Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions

[trestlecreek]

Goats are brush clearers.
This is true to some extent, but they cant survive alone on brush. Goats are browsers by nature and would prefer weeds over grass. Unfortunately there are not enough nutrients/minerals on a pasture alone to provide everything necessary for a goat to thrive. Deer or other creatures in the wild may survive, but will not thrive and many suffer from diseases and malnutrition. When we have any animal in captive we are further limiting their resources, so its even more important that we feed them properly.



My grandpa had a goat, he tethered it around the property, and it lived for years.
Years ago it was common for people to obtain a goat and tether it to trees, tires, stakes, blocks, ect. Unfortunately we dont hear the stories of these goats that got caught up in the rope or chain and strangled to death. Or the goats that got attacked by dogs and could not free themselves. Goats by nature will try to bolt if they fear something, and they do not think quickly enough to realize they are attached to a rope, and will often get mangled.


Give a goat the worst hay available, they do not need a rich legume hay.
This misconception is far from the truth. Goats require many nutrients, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins to keep in good health. A good legume hay is the only way to provide a big part of what they need. A low nutrient hay does provide the roughage they need, but no nutrients they can use. Alfalfa hay is the best source of hay available. Not only are you providing roughage that they need for their rumen, you are providing nutrients, proteins, and some minerals, and vitamins.



Goats do not need a special grain, you can just throw them a little corn every now and then or horse feed if thats what you have. If we had the perfect hay and the perfect pasture they may not require much grain, but the truth of the matter is that most goat farmers do not have the perfect ground and hay available. By feeding a grain specifically made and formulated for goats we can fill in the nutritional gaps that we can not provide through pasture and hay alone.

Corn alone is a bad feed for goats. It can ferment in their rumen and create gas that they can not belch up, leading to enterotoxaemia, acidosis, or bloat. A little corn in a particular mix is good for them, but in very little amounts. Sweet feed for horses is made for horses, not goats. Some research has lead us to believe that the molasses will tie up important nutrients and the nutrients will not be absorbed. Sweet feed has also been contributed to Urinal Calcification (the formation of stones in the track) in bucks and wethers.



I have a buck or a wether, how do I avoid UC?
There are many things we can do to avoid this problem. Providing clean fresh water daily is a start. The goat minerals we leave out for our goats also will help keep our goats drinking their water. Loose goat minerals have salt added that encourages drinking. Keeping their bodies well hydrated benefits them in many ways. Feeding a feed fortified with AC (Ammonium Chloride) also is a way to reduce your chances of seeing this disease. You can buy Ammonium Chloride and add it to their minerals or top dress their feed, however AC alone does not have a good taste, so the best way I have found is to feed a feed that has it incorporated.

Bucks and wethers need a properly balanced phosphorus-calcium ratio to help inhibit formation of stones. Grain products have high amounts of phosphorus and minimal amounts of calcium. In order to help keep this ratio in balance, alfalfa hay, which is high in calcium is the best for them. If feeding just grass hay, they will not recieve enough calcium to balance this out. High phosporus is the precurser for stone formation and they need the calcium so that the body can process the nutrients effectively.



How much land do I need for 2 goats?
Goats are the happiest and live the longest when they have plenty of freedom to run, play, hop, jump and browse. Their pasture needs to be able to support their eating, but still be able to grow before they eat it all the way down to the dirt. If your pasture looks very tall in the summer, and may need mowed, your pasture can support the animals on it. If they eat it all down to the ground, there are too many goats in 1 area. When you have too many goats in one area, and they are nibbling the new growth as it comes on it invites them to ingest bacteria and worms.







How can I tell if my goat is under weight?
There are many methods of figuring this out, but this is the easiest way for me to gauge if a goat needs to gain weight. You can run your hand over their top line/spine. If you can feel all the bumps of their spine, they are underweight.





When and how often should I worm my goat?
The best way to tell if you need to worm is by having a veterinarian or vet. lab technician check the stools to see if its necessary. They can also identify what type of worm you are dealing with.



Normal Vital Statistics

Pulse -70 to 80 beats per minute

Rectal Temperature- 101.5 to 103.5

Respiratory rate- 12-20 per minute

Rumination- 1 to 1.5 per minute



Common Injection Types

Subcutaneous (subcut) Under loose skin on neck, flank, withers, or elbow. Slow sustained absorption.

