# Morning glories, Four o'clocks, and canna lillies?



## LadyIsabelle2011 (Sep 19, 2011)

Alright, so its getting to be the time of year when my mom starts clearing out the garden. Now for me, it seem a waste to just throw out all that forage when I have two goats who would eat it all up without a second thought. For the most part she grows Morning glories, Four o'clocks, canna lilies, banana plants, water melons, cantaloupes, and pea plants...I was wondering, which of these goat treat possibilities would be okay and which aren't...

Thanks in advance for any info,

-LadyIsabelle


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## DonnaBelle (Sep 20, 2011)

I don't know about the Canna Lily's, but my goats have eaten all the other stuff.  My goats love watermelon rind.  We eat the inside and they eat the outside.

I would give them everything else but the lilies.

There is a list of plants poisonous to goats, google it.

DonnaBelle


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## freemotion (Sep 20, 2011)

Morning glory plants are poisonous.  I'd feed the peas for sure, possibly the melon plants if they are not mildewed.  All those types of plants are mildewed here by the time the garden cleanup begins, except maybe the peas and beans.


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## DonnaBelle (Sep 20, 2011)

OOOOhhhh, he's right, morning glories are of the nightshade family, glad you caught that free.

And yes, nothing with mildew on it.  I just scored some pears and I cut the brown spots off, DH thinks I'm nuts.

DonnaBelle


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## LadyIsabelle2011 (Sep 21, 2011)

O.O Thanks for the heads up on the morning glories guys and the mildew, I wasn't aware I had to watch for that. For certain every inch of what I feed them will be inspected carefully. I can't wait to see my little goaties faces when I dump that pile of pea plants into their pen...they are going to LOVE ME FOREVER


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## that's*satyrical (Sep 21, 2011)

How in the heck do you keep your goats from eating any mildew?? They are on 1/2 to 3/4 acre of browse & there is no way I can go through & be sure all the leaves with any mildew at all are removed


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## Roll farms (Sep 21, 2011)

I give my chickens 90% of our garden scraps, I just dose it out over a period of several days.  All the vines, leaves, plants, etc.

The goats only get the roses and tree cuttings (if I'm sure they're ok for them).

But they do love a watermelon rind.


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## freemotion (Sep 21, 2011)

that's*satyrical said:
			
		

> How in the heck do you keep your goats from eating any mildew?? They are on 1/2 to 3/4 acre of browse & there is no way I can go through & be sure all the leaves with any mildew at all are removed


I don't worry so much about what they find on their own, I just don't hand it to them.  Make sure they have plenty to choose from and fresh minerals and they'll hardly touch the badly mildewed stuff.


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## that's*satyrical (Sep 21, 2011)

whew!! that's a relief, thanks....lol


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## animalmom (Sep 21, 2011)

Are you folks sure Morning Glories are part of the nightshade family?  I did a wikipedia, yeah I know they are not super reliable, and that listing didn't come up with them being from the nightshade family.

Fiasco Farms says they are ok, at least morning glory is on the ok list.

I have one goatie that loves morning glories, grabs a mouthful on the way back to the pen from milking almost every morning.  Would hate to have her get sick on me.

I thought the darn things were edible, even by us lowly humans.  Goats, we all know, are much superior.


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## doxiemoxie (Sep 21, 2011)

What I understand to be morning glories are also commonly called bind weed, choke weed, and are in the convolvulaceae family.  Most (but not all) of the species found in California (I can't speak for other states) are not toxic.  My goats eat a lot of it.  In fact one of the sweet potatoes is in that family (possibly why it's been confused as a nightshade plant). The flowers can also look like Datura, a very nasty toxic plant that you probably couldn't get your goat to eat, but that is in the nightshade (solanaceae) family also. 

Always get a proper botanical identification rather than go off a common name.  common names can differ from one region of the country to another.  This is one more good question for your regional ag extension folks.


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## aggieterpkatie (Sep 22, 2011)

This  site has wild morning glory listed as poisonous.  This one (although written for humans) also says it's toxic.


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## freemotion (Sep 22, 2011)

Goats can eat a small amount of SOME plants on toxic lists....but even a small amount of other plants (such as laurels/rhododendrons in the growth phase) are very poisonous to them.  Goats with access to large amounts of browse will take a bite or two and move on.  Goats confined with little access to browse will mow a plant down, ignoring their protective instinct to not eat too much of one plant.

So I would not purposely hand my goats something toxic, especially when the available browse is on the decline.  They get into enough trouble on their own! 

To put it into perspective......my pasture contains "toxic" plants:  black cherry, oak, pokeweed, nightshade, red maple, black walnut, etc.  I don't worry about it.  I DO patrol for laurels and yew that creep into the field in two corners and rip it out by  the roots.  I don't let my goats browse in the part of my woods that contains these plants.  A red maple fell in my neighbor's yard and they offered the branches to me for the goats.  I declined....eating a few fallen red maple leaves is one thing, gorging on fresh red maple is another.


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