a week old and they seem to have no trouble. It is a bit finer than the others!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I start mine on pelleted Noble. It contains a coccidiastat, is well blended so they can't pick through what they like and don't like, and balances calcium and phosphorus levels to prevent urinary calculi. Personally, I have never heard of a goat getting and inflamed rumen from pellets--is that something that sheep experience?

Edited to add that I do not recommend the Purina. It is a sweet feed, containing molasses which is high in sulfur, and has been linked to goat polio plus is just extra calories.

 

[Stacykins]

I start mine on pelleted Noble. It contains a coccidiastat, is well blended so they can't pick through what they like and don't like, and balances calcium and phosphorus levels to prevent urinary calculi. Personally, I have never heard of a goat getting and inflamed rumen from pellets--is that something that sheep experience?

Edited to add that I do not recommend the Purina. It is a sweet feed, containing molasses which is high in sulfur, and has been linked to goat polio plus is just extra calories.

I personally feed my goaties a mix of purina goat chow and normal, unsweetened pellets. The normal pellets have better mineral content, but the darn goats have a sweet tooth. By mixing one 50lb bag of purina with one 50lb bag of unsweetened they get their 'fix'.

 

[SheepGirl]

Personally, I have never heard of a goat getting and inflamed rumen from pellets--is that something that sheep experience?

The animal manager at the farm I worked at used to raise dairy goats and she showed nationally; she also had a large flock of sheep (numbering in the hundreds). We were talking about feeding stock after work on my way out to my car like she buys/bought her feed, what she feeds, etc and she told me she will NEVER feed pelleted feed because she went to a feeding seminar when she was still raising her own stock and they were shown two different rumens--one who's diet included textured feed/whole grains and one who's diet included pelleted feeds. The rumen with the pelleted feeds was all inflamed. It gets like that because the pieces of feed are so finely ground in the pellet and when the critter goes to chew, it all breaks a part essentially into a powder and the rumen tries to get the nutrients from the powder, but it has a hard time because it's used to rougher, not as fine feeds, like chewed up corn, oats, grass, hay, etc. An inflamed rumen is more prone to acidiosis.

Personally, I've tried researching it myself, but I haven't been able to come up with anything. So maybe I'm not searching the right thing or there is nothing on the internet about it but after she said that it makes me want to stay away from pure pelleted feeds! So much so that when I bought feed last time and I opened the bag to find they changed the recipe to include more pellets and less corn, I returned the two bags I hadn't opened and went to another Southern States that mills their sheep feed on spot and keeps the recipe the same all the time.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I myself do not like the second feed at all. Way to low in Fiber.

And on the last link in the goats feed part, also to low in Fiber for my liking. I think your best bet is the first one.