How to get goats to like new foods

[savingdogs]

My goats are huge pigs when it comes to foods they know and are familiar with. But they don't like to have anything new introduced.

I have two does I'm milking, and I read that giving them alfalfa cubes soaked in water put into their grain pain at milking time would slow them down.

So I bought a big bag on sale.

But my goats act like I've put a big turd in their dish, or worse. They won't eat anything in there until I take it out.

Is there any way to get them to eat these things, or my other animals (also have chickens, rabbits and ducks but not having much luck getting anyone to eat these).

It is only 10 bucks wasted I guess but it seems like I should be able to get the dang goats to consume this. They like alfalfa pellets. Go figger.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

I've had good luck feeding soaked alfalfa cubes, but it took a while for them to get used to it. I never did feed it on the stand and didn't mix it with the grain. At first they were pretty skeptical, but once they realized what it was they'd practically attack the pan at feeding times. I switched back to pellets once the weather warmed up because I like to offer enough for them to nibble on throughout most of the day and I don't want anything souring.

 

[Goatherd]

But my goats act like I've put a big turd in their dish, or worse.

Out of curiosity, what would be worse than "a big turd in their dish?"

Seriously though, animals are no different than people when it comes to their personal tastes in food. Not each goat relishes a certain food as a herd mate might.

I've found that repetition in offering a food, and sometimes changing the presentation, allows an animal to develop a taste for something that they didn't originally like.

 

[Emmetts Dairy]

I use alfalfa pellets...and they gobble it up. I would'nt think getting the grain wet is very appatizing for them. I would try either giving just the alfalfa first..or grain 1st. It might help. But I would separate it and not mix the two. Its much easier to mix the two when alfalfa is pelleted for sure.

Good luck!

 

[savingdogs]

Well these cubes are large, they nibble on them dry but they are too large for them to put in their mouths.

Maybe I should just try presenting them not on the stand but soaked.

I learned my ducks will eat this soaked at least yesterday.

I have been using alfalfa pellets for quite some time so was surprised that just a change in shape like this would make such a difference to them. This stuff does look more like compressed alfalfa than alfalfa pellets do however.

 

[helmstead]

Mine won't eat ANYTHING wet LOL...and cubes are too big for goaties.

Nicki has more patience than I do, kudos to her for getting them to eat something soaked!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

goats = crazy

i think i read somewhere that if you mash them up - like with a hammer - they might start eating them. i dont think i'd make something like that up so i'm pretty such i read it somewhere.

i couldnt get my goaties to eat the cubes EVER. but hopefully your ducks will finish them up so you didn't waste the $$.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

My goats/sheep are weird too. Last year my doe hated alfalfa pellets, so I bought a bag of cubes this year thinking I'd soak them. She hated them soaked, wouldn't touch them. But she and my sheep LOVED them in cube form. Luckily these cubes were fairly small (smaller than horse sized ones), about 3/4" wide by 1.5" long so they could eat them with some work. I was worried about them being hard for them to eat (and causing a broken tooth or something) so I went back to pellets. Now my doe loves the pellets. Go figure. Luckily I found some nice alfalfa hay so I can just feed that, and they all love that.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Nicki has more patience than I do

Oh, just gimme a couple years and we'll see if that statement still holds true.

I should say, I tried them in the first place because I wanted to offer alfalfa free choice without as much waste as baled alfalfa and was really paranoid about the lack of longer stemmed fiber in the pellets. Plus I've found the pellets to be more self-limiting than hay and I wanted to find a middle ground. If you have the time and inclination, I did find that they were willing to eat a fairly large quantity and we never had any dietary scouring. And I'm telling you, they looked at me like I was CRAZY when I first started offering it and by the time I stopped they were fighting one another for it.

Remembering to soak cubes twice daily was a little annoying. Once the weather warmed up I started to worry about freshness and went back to pellets. We're going to stock up on peanut hay this year and see how it compares for us in terms of cost and waste.

 

[savingdogs]

Well if this is normally horse food, I may donate it to our neighbor. I don't think they feed their horse enough, it looks really skinny. If that is what this is really for, I think I found my solution for what to do with this bag. I can just tell them that I bought the wrong thing and didn't want it to go to waste.