Intramuscularly (IM) Muscle of hindquarters or side of neck. Rapid absorption

 

[2468herdsrgr8]

Dont have any goats ...but someday I would like to get some ...thank you ! For all the quick information ...very intersting ...

 

[trestlecreek]

You're welcome!!

 

[DuckLady]

I have cleaned this thread up. Please be non confrontational and avoid rudeness when participating in threads. Thanks

 

[Ninny]

Good post!

 

[kimmyh]

If I can feel any of the bones in their spine they are under weight. Pygmy goats are a MEAT breed, and as such, should be well fleshed.

 

[trestlecreek]

Yep, that goes for pygmy for sure, but there is not one goat breed that should have the spine protruding... or the ribs felt.....all of them should have some muscle on them,.....

 

[username taken]

Goats are brush clearers.
This is true to some extent, but they cant survive alone on brush. Goats are browsers by nature and would prefer weeds over grass. Unfortunately there are not enough nutrients/minerals on a pasture alone to provide everything necessary for a goat to thrive. Deer or other creatures in the wild may survive, but will not thrive and many suffer from diseases and malnutrition. When we have any animal in captive we are further limiting their resources, so its even more important that we feed them properly.

Actually, goats are MIXED FEEDERS, NOT BROWSERS. WHat this means is, they prefer a mixture of grassy pasture, and browse. The current experts in goat research agree on this point - goats are not strict browsers, they are mixed feeders.



My grandpa had a goat, he tethered it around the property, and it lived for years.
Years ago it was common for people to obtain a goat and tether it to trees, tires, stakes, blocks, ect. Unfortunately we dont hear the stories of these goats that got caught up in the rope or chain and strangled to death. Or the goats that got attacked by dogs and could not free themselves. Goats by nature will try to bolt if they fear something, and they do not think quickly enough to realize they are attached to a rope, and will often get mangled.

If you teach a goat to tie and lead first, they will respect the tether as a restraint and will not bolt further than the length of the chain. Tethers, under supervision, are a fantastic way to keep goats if you do not have a goat fence.

Give a goat the worst hay available, they do not need a rich legume hay.
This misconception is far from the truth. Goats require many nutrients, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins to keep in good health. A good legume hay is the only way to provide a big part of what they need. A low nutrient hay does provide the roughage they need, but no nutrients they can use. Alfalfa hay is the best source of hay available. Not only are you providing roughage that they need for their rumen, you are providing nutrients, proteins, and some minerals, and vitamins.

This largely depends on the breed and class of goat. Adult wethers for example, will do very well on very poor quality hay. Lactating dairy does in contrast, require the very best possible hay.


Goats do not need a special grain, you can just throw them a little corn every now and then or horse feed if thats what you have. If we had the perfect hay and the perfect pasture they may not require much grain, but the truth of the matter is that most goat farmers do not have the perfect ground and hay available. By feeding a grain specifically made and formulated for goats we can fill in the nutritional gaps that we can not provide through pasture and hay alone.

Corn alone is a bad feed for goats. It can ferment in their rumen and create gas that they can not belch up, leading to enterotoxaemia, acidosis, or bloat. A little corn in a particular mix is good for them, but in very little amounts. Sweet feed for horses is made for horses, not goats. Some research has lead us to believe that the molasses will tie up important nutrients and the nutrients will not be absorbed. Sweet feed has also been contributed to Urinal Calcification (the formation of stones in the track) in bucks and wethers.

Goats do not need specialised 'goat feed'. They will do just as well on cattle feed, and that is all mine get because I cannot get goat grain around here. Horse feed is fine also. Goats should not need much grain, particularly non producing goats such as adult wethers and adlt dry does.



I have a buck or a wether, how do I avoid UC?
There are many things we can do to avoid this problem. Providing clean fresh water daily is a start. The goat minerals we leave out for our goats also will help keep our goats drinking their water. Loose goat minerals have salt added that encourages drinking. Keeping their bodies well hydrated benefits them in many ways. Feeding a feed fortified with AC (Ammonium Chloride) also is a way to reduce your chances of seeing this disease. You can buy Ammonium Chloride and add it to their minerals or top dress their feed, however AC alone does not have a good taste, so the best way I have found is to feed a feed that has it incorporated.

