mineral help

[Our7Wonders]

Ok, I just had an exceedingly long post about minerals and it disappeared before I could get it posted. Likely for the best, I tend to be overly wordy.

Short version is: my girls are not touching the loose mineral. At all. They had a salt block and a mineral block at the dairy (we've had them for 2 weeks now). They get very little grain now that I'm working towards drying them up so I can't really hide it in there (and they seem to know it's in there and work around it anyway). Should I try to roll the mineral with molasses and make a treat and sneak it in? Or maybe I should pick up a block as I work towards getting them to accept the loose mineral.

What I have is Manna Pro loose goat mineral. And if it matters my gals are about 2.5 months into their pregnancy.

It's copper and selenium in particular that I'm concerned about. I'm very nervous about BoSe or a copper boluse on the very slim chance that maybe they aren't defficient after all. The dairy was very hands off and "natural" in it's approach, and while it seems to me they need more, her does appear (at least to my untrained eye) to be healthy.

I way over think things, sorry. And my shortened version turned about to be long after all. Double Sorry.

Thanks,
Debbi

 

[freemotion]

They may not need it right now....but two weeks is a while. Some things to consider (which you may already know and may have tried and that may have disappeared with your first attempt at posting this! )....

How long have the minerals be out? Often they won't touch them after 2-3 days. I've seen mold growing right on the minerals in damp weather. The slightest bit of dirt or dust can also get them refusing it.

I've noticed that my goats definitely prefer one brand over others, so now that is what I buy. It is Poulin goat mineral. They also liked a Purina product, and did not like the TSC one at all. I ended up mixing them a bit to use up the less palatable ones.

You can offer them a handful right from the bag in your hand if they normally take treats from your hand, to stimulate the taste for it. Or top-dress their food with a small amount. Sometimes you just need to introduce the new taste. I've noticed that my young goats are a bit reluctant to try new flavors unless they see another goat eat it or smell it on their breath....even things like carrots and other new veggies.

Do you have another source of salt available to them? Removing that could be the key, so their only source of salt is the mineral blend. Baking soda is very salty so sometimes they will actually eat that for salt and then ignore their minerals. I ended up with one VERY deficient goat that way and now keep the minerals out as the only source of salt.

OK, that is the full sum of my knowledge!

 

[Ariel301]

I had the same problem with my senior does when I switched. I bought them at a dairy farm in a very rural area (it was an hour to the nearest feed store) and all they offered them was an apple flavored, molasses laced mineral block for horses. They wouldn't touch the plain old unsweetened loose minerals at my place when I made the switch. I started hiding a daily dose in each doe's grain, but the crafty little things would manage to eat the grain and leave the powdered mineral that I had stirred in so carefully. If I wetted the whole thing down to make the mineral stick to the grain, they just wouldn't even eat it.

What I ended up having to do was to mix some sugar into the mineral in their feeder. That got them eating it, and I gradually removed the sugar, and now they will nibble it. As they get further in their pregnancy, they seem to be eating more of it. The kids who were born here and never tasted the sweet stuff will gobble the mineral right up.