Eating Habits When It's Cold

[Southern by choice]

Interesting. Ours eat more when it is cold ... they eat the same in or out but it could be that our barn has a loafing area that is like being "out"... very possible being locked in caused the disinterest.

Then again Sunday it was 74 degrees here and they ate MORE than usual.

Goats!

 

[Mini Horses]

If their light is very low in the barn, it may make them think it's bedtime and they just snuggle & sleep! I don't know how your barn is but, just a thought. My barn is heavy with windows and my goats eat all the time EXCEPT when it starts getting dark.

 

[goats&moregoats]

Thinking it is the darkness (bedtime). Mine did that in last years shed when I closed them in. This year they have an open doorway (small, directed away from cold winds) they go in and out as they choose and eat constantly it seems. I think I could fill their barn with hay and they would have it gone the next day! exaggerating of course. Now it has not gotten cold here in the part of Vermont I am in (as of yet), but last winter the only time they slowed down on eating was when they were closed in for coldest over nights. During the day their door was opened just enough for them to go in and out.