Should I be feeding grain? Worming?

[meme]

This is my sister's first year doing dairy goats through 4-H, and this is my first year through FFA. My FFA group is only into market animals ( pretty much swine, lambs, and steer) so unfortunately they haven't given me any advice or seen my goats. Thankfully, my sister's 4-H leader has been helping us both out a lot. I have been wondering if we should be adding grain and/or alfalfa pellets to their diet though. Rachel is a dry yearling nubian we got from our 4-H leader. She looks to be in good condition, and was wormed about 2 months ago. Our leader bottle raised her on a mix of goat milk and formula. We plan to breed her for the first time soon, but we need to ask our 4-h leader about it. Shasta is a 6 month old nubian whether. After he eats, his stomach gets huge,and is very healthy looking. He hasn't been wormed before and was bottle raised by us from 1 week to 3 months on whole milk. Heidi is the one I am worried about. She is a 6 month old Alpine doe, she never gets a big belly after she eats. She has always been on the small side and I know she isn't the weight she should be. Her ribs aren't visible, but she just looks too bony. She was never wormed either, and was also raised from 1 week to three months on whole cow's milk.

They currently get 1 leaf of alfalfa in the morning, 1 leaf of alfalfa in the evening, about a half-leaf grass hay in the middle of the day. They also have free choice goat minerals and baking soda. They are on about and acre of pasture all day, but they have pretty much eaten all the reachable oak leaves and the grass is sparse. I am contemplating adding grain or alfalfa pellets to their diet, but our leader didn't seem to think it was a good idea. Also, I know it doesn't go here, but should Shasta and Heidi be wormed? If so, what kind of wormer would you recommend? Sorry for all the questions, but I just wanted to make sure everyone around here is healthy! Thanks! ETA, I can try to get picks if needed.

 

[DonnaBelle]

The best way to tell if your goats need deworming, is to get 6 nannieberries per goat and take them to a vet for a fecal analysis.

If a goat has a worm load, your vet will tell you what type of worm the goat has and recommend the correct dewormer.

Wethers can have urinary calculi problems and don't need a lot of grain, brouse or hay is best for them.

If does are milking or pregnant, they may need extra nutrition. We feed our does about 2 cups of 16% dairy goat ration twice a day. When I say 2 cups, I mean two measured cups of feed. Our goats have a lot of pasture and brouse also.

OF course, all goats need loose goat minerals fed free choice and plenty of fresh water.

I use a Goat-20 N protein tub for my goats, but then, I'm a worry-wort about my girls who are preggers.

It's MY opinion goats need to be kept current on their vaccinations. Once a year for CD & T.

DonnaBelle

 

[meme]

Thank you! They are all UTD on their CDT vaccines. Our neighbor is actually a vet with a very large herd of Saanens. We got fecal test for Heidi when we thought she was coming down with coccidiosis when she was 2 months old. $45 later, test came back positive but she didn't think we should giver her any meds. Maybe I was being a little paranoid! She was right, it cleared up fine! I guess we can go ahead and test them all for worms. Nobody is preggers here, so I guess grain isn't totally necessary. Also, when we were at the fair last month, the big alpine breeder there had some kids about the same age as Heidi. It made me feel better to see them, because they were on the smaller side too. She has since filled out some, she is just smaller than her Nubian friends I guess. I still don't think a little more weight could hurt though.

 

[daisyjack]

If you do add grain add it very slowly. Any Dietary change can give the diarrhea. I give my two Nubian 5 month old does 1 cups of grain 2 times a day. But I am also new to goats and have questioned my self many times. A good website that I have found helpful is http://fiascofarm.com/index.html