won't eat salt!

[Debara]

Hello, I understand that it is important for pygmy to eat salt?! well, my two little guys will not eat or lick the salt block. I have even sliced or scraped some into their feed dish... all I get out of them is "blahhhh". I think the one I have has mollasses in it. Are all pygmy's picky eaters? what do I do? DEB

[TxCloverAngel]

from what I understand, they will eat/lick it when they need it. But I am not the expert here, you came to the right place to ask tho! Good Luck!

[Wendy]

I would get rid of the salt blocks & put out loose minerals. Goats have a hard time getting what they need from a block. Those are made for rough old cow tongues. Loose minerals have all the salt they would need plus the minerals they need. They will eat it when they need it.

[TexCountryWoman]

Yes, mineral blocks are not made for goats but rather larger livestock. What you need are loose mineral salt made specifically for goats. Be SURE that it is not sheep minerals. If it says it is for sheep on the label, then it is not designed for goats and is bad. If you can't find loose goat mineral anywhere, then get loose horse minerals. Put out a small amount each day and keep them fresh. The goats will take what they need. Enjoy those cute goats!

[gccrook]

My nubians do great with the block, and tend to go to it more than the loose minerals. I give them access to both. There are times when they do not do for either one, and other times they seem to really need a lot. It should be offered free choice, and they will get what they need when they need it.

[TexCountryWoman]

The reason that a goat may seem to really go after a block is because it is craving the salt and minerals that it has to offer but can not obtain enough from it so it tries and tries to get some buy llicking it. Loose minerals are indeed a better choice for goats. They need copper particularly and they are able to consume more of the loose minerals and ingest the minerals they need.

[Mortgage-Hill]

this is what i do,, i have salt blocks out to all of my goats, along with loose salt to them, i also use, golden blend minerals, amon. chl., rumen buff, kelp, and many more,, but i have some that love the blocks and others that like the loose. keep some sort of salt to your goats,and minerals. you just might have some picky ones like i do!!

[Wendy]

The problem with having both salt & minerals out is they will eat the salt because they crave it & not eat the minerals. There is salt in the minerals & they will eat the minerals to get the salt therefore getting both things they need & that is good.

[mygoat]

The goat minerals like purina or sweelix (sweelix is best) GOAT FORMULA has the proper amount of salt and minerals. Most salt/mineral mixes have WAY TOO MUCH salt, so the goat eats, gets what salt it needs, and doesn't get enough minerals. if you taste it and it tastes WAY to salty, it does for the goats, too. I tasted the purina mineral, and found it to taste way better than the feed store brand minerals. Also, I hear that sweelix is even better with salt:minerals ratio.

[murphyjamie]

Sweetlix is definately the best loose mineral I have found. They make a goat specific mineral called meatmaker. Get the meatmaker that has rumenten. It will help protect your goats from cocci. My pygmys love the taste of the sweetlix and it has the right amount of salt. Go to www.sweetlix.com and you can look at the different goat minerals. Stay away from blocks. If one of your pygmys urinates on the block, the goats will never eat on it again.

[6e]

I keep salt blocks, mineral blocks and protein blocks out. I seem to have better luck with the blocks than the loose, they like them better and I don't have any trouble with them using them, but the blocks are made for goats, so maybe there put together a little looser than the cow blocks. They go through the protein blocks the fastest, the mineral blocks next and the salt block has lasted a LONG time. They'll use them if they need them. We put all the blocks out because we had trouble with the goats eating the 2x4's on the barn wall!