Bored with loose minerals?!

[Duckfarmerpa1]

Hi all...my two goats, Busty and Stormy, are just my dear sweet lovable darlings. I’ve come to love them so much and I’m learning so hard and fast how to care for them properly. Stormy, my Pygmy mix, is pregnant and due around January 31. Busty, my Nigerian Dwarf mix, is due around February 1. They used to love their loose minerals...months ago. Oh, let me back up, my goats are spoiled and I pretty much hand feed them out of buckets, all the time. When I introduced the loose minerals, I hand fed them. You see, they came to me from a bad farmer who went to jail for neglect...I doubt they had these things. Anyways...when I put th in the barn for free choice, it was fine for awhile...then, I made the terrible mistake of putting too much at one time. Ugh. My dear sweet picky goats wouldn’t touch them, because of course, I allowed them to gain moisture. Ugh again. I immediately changed them. I showed them...in my hand..the new ones...several times. It’s been a week. The minerals haven’t been touched. Any tips on how to get them back to eating their spinach and Brussels sprouts?

 

[Beekissed]

Usually they will sample minerals when they have need of them, so they may just have no need for them right now. IME, even if the minerals have drawn moisture, if the animal is in a deficit of any given mineral, they will sample the minerals until that is resolved.

If I let mine run out and they are without for a few days or more, when I put it out you'd think it was the last thing on Earth they had to eat.....they gobble a bunch and then it will sit for a long time without seeming to get any attention.

Eventually I'll stop checking it as I've seen no decrease in the levels for some time....and then I'll check it again later and it's gone. They just sample it in waves, it seems, with little nibbles now and again in between the peaks.

I'd just leave it be and let them use it as needed.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Hi all...my two goats, Busty and Stormy, are just my dear sweet lovable darlings. I’ve come to love them so much and I’m learning so hard and fast how to care for them properly. Stormy, my Pygmy mix, is pregnant and due around January 31. Busty, my Nigerian Dwarf mix, is due around February 1. They used to love their loose minerals...months ago. Oh, let me back up, my goats are spoiled and I pretty much hand feed them out of buckets, all the time. When I introduced the loose minerals, I hand fed them. You see, they came to me from a bad farmer who went to jail for neglect...I doubt they had these things. Anyways...when I put th in the barn for free choice, it was fine for awhile...then, I made the terrible mistake of putting too much at one time. Ugh. My dear sweet picky goats wouldn’t touch them, because of course, I allowed them to gain moisture. Ugh again. I immediately changed them. I showed them...in my hand..the new ones...several times. It’s been a week. The minerals haven’t been touched. Any tips on how to get them back to eating their spinach and Brussels sprouts?

I have got to the point now that I just sprinkle some in each feed dish for the morning feed., if they don't want it they will let it go to the bottom ....most of the time they eat it all.....
I used to use the Dumor goat mineral block, but they would be on that like candy till is got moisture soaked, same with the free feeding it, way too humid here in Florida for that......

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, sorry ,but i don't get the bit about Brussels Sprouts and Spinach?Generally speaking it has been my experience that mineral deficiency 's occur through the feeding practices of the owner or inherent lack of in the soil and forage.Try them with some Seaweed Meal or if you are close to the ocean after a storm gather some fresh from the shore .Hang it up to dry and see how you go....T.O.R.

 

[rachels.haven]

Fairly sure you can just leave the minerals out for them in a mineral feeder. They will eat what they need and no more.