completely clueless on getting right diet! Could use hints.

[warthog]

Freemotion, Why no molasses? I thought this would be could because it's high in calcium.

 

[kapfarm]

I may have stumbled across why molassas is not so good for goats! not that I quite understand it.
But I might be done with molassas for goats. Jack and anita Mauldin Have a great goat herd!



A goat with Polioencephalomalacia


Causes of thiamine deficiency include feeding moldy hay or grain, overdosing with amprollium (CoRid) when treating for coccodiosis, feeding molasses-based grains (horse & mule feeds), ingesting some species of ferns, sudden changes in diet, the dietary stress of weaning, and reactions to de-wormers Thiabendazole and Levamisole. Each of these can interfere with Vitamin B1 production



www.jackmauldin.com/health/goat_polio.htm

 

[cmjust0]

So, it is better to let them graze or hay them? Won't too much hay give them a hay belly? I also am confused on this issue.

Why yes, it will give them a hay belly.

We've got a boer doe and a nubian doe which are each about 3' wide when they lay down.. I love it.

We give both grain and hay to our girls. They were bred last month, so I would assume that they are going to need an extra boost to supplement and aid in the development of healthy little kids.

You don't want to overfeed in early pregnancy. The kids present most of their deman in the last two months of gestation, so if you overfeed early on, all the extra is going to mama.. If the goat gets too fat early, she's at greater risk for pregnancy toxemia later.

 

[zatsenoughcritters4me]

we buy goat feed for them because they need the copper and other minerals. also we feed them a little corn mixed in, also a mineral block if you want to. and hay and pasture. not much bread, except for an occasional treat but I would not give white bread. for treats you are better off with carrots, apples cut up, molasses we use only when they have babies if the momma's need an extra boost. mostly they need pasture and hay, they also like sticks, twigs, branches they need the roughage to keep their insides working properly!!!
you don't want to feed them too much grain also, they live to eat, and will eat till they bloat ( which is deadly to them)
we also have baking soda available free choice for them in a container.

 

[kimmyh]

Bread or other flour based products are not good for goat because they can not digest them. The flour based products sit in the rumen fermenting until good feed comes along and pushes the flour based item through the gut (per my vet). For that reason, we do not feed flour based products under any circumstances to our goats.

Goats need loose goat minerals, goats, unlike cows and horses, will not lick a block enough to get what they need, and goats will often try to bite off a chunk. This biting issue often leads to broken teeth-been there, done that.

Polio can be caused from a million things, the thing I would worry about the least is molasses. Sudden changes in a herd dynamic can set it off, too much grain, low little nutritional values, dog/predator attacks, the list goes on and on. Corid, is the last on the list I would worry about. In my vets practice of 30+ years treating exclusively food animals, she said she has seen 2 cases of Corid induced Polio, and that was in goats where the owner was not dosing correctly-they were over dosing.

Please remember when you read web sites, these are the opinions of individual herd owners. What works for them, may not work for you/me. What they have learned may be correct, and it may be WAY off the mark. The cheapest lessons are I believe, learned from a qualified vet that you build a relationship with over time. One example-there is a site often quoted on the Internet that uses herbal wormers and swears by them. 3 people I know who have purchased animals from that herd have found the goats to be full of parasites. Two of those animals died before their new owners could get the worms under control. None of the people I know will ever again buy from that herd. Again, what works for some, can spell death to others.

 

[kapfarm]

True dat! After I wrote about the molassas, I started wondering why so often people say to give molassas water to a new mom goat! things just aren't adding up. This is great. I like this forum, so many owners that have been operating for years and if someone gives a answer that is off a little bit, there is someone who has had a better or different experience that feels free to speak up. thank you all.

 

[Windy Pond]

I have Pygmys and Nigerians. I too am clueless, all of your comments are very helpful. I'm worried about my 6 mo. old Pypmy buckling and grain. I give him only a small handfull daily. The whole urinary calculi (sp?) really scares me. When you're a newby, all this stuff you read is very confusing.

I am currently feeding a milking goat pellet to the girls, just a enough to fill the palm of my hand. The feed store convinced me to give the buckling a sweat feed unit he is 1 yr. old. I have not given him any yet. Again worried about the whole urinary thing. Ugh, so much information, it's hard to knowwhat to do.

 

[cmjust0]

We went through a bout of urinary calculi with a little buckling of ours.. He survived, but barely. We took both our bucks off grain for a long time there but they weren't picking up much size....what to do, what to do?

The answer for us, so far, has been alfalfa pellets. Alfalfa usually runs about 6:1, Ca...regular goat grain is usually only 2:1. The higher that first number, the better, in terms of urinary calculi... We haven't seen any relapse of UC since we've been feeding the alfalfa pellts, and they've been putting on size again lately. The only thing to remember is that -- generally speaking -- alfalfa pellets aren't fortified with vitamins and minerals, so you have to keep a good free-choice mineral mix out and refreshed so as not to swap UC for mineral deficiencies..

Otherwise...I don't think I'll ever feed anything from a bag except alfalfa pellets to bucks ever again.

 

[Carolina Chicken Man]

I have (3) 8 month old nigerian doelings. I got them back in May when they were just weened.

They live on an acre fenced in that is semi wooded. It has a lot of saplings undergrowth. It was all green during the summer. The girls did a great job of eating most of it during the summer. At that time I kept coastal burmuda in their hay basket as much as they wanted. I gave them about 2 cups of feed ( between the 3 of them ) in the morning and then two cups in the afternoon.

All of the browse is pretty much gone now, but they are now eating the briar stems and they will eat some of the bark from the trees themselves. They are probably from 35-50 lbs each now. Minnie was a quad and started out a lot smaller and still hasn't caught up. I'm giving them 4 cups of feed (between the 3 of them) in the morning and 4 in the evening. Because there's less browse to eat I'm giving them oat hay and fescue now instead of burmuda. They love the oat hay and I've noticed that they now usually don't finish the feed now. Will probabaly back it up to 3 cups.

They seem to be doing very well, nice shiny coats and they aren't too fat.

 

[lupinfarm]

I grain my Pygmy's with 2 cups of 12% goat grain once daily and offer freechoice alfalfa hay. My younger doe is still growing and they aren't gaining or losing weight so I'm pleased.