Bucks and wethers need a properly balanced phosphorus-calcium ratio to help inhibit formation of stones. Grain products have high amounts of phosphorus and minimal amounts of calcium. In order to help keep this ratio in balance, alfalfa hay, which is high in calcium is the best for them. If feeding just grass hay, they will not recieve enough calcium to balance this out. High phosporus is the precurser for stone formation and they need the calcium so that the body can process the nutrients effectively.

Basically all you need to do is ensure his calcium to phosphorus ratio is 2 to 1. You can use any type of grain of this ratio, and feed as much as you want, without UC problems, as long as the Ca ratio is correct. A few other things to do is to limit grain to 1 cup per animal after 1 yr old; dont wether them until 12 wks, ensure their water intake is high (you can do this by adding salt to their grain, and probably the most important thing, include ammonium chloride in their diet either by addition to their feed, or by provision of an ammonium chloride or 'stone' lick block.

How much land do I need for 2 goats?
Goats are the happiest and live the longest when they have plenty of freedom to run, play, hop, jump and browse. Their pasture needs to be able to support their eating, but still be able to grow before they eat it all the way down to the dirt. If your pasture looks very tall in the summer, and may need mowed, your pasture can support the animals on it. If they eat it all down to the ground, there are too many goats in 1 area. When you have too many goats in one area, and they are nibbling the new growth as it comes on it invites them to ingest bacteria and worms.

really, you could house 2 goats in a horse stable, if necessary, with plenty of excercise either off the leash or on it, but out of the stable.





How can I tell if my goat is under weight?
There are many methods of figuring this out, but this is the easiest way for me to gauge if a goat needs to gain weight. You can run your hand over their top line/spine. If you can feel all the bumps of their spine, they are underweight.

Google condition scoring goats. You want your goat around condition score 3 at all times



When and how often should I worm my goat?
The best way to tell if you need to worm is by having a veterinarian or vet. lab technician check the stools to see if its necessary. They can also identify what type of worm you are dealing with.



Normal Vital Statistics

Pulse -70 to 80 beats per minute

Rectal Temperature- 101.5 to 103.5

Respiratory rate- 12-20 per minute

Rumination- 1 to 1.5 per minute



Common Injection Types

Subcutaneous (subcut) Under loose skin on neck, flank, withers, or elbow. Slow sustained absorption.

Intramuscularly (IM) Muscle of hindquarters or side of neck. Rapid absorption

 

[freemotion]

As usual, ut, you are a fountain of wisdom!

 

[cmjust0]

Basically all you need to do is ensure his calcium to phosphorus ratio is 2 to 1. You can use any type of grain of this ratio, and feed as much as you want, without UC problems, as long as the Ca ratio is correct.

With all due respect -- and I do mean that, as I do respect your wisdom -- I have an intact UC buckling that goes against this..

The feed he was getting was 16% pelleted, 2:1 Ca, and even had ammonium chloride added. Their water was always kept clean, too....really clean, if you compare it to a lot of goat keeping practices I've seen around here.

He got urinary calculi anyway.

The root of this guy's problem, as best we could determine after the fact, was that he was likely gobbling down about 3/4ths of the grain we'd set out for him and his paddock mate -- another intact buckling -- then he'd go lay down in the shade while other buckling grazed on fescue and broadleaf weeds.

In other words, he made it such that grain was almost his sole ration..

We all know that goats need long fiber for a multitude of reasons, but one of the reasons I've come to (partially) understand is that the act of chewing and ruminating those long fibers does something with phosphorus that keeps it from becoming so concentrated in the urine. I dunno how it works exactly, but it's something to do with saliva...

Anyway...I guess my point is that even if a person is using a grain product that shoud, for all the world, be perfectly suited for bucklings, bucks, and wethers, that person would still do well to watch the intake of that grain and make absolutely sure that the males are also taking in long fibers and plenty of water.

In other words, do everything I unfortunately DIDN'T do until it was too late..