Sorry, I was hoping to expand on the other post but got busy
Let me start by saying you want a 2:1 Ca/PH
I wouldn't feed the Sunflower seeds or the oats to any males, and I would still be very careful when feeding it to the does. BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) has a crazy Ca: P ratio, it can be as high as 1 to 13!
BOSS and oats can be great! I have fed a little bit mixed with feed but its not something I would do for very long, and like I said I would NEVER give it to bucks/wethers.
Have you been able to find any good goat feed locally?
If you have any other questions, just let me know!
Thanks for the clarifications- we are currently using goat chow(which is a sweet feed) because that is what the does were on when we purchased them.
I am still looking to find a non-sweet feed(I'm waiting for some information from the mill we get our chicken feed through), my concern is that we keep the does at a good healthy weight.
with the weather getting nicer here by us, we have been taking Rascal outside to hang with his mom and the other 2 does. He loves to jump around and has a blast. Coco(his mom) remembers him and is very gentle with him-sniffs and licks him. The other 2 does not so much- while they aren't overly mean to him, they will put their head down and butt him- doesn't seem to phase Rascal at all and he actually teases those 2. DH says he's at the rubber goat stage.
When DH got home this afternoon- we took him out again and let him hang. When I went to milk Coco, DH brought Rascal over and we actually got him to nurse from Coco- he sure beat me with the milking . Rascal thought that was great!
We brought him in for the night and will see how tomorrow goes
Sat morning I had extra help to milk. They had a milking race....Rascal won
He really enjoys being outside and doing goat things . We took him on a nursing home visit today- our 4-H club goes to visit-he was a big hit with the residents, he did good- only peed once(DD was on clean up)
Can you get Purina Goat Chow? It is called Noble goat and they make one for milkers, and one for non-milkers. I believe the non-milker one has the AC in it. Also, Nutrena makes a goat feed.
I feed straight alfalfa to all my goats all of the time. Then the milkers get a 16% sweet feed on the stand with about a cup of BOSS, sometimes some beet pulp, and if they are losing condition I will toss in some ultra high fat conditioning feed too. I used to feed the Purina Goat Chow but with 25+ goats I streamlined my feeding and only feed grain or any pellet feed on the milk stand.
We are currently feeding Purina Goat Chow-Goat Feed. I did see on the Purina website about the one for milkers- have you used that specific one? We would have to special order it.
My goal is to offer only on the milk stand but we aren't there yet.
Rascal did just fine outside over night. He is nursing off mom and seems to be getting enough to eat as he isn't crying. I also only milked out 1 side and ended with about a cup(was normally getting about 1.5 cups in the morning). Of course after today, our temps are going to drop down again
Rascal is adjusting to life as a goat now , he is proficient at nursing from Coco(his mom)-he does a good job as I didn't have to milk this morning. We will weigh him later today to make sure he is getting enough to eat. Coco has become a lot quieter now that he is with her- except when it's time for feed to show up