What to feed my minis?

[Playswithgoats]

Hi,
This evening I brought home 2 Mini nubian does, a 3 year old and a 2 year old, and a 1 year old Mini Lamancha wether. I would like to know what I should be feeding? I have heard many different opinions and want to know what works best for people on here? In there previous home they had been being fed mixed grass hay, all stock, and alfalfa pellets. I have heard that they should not get alfalfa because of the high protein in it? I have also heard that sweet grains can be bad for goats as well? I have a a mixed grass hay for them as well as pasture. Tomorrow morning I am going to go get any additional feeds for them? What do you recommend, alfalfa pellets, all stock specialized goat feed? Also, my goats are in with two Suffolk ewes(each has a single lamb), and I want to know what I should do about minerals for the goats? I have heard some people just put out a dual purpose mineral block that is low in copper, and others that give their goats a copper shot so they don't have to worry about copper being in mineral block? I don't really have a way to separate the goats out so they can get to minerals and sheep can't.
Thanks--AJ

 

[20kidsonhill]

Hi,
This evening I brought home 2 Mini nubian does, a 3 year old and a 2 year old, and a 1 year old Mini Lamancha wether. I would like to know what I should be feeding? I have heard many different opinions and want to know what works best for people on here? In there previous home they had been being fed mixed grass hay, all stock, and alfalfa pellets. I have heard that they should not get alfalfa because of the high protein in it? I have also heard that sweet grains can be bad for goats as well? I have a a mixed grass hay for them as well as pasture. Tomorrow morning I am going to go get any additional feeds for them? What do you recommend, alfalfa pellets, all stock specialized goat feed? Also, my goats are in with two Suffolk ewes(each has a single lamb), and I want to know what I should do about minerals for the goats? I have heard some people just put out a dual purpose mineral block that is low in copper, and others that give their goats a copper shot so they don't have to worry about copper being in mineral block? I don't really have a way to separate the goats out so they can get to minerals and sheep can't.
Thanks--AJ

It sounds like your information so far is pretty good. I have large breed, but I now if your animals aren't lactating and don't need to grow you can get away with a good qualilty mixed grass hay, 2nd cutting being better, If your goats are lactating the alfalfa is more important, if you are feeding some alfalfa to your sheep I don't think it would hurt the goats any, just probably not needed.

The whether is a concern on alfalfa and sweet feed, because whethers need ammonia chloride in their grain, and alfalfa hay is high in calcium, thus resulting in increased risk of UC(urinary calculi). If the whether was just on mixed grass hay, this would be okay, but when whethers are on grain they should always be fed a medicated feed.

It could be possible to train your goats to seperate from your sheep at grain time, allowing you to feed you sheep the sweet feed and feed the goats a small amount of pelleted goat feed. Goats are very trainable. With this said, they don't really need the grain at this point, unless you are trying to put weight on them. Just a thought to try to get them away from the sweet feed while you feed your sheep.

As far as the copper, I don't have any experience trying to give just copper to goats as a supplement.