 |
09/30/06, 12:39 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Florida
Posts: 63
|
|
|
Goats not drinking water!
Hello, Can anyone please tell me why or if your goats at times will not drink water through the day? My two goats are otherwise healthy.... Picky hay eating, fun loving goats.
Thanks, Debbie
|
09/30/06, 04:01 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 1,009
|
|
|
Hi Debera..Do your goats have plenty of salt/minerals out? Salt intake will definitely "encourage" them. Good luck!
|
09/30/06, 04:04 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Missouri
Posts: 9,208
|
|
|
Also, how old are they?? Is the water clean and freshened daily??
__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net
"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence
|
09/30/06, 04:09 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Florida
Posts: 63
|
|
|
Our goats are 8 months old now. Yes, we scrub the bowl out at least every other day. What is odd is that, they will not drink from the dish they have in their sleeping pen... but only from the bowl that is out in the play pen. That bowl is used occasionally by our dogs and rooster. I am a fanatic about keeping all of our animals bowls cleaned! Yes, they also have salt and baking soda available to them. They do eat it.
Last edited by Debara; 09/30/06 at 04:28 PM.
|
09/30/06, 07:39 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 33,501
|
|
|
If they have lots of fresh browse and grass they are getting their water intake from that.
__________________
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
|
10/01/06, 07:52 AM
|
 |
Retired Coastie
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Monterey, Tennessee
Posts: 4,653
|
|
|
Maybe you should stop scrubbing the bowl, possibly the soaps leave a residue. Drop the bowl and use buckets, this may discourage the rooster, dogs and whatever else from quenching their thirst. Call me crazy but I never scrub a bucket, just rinse and fill. My twelve goats drink about four gallons of water a day, that's not much. Just trying to show you how little they tend to drink and if the water is touched by other animals they will even drink less...Tennessee John
__________________
TOPSIDE FARMS
|
10/01/06, 03:48 PM
|
 |
We love all our animals
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: VA, KY & TN Line
Posts: 1,402
|
|
|
I agree with Bearfootfarm and another
Good Luck on your goats. :-)
__________________
Love all animals don't abuse them. I hope if caught abusing & animal I want to be first in line to kick your butt. I despise mean people & liars. 
|
10/01/06, 04:18 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Missouri
Posts: 9,208
|
|
|
Yes, I would try using a bucket as compared to a bowl. My goats drink water better if the tub is deep and mostly full.
__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net
"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence
|
10/01/06, 08:31 PM
|
 |
Caprice Acres
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: MI
Posts: 11,230
|
|
Find a tub or a bucket to use. Actually, I reccomend one of those short metal tubs that you can use with a de-icer for the winter. For scrubbing, get one of those cup scrubbers and designate it as pet usage only! LOL Don't use soaps or anything, a simple rