TXMissy
Loving the herd life
I am just curious when do kids start eating adult food? Hay, pellets, brush..you know, all the yummy goat things.
Thanks!
Thanks!
When do kids start eating hay/pellets?
- Thread starter TXMissy
- Start date
Baymule
Herd Master
My lambs start nibbling at a week or two old.
rachels.haven
Herd Master
It's a good idea to provide hay and alfalfa pellets from birth and grain whenever you start separating at night so mom doesn't bolt it all down. They usually start everything very early.
Alaskan
Herd Master
I think they start earlier if they are being raised with mom.
They see mom eat stuff... and they taste it.
It takes a few weeks though before they really start eating other stuff.
They see mom eat stuff... and they taste it.
It takes a few weeks though before they really start eating other stuff.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
It helps to provide leafy hay and some pellets/grain (whatever you are feeding mom) in a separate space that the babes can enter without mom coming in. That baby space is called a "creep". It allows the babies to eat without greedy moms stealing all the feed and butting their babies away. Fencing off a corner of the pen will do as long as the does can't get through.
- Thread starter
- #6
TXMissy
Loving the herd life
- Thread starter
- #7
TXMissy
Loving the herd life
Okay, thank you. At what age to you typically start doing this?
Ridgetop
Herd Master
We lamb in jugs in the barn and around 2 weeks old we move the new moms and lambs to another oen with the attached creep. If you are lambing in one large pen, just set up a corner and put reh feed in it every day when you feed the moms. We empty the leftover hay into the moms' feeder and replace the lambs' hay with nice fresh stuff am and pm. The moms can eat the stuff the lambs leave, and the babies get fresh tender stuff. If we grain at all, we use plain old rolled barleycorn. It is cheaper and is just as good as expensive lamb grower feed. We don't give the lambs much. Not sure what bred you have, we have Dorpers so they don't need much grain. We do give the mothers about a cup each when they are lactating. We stop graining them when the lambs are about 2 months old as we dry off the ewes and the lambs go to auction at 3 months. If we are not satisfied with the lambs' growth we might keep the lambs on a small bit of grain but that is seldom. We keep an eye on the lambs and any ewe whose lambs don't grow well is culled. She gets 2 tries.
