Alfalfa pellets

[redtailgal]

Yuk. I had a persian cat once who developed stones. We had to take him in to be catheterized and cleaned out. NOT FUN (I assisted)

 

[kstaven]

Do you feel that goats fed alfalfa have fewer probelms with Urinary Stones?

A resounding YES to this one. Excess calcium does not cause UC. Lowering calcium and thus allowing the calcium to phosphorus levels to swing the other way does. Anyone who pushes the balance for too long is playing russian roullette and will run out of luck sooner or later. Never happened to me needs to be followed with a YET when the balance is swung to the other side.

And yes a buck grows far past the 6 month stage.

 

[sunny]

What are your reasons for feeding alfalfa? it is about milk production, or weight gain or something else?

It's about weight gain, nice sleek coats, healthy bones, milk production, and proper growth. Alfalfa pellets are the backbone of my diet plan.
I use pellets because they are guarenteed 16% protein and because there is no waste. I brush maybe 1/2 a cup of dust out of the trough, instead of throwing out piles of stems and shattered leaves.

Do you feed it with other grains? what ratio of alfalfa to grain do you use?
My boys don't get grain for the most part. I use a forage pellet mix for them 1 part alfalfa pellets, 1 part timothy pellets, and 1 part beet pulp pellets. They do well on this and maintain weight through the winter and while working. This mix is about 2.5 CA to 1 PH and about 14% protein. My boys do better on lower protein as adults. It is fed at @ 3lbs. per animal per day with a flake of alfalfa hay for long fiber.
The girls get the above mix, alfalfa hay, and rolled barley and oats on the milkstand.

DO you feel that goats that are fed alfalfa has a better weight gain?
Yes and seem to have less growth stalls from stress.

Do you feel that goats fed alfalfa have fewer probelms with Urinary Stones?
I do and I've lived this one. Running the amount of wethers I have you learn a lot quickly when they all quit peeing.
Umm, the word calculi means pebble in Latin.
Almost all stones have a small amount of calcium because the body uses the calcium to get rid of the harmful substances. When there's not enough calcium to go around it clumps together forming stones.
Most stones are calcium phosphate They are caused by excess phosphorus and low calcium...which are 2 different things really.
Some stones are calcium oxalate These are caused by high oxalate weeds and produce. Chickweed, radish tops, swiss chard, etc.
There is another stone that is a composit. It is properly functioning pairs of molecules glued together with muco-proteins. These proteins come from gluten and are used as the binding agent for pelleted goat rations such as Nobel Goat. This is why they put Amonium Chloride into pelleted meat goat feeds which are intended for terminal animals.
There's a lot more to this but, that's a good beginning.

Humans get calcium oxalate stones, but if your doctor is telling you to quit eating calcium for getting kidney stones, you need to find a younger better informed one. Even in humans they've discovered that limiting calcium just makes more problems. They now know that the main cause of kidney stones is lack of water.

I feed a proper balance, try to balance the browse they get, make sure they always have fresh water and push it during cold snaps, and I let their bodies take care of proper PH.

 

[elevan]

Do you feel that goats fed alfalfa have fewer probelms with Urinary Stones?
I do and I've lived this one. Running the amount of wethers I have you learn a lot quickly when they all quit peeing.
Umm, the word calculi means pebble in Latin.
Almost all stones have a small amount of calcium because the body uses the calcium to get rid of the harmful substances. When there's not enough calcium to go around it clumps together forming stones.
Most stones are calcium phosphate They are caused by excess phosphorus and low calcium...which are 2 different things really.
Some stones are calcium oxalate These are caused by high oxalate weeds and produce. Chickweed, radish tops, swiss chard, etc.
There is another stone that is a composit. It is properly functioning pairs of molecules glued together with muco-proteins. These proteins come from gluten and are used as the binding agent for pelleted goat rations such as Nobel Goat. This is why they put Amonium Chloride into pelleted meat goat feeds which are intended for terminal animals.
There's a lot more to this but, that's a good beginning.

Humans get calcium oxalate stones, but if your doctor is telling you to quit eating calcium for getting kidney stones, you need to find a younger better informed one. Even in humans they've discovered that limiting calcium just makes more problems. They now know that the main cause of kidney stones is lack of water.

I feed a proper balance, try to balance the browse they get, make sure they always have fresh water and push it during cold snaps, and I let their bodies take care of proper PH.

 

[redtailgal]

Sunny.......thank you. that was a good read, lol.

What kind of goats do you have?

I am trying to develope a meat herd. Right now I have two boer does. Small start, lol, but it will get me there eventually. I also have two mutt wethers, Plato who is rather useless, and Socrates who has proved his value as being a wonderful herd leader. He is an excellent forager, grazer, and taught these skills to the young doelings that I brought in a few weeks ago.

I want to be able to maximize growth on my slaughter animals without sacrificing their health, and staying within a reasonable amount of expense.

**on a side note, Elroy, my iguana, has some issues with calcium. His calcium levels are too low and right now I am really having to pay attention to his calcium/phosphorus levels in my attempts to maximize his calcium intake to get that blood calcium and strengthen his soft bones without causing stones.
Alfalfa pellets something the vet recommended for him for this very thing!

 

[sunny]

Nice to meet you, you can see my goats here They are a mix of a couple Saanen, Oberhasli, and Alpine/nubian mix. As you can see there are no anorexic Saanens on my feeding plan.
One very important thing to finding your base stock, find animals that are already being cared for the way you plan to do it. If you want to go high forage, browse only during summer, or hay fed only with grain being reserved for lactating and pregnant does. or if you want to go drug free, whatever your plans turn out to be, find bloodstock whos care mimics very closely what you want and it will save you generations of breeding.
Boers in particular in the meat breeds can be hardy, thrifty animals that thrive or they can be weak little pansies that get sick at the drop of a hat. It depends on how much thought was put into their breeding, whether they are being bred to improve the breed or just to have kids on the ground to sell.

Have you asked your vet about supplementing Elroy's vitamin D to help him metabalise more calcium?
My ball python is on a hunger strike, silly thing. I raised him from a hatchling and he is about 10 years now. He always quits eating for a couple months in the fall.

 

[redtailgal]

Yes, Elroy is on supplements already. Lol, I have had rehab snakes that have tried to increase weight on in the winter months...........not fun!

Thanks for the link, your herd is cute!

 

[KKeiC07]

I feed my goats alfalfa pellets because my vet warned me that male goats (bucks or wethers) are prone to kidney stones.

My lamb got rabbit pellets when he was too small to eat the alfalfa pellets that I feed the adult goats/llama, he loved them and was pretty funny to watch when he was learning to crunch them.

 

[elevan]

Those "kidney stones" are called Urinary Calculi. They don't really start in the kidneys but the bladder and most often it's more of a "sludge" or sandy type deposit. The sludge binds together and forms what we call stones.

 

[Mossy Stone Farm]

I start all my babies on alfalfa pellets frist it is there frist grain, then as they get older i add my grain mix..... Most of the time babies don't get grain, jusy great hay water and minerals and browes. this last batch of babies were started on alfa pellets because my hay source dried up for a while. I never have had any babies not be able to eat it....