Best mix for goats?

[Jenn27]

We have been feeding our goats just the Dumor pellets, but I want to mix it up a bit. Like make a good mixture of the pellets with some other types of feed. I have heard they like sweet feed for horses, and my oldest has show rabbits, and the goats love the show feed she feeds them! BUT, the show feed can get expensive! lol They are in good size area that will give them plenty of stuff to munch on once the grass comes back in, but for now I need to feed them more often. Thanks!

 

[SheepGirl]

What are you looking to accomplish with mixing feed? The DuMOR pellet is a complete feed, no need to mix it with anything.

Although this is an article I wrote for sheep, you can still apply it to goats: http://www.backyardherds.com/resources/sheep-nutrition-balancing-rations.36/

If you mix feed, you have to calculate out the new nutrients provided by the feed. And you have to know weights of the feed, not just "one cup of this" to "three cups of that." One cup of corn may weigh 1/4 lb, but one cup of dried distillers grains made from corn may weigh 1/2 lb. (I don't know the actual weights, but I can go get some feed and weigh one cup's worth to give you a more accurate idea).

Let's just say you want to mix 1 lb of the rabbit pellets with 3 lbs of the DuMOR pellets. Here are the guaranteed analyses for the feeds:

DuMOR Goat

Crude Protein (min.) 16.00% (This includes not more than 1.50% equivalent crude protein from non-protein nitrogen), Crude Fat (min.) 2.00%, Crude Fiber (max.) 16.00%, Calcium (Ca) (min.) .75%, Calcium (Ca) (max.) 1.25%, Phosphorus (P) (min.) .35%, Salt (NaCl) (min.) .25%, Salt (NaCl) (max.) .75%, Copper (Cu) (min.) 22.00 ppm, Copper (Cu) (max.) 25.00 ppm, Selenium (Se) (min.) .30 ppm, Vitamin A (min.) 3000 IU/lb, Ruminant meat and bone meal free.

Manna Pro Rabbit Food

Crude Protein (min.) 16.00 %, Crude Fat (min.) 2.50 %, Crude Fiber (min.) 16.00 %, Crude Fiber (max.) 21.00 %, Calcium (min.) 0.75 %, Calcium (max.) 1.25 %, Phosphorus (min.) 0.50 %, Salt (min.) 0.25 %, Salt (max.) 0.75 %, Vitamin A (min.) 3,000 IU/lb.

So basically what you would have to do is a lot of math! You are mixing 3 lbs of goat feed with 1 lb of rabbit feed, essentially 4 parts total. 3/4 parts is goat feed = 75%, 1/4 part is rabbit feed = 25%.

Protein: (16% x 75%) + (16% x 25%) = 16%
Fat: (2% x 75%) + (2.5% x 25%) = 2.125%
Fiber: (16% x 75%) + (16% x 25%) = 16%

From these three, you can figure out the TDN (energy/calories) in the feeds. To figure out energy in a feed, you take (Fat x 2.25) + Protein + Fiber.
Goat: (2% x 2.25) + 16% + 16% = 36.5% TDN
Rabbit: (2.5% x 2.25) + 16% + 16% = 37.625% TDN (a better quality feed)
Combined: (2.125% x 2.25) + 16% + 16% = 36.781% TDN (not much better than the goat feed)

Calcium (min): (0.75% x 75%) + (0.75% x 25%) = 0.75%
Calcium (max): (1.25% x 75%) + (1.25% x 25%) = 1.25%
Phosphorus: (0.35% x 75%) + (0.50% x 25%) = 0.3875%

And from these two, you can figure out the Ca ratio in the feeds.
Goat: 1.25% / 0.35% = 3.57:1 (max) | 0.75% / 0.35% = 2.14:1 (min)
Rabbit: 1.25% / 0.50% = 2.5:1 (max) | 0.50% / 0.35% = 1.43:1 (min)
Combined: 1.25% / 0.3875% = 3.23:1 (max) | 0.75% / 0.3875% = 1.94:1 (min)

When you combine feeds, you're really cutting it close with the Ca ratio. It should be at least 2:1, but ruminants can tolerate up to 7:1 before encountering Ca toxicity issues.

Those are the main nutrients you have to look out for when balancing a ration. The rabbit feed doesn't list vitamins and minerals a part from Salt and Vitamin A, which leads me to believe there isn't a whole lot in there. The goat has it listed out, however if you provide a goat mineral, it should help with any deficiencies resulting from mixing feed.

Now as for my example above, this is just a sample. You could make it more complicated and do 9 parts of goat feed to 2 parts of rabbit feed. However, the goat feed by itself is perfectly okay and balanced for goats, and as you had said, the rabbit feed is expensive, even though the goats like it. Might as well stick with the goat feed since it is economical and already balanced for goats, so you don't need to worry about any issues regarding nutritional deficiencies.

And to make it even more complicated, you should add in the hay they're eating too. Maybe three pounds of hay to 1 lb of combined feed, so you will have to do the calculations for that as well to make sure your animals are meeting their needs. Again, you can read more about the complicated stuff in my article.

 

[Jenn27]

Wow...that's a bit overwhelming. lol Thanks for the reply!

 

[norseofcourse]

Welcome to BYH! If you're not breeding or milking your goats, they should be ok with plenty of good quality hay and loose minerals free choice. I have sheep, so I'm not up on the goat feeds, but I've heard of people using something called Noble Goat.

 

[jodief100]

Sheep Girl is absolutely spot-on. The goat feed is balanced for goats- why mess with it? All they "need" is as much as they can eat in 20 minutes. Well, they don't really even need that, if they have good quality hay, browse and mineral. It as much as they should get. Hay and/or browse should be the bulk of their diet.

They like the rabbit food because it is something different. Goats like the horse sweet feed for the same reason kids like candy, it's SWEET!. Goats don't need molasses, they don't need the extra sugar, why give it to them?

I promise you, they will love their goat feed if that is all you ever feed them.

You wouldn't feed your kids ice cream for dinner because that is what they "like" would you?

 

[Jenn27]

Thanks everyone. I decided to stay with the Dumor feed. They are spoiled little things. lol Every morning they come running to the fence to be fed....even if they have feed in their bucket still!

 

[Jenn27]

Thanks everyone. I decided to stay with the Dumor feed. They are spoiled little things. lol Every morning they come running to the fence to be fed....even if they have feed in their bucket still!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Good choice and great info here. It is hard to figure it all out sometimes and folks on here are very helpful (digital HIGH-FIVE)!