Annette Maze, ADGA director for many many years, ADGA judge, owner of Kismet Marvin's Smooth Operator when he finished his championship, owner of very competitive Nubians for years and one of the original owners of the first imports of frozen embryo boers and ABGA, INBA guru....used to get a truck load of skittles delivered to her barns. She used to tell us the goats got a handful and so did she at milking time.
What you using the feed for? With good alfalfa for calcium and protein the chocolate or candy or donuts could eaisly supply goats the energy, fat and calories they need.
With the economy we all are going to have to rethink our set in stone ideas about nutrition. I kept my group in excellent flesh over the winter during the last part of lactation and early milking on day old bakery products, not molded or nasty, just out of date. My first show out we topped every milking class we went into. Over 60 kids, almost 50 of them doelings born to 21 does, no metobolic disease and I have a 6 year old Nubians milking 15 pounds. So I would say it was a success, I will repeat it next winter, if I could continue it during the year I would, with our humidity I would be fighting mold all the time.
I think Anna's adivce is sound I would ask a nutritionist to run the chocolate you can get through his feed calculator, you know darn well there are farms all over your area feeding this!
My goats have never died from M&M's, the oaks the pines and the many other things that others will tell you are poisionous to them.
Of course like everything, start slowly and build even slower. One donut for them, one donut for me
vicki
