Newbie here, please help with feeding issue

[NaturesPace]

We got our doelings about 2 months ago and we haven't fed them any grains yet. They are on chaffhaye, grass hay and alfalfa pellets. They also have grass pasture and tree leaves that I try to pick most days. They seem to be doing well so far. Had some trouble with cocci, but I hope that is now done with. Free choice minerals, kelp and baking soda are also given. We haven't found a buck for them yet. I'm hoping to breed the late winter early spring. Theyare also Nigerian dwarfs.

I'm hoping we can keep grains to a minimum. Goats aren't really built for grains, even thou, they love them. Actually, my girls won't even try grains yet. I also tried sunflower seeds, but they don't care. They are about 7 months old now.

 

[jodief100]

I do agree, they are getting too rich of a diet. Plain grass hay mixed with the peanut hay would be good. Cut back on the pelleted feed, bucks shouldn't need it at all unless they are breeding.

You can't tell how over or under conditioned they are by looking at them. Put you hands on them. Feel the backs, the rump, up and down the spine. You want a layer of meat over the bones but still be able to feel them.


I agree with your vet on the molasses. It has no nutritional value. Feeding it regularly is like giving your kid sugar on their veggies to get them to eat them. A healthy goat shouldn't need "encouragement" to eat.

 

[NicholsAcres]

Jodief100,

Thank you for you comments. The bucks are quite boney, the love to climb on me when I go to feed them and so I get plenty opportunity to feel their backs and shoulders

I will look into grass hay at our local feed and coop.

Frank

 

[NicholsAcres]

Here are a couple shots of the goats that AshleyFishy asked for

These are my girls using a hay feeder I built to try and cut down on waste - notice there is almost no hay on the floor around them. Before it wa piled up on the floor and wasted.

Now notice how the girls quickly learned how to defeat my attempt to keep their hay clean -

And the guys using their hay feeder in their shelter logic shelter - I need to make some benches for them to climb on today. Notice all the hay on the ground from their previous hay feeder which was just an open container.

Here is Sullivan and Jake (our LGD pup) in front of the Shelter Logic shelter for the bucks. The bucks really like this shelter when it rains, and I like that it is tall enough to walk into to clean up. It was the same price as a big dog house would have been.

And lastly, Gillbert and Sullivan - they don't look over weight to me, and they feel boney. If anything they feel underweight, but they are only 16 weeks old or so here.

 

[jodief100]

At 16 weeks they are still in that awkward teenage stage. A little grain won't hurt them any as they are growing still but I would slowly wean them off planning on cutting it out completely by spring unless they are breeding. though with only a few does, breeding isn't going to take a lot out of them.

They are adorable. How do you keep them from ripping up the sides of the shelter? Mine tore the tarp on the chicken hoop house to shreds and then turned the hoop house into a jungle gym. Oh, wait. Yours don't have horns.

Another suggestion is put the hay feeders up high and cut some holes in the sides at the bottom. Then they have to pull the hay out the slots. They still waste it but not as much and it stays cleaner. I use 4"x4" holes on my hay racks but I have big goats, not your cute little adorable ones.

 

[NicholsAcres]

jodief100,

Thanks for the kind words, we think they are cute too -

It would seem that there are almost as many ways to feed goats as there are goat herders! We are not feeding ANY grain to our goats. The only reason is that our vet said to stick with Noble Goat Grower and perennial peanut hay - so, that is their diet for now (along with a little forage.) The issue is how much to give them and how to keep them from wasting, since both of those are expensive.

We obviously were over feeding them and have cut back considerably. The bucks are getting about 1/2 to 3/4 lb per day of the Noble pellets and are freed fed the hay. They also get free fed minerals daily and probiotic's once per week. I think we are going to stop the free feeding minerals (Purina's Goat Minerals) and start adding it to the pellets to see if they waste less that way. And to know better how much they are getting.

We are still debating if "our" kids (when we have some) will be disbudded or not. There seems to be good arguments for both sides - sigh. With the Nigerian Dwarfs - which come from Nigeria where it is HOT - there is an additional consideration in that they have evolved to have a large blood supply in their horns and that is one of the ways they keep cool in the summer. I expect a goat with horns would make short work of the shelter we have.

Frank

 

[NaturesPace]

Your goats are very pretty. Love those boys.

 

[AshleyFishy]

Ooooo tell me how you made your hay feeder!

 

[NicholsAcres]

AshleyFishy,

I was going to post some pictures of the process of making the feeder, until they started climbing on it - now I need to figure out how to discourage that. I think I know what I am going to do and will post pictures tomorrow.

The feeder so far is a plastic container from Walmart - it was about $12 for that one. The size was chosen based on the Nigerian Dwarfs being able to reach into it and get to the bottom to get the hay. So, it is about 16 inches high. If you have full size goats, you could use a deeper container - at first I was going to make it large enough to put a whole bale of hay in it at once. But, I don't think the NG's could use that as well.

Second I had some leftover PVC pipe parts laying around so I used them. If you need to buy the pvc all the parts should cost about $6 or $7 at the most. I used 3/4 inch PVC pipe - you can use any size if you have some laying around - and you will need 4 elbow connectors. Cut the pipe into 4 pieces - 2 for the long sides length and 2 for the short side lengths. The pipe needs to be short enough so that with the corner elbows connected it is an inch or two shorter that the side of the container - so it will "float" down to the bottom of the container as the hay is eaten. It does not need to be too close - and remember the sides of those plastic containers slope in as they go down, so make the grating at least 2 to 3 inches smaller than the inside of the container at the bottom.

Then you simply put the 4 pieces of pipe together with an elbow in each corner - the result will be a rectangle slightly smaller than the bottom of the container.

Next I had a piece of scrap welded wire fence. In my case it was 2 x 4 mesh, but almost any size will do. 2 x 4 or 4 x 4, whatever. Lay the rectangle of PVC pipe on the piece of fence and cut the fence to the same size. Then I used plastic 4 or 5 inch long Tie Wraps to attach the fence to the rectangle putting one on each end of the sides and one in the middle of each side.

Thats it. Make a rectangle - could be wood, pipes, dowels, anything - that will fit inside the container. Then attach a piece of fence as a grate.

Then fill the container with hay and drop the grate on top. The goats will pull a small piece of hay out through the grating (fence) and eat it, then go back for more. And we all know how much the goats enjoy eating through fences - As the goats eat the hay the grate will settle down inside the container until the goats have eaten all the hay. And almost none will be wasted.

The modification I am going to make is to add a "top" to the feeder so the goats can not stand on the hay, but will have to stick their heads in underneath the top to eat.

It is easier to make than to explain

Frank

 

[OneFineAcre]

I just saw the thread. First welcome to the forum and congratulations on an excellent choice in Nigerian Dwarfs. They are awesome.

First of all, your goats look great, I would use the term "very well conditioned" at this point, not "over conditioned" But, with ND's particularly you have to watch that closely.

I agree with what everyone else said about the feed. Find a good source of grass hay like Bermuda, or Teff and feed that free choice. You said you were feeding perennial peanut seems some of the replies started to refer to it as peanut hay. It is different, but it is rich.

We have access to actual peanut hay in the fall and I stock up. But, I use it like the others said, not as their main source of long stemmed roughage.

We usually reserve peanut hay and alfalfa to lactating does, or an animal whose conditioning needs improvement.