What do you feed your goats

[Mason&lily]

I feed my Nigerian dwarf for and her baby's, ones a little buck and one is a Doe they are 3 months. I feed them 2 cups of dumor sweet feed and 1 cup of corn and 1 cup of whole oats. I'm thinking about changing it up some like getting the a different grain. What do you feed yours and also the little buck is gonna be turned to a wether do I have to feed him different ?

 

[goatgurl]

i feed my goats a 14% mixed grain and the milkers also get some alfalfa. has worked well for me

 

[Mason&lily]

I'm thinking about getting alfalfa pellets and a all stock sweet feed and corn, I have the manna pro minerals they get every dad would that have enough AC for my soon to be wether

 

[goatgurl]

you don't really need the corn and try to find a sweet feed that is higher in protein then the 10% that's the norm. are you going to milk? just make sure you don't let them get to fat.

 

[mysunwolf]

My goats only like alfalfa pellets when there's not a lot of pasture or browse, which usually means wintertime. Alfalfa hay is another story! That gets them to come into the barn almost every time. Mostly, they go crazy for a scoop of 10% all-stock sweet feed, but goatgurl is right that since you have a doe with twins, she will need higher protein. I would feed 14-16% protein sweet feed, some nice mixed hay, and leave it at that. You don't have to feed the wether differently. Our local mill makes a goat starter that has 16% protein, so if you have a local grain mill that mixes feeds, that would be one place to look. TSC has a 16% all stock feed that is pretty decent as well.

We try to feed about 1% of their body weight in grain in the winter, and the rest in hay (3-4% of their body weight daily, not including waste). Sometimes, we feed even less grain if the hay is very good quality (barn stored, 16-20% protein, good energy, no mold, second cutting) and the animals look in good condition. If it's a hard winter with bad hay, we feed more grain. The momma doe will probably need a higher percentage of her body weight in grain, especially if you start to milk her, but we have only ever had wethers for meat so I could not tell you how much grain a doe milking twins would need.

I would leave out goat-specific minerals all the time. If you think they wouldn't eat them, you could sprinkle some over their feed. We really like kelp as well to put over feed, it has a lot of trace minerals that are easily absorbed.

 

[Mason&lily]

The baby's are weaned off of her, but I think I'm feed them noble goat 16% and alfalfa/Timothy pellets then put there minerals in it like usual but I'm getting new does soon and will use them for breeding for dairy and meat goats so the 16% should be good