How much feed?

[glenolam]

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You can also search through the 'Feeding Time - Goats' to get more information.

 

[cmjust0]

I have a pygmy and a nigerian both girls approx 7 months old...I am currently feeding them hay, 1 1/2 cups of grain each per day, and they run the yard about 3-4 hours a day eating what they want...how badly am I overfeeding them?

Basically, what you want to to is supplement their hay and forage with bagged feed according to their body condition. Whether or not they're being under or over fed depends entirely on their body condition..

Are they fat? And by fat, I mean, do they have large deposits of fat on them? Check their 'armpit' areas, tailhead, brisket, etc. If they're pretty jiggly or spongy in those areas, they're fat. That would mean they're being overfed.

If there's no fat at all in those areas, their tailheads are sunken in, their spines are sticking up considerably, you can obviously see ribs, etc...they're too thin. In that case, you'd either need to increase the quality of their ration (preferred) or up their bagged feed rations.

To me, perfect condition is a little bit of fat in the armpits, tailhead, brisket, etc., along with a nice SQ layer of fat over the ribs. Not too much over the ribs, of course -- you still want to be able to feel the ribs, but through a little padding. If that's where their body conditions are, then you'd just keep on doing whatever you're doing because it's working.

 

[ThornyRidge]

think it would definitely depend on type of goat you get.. most goats prefer weeds, stemmy, briars and browse not "grazing grass" per se. If you want to definitely keep grass in mowed down type I would go with sheep- there are different breeds of sheep to consider including hair sheep that might give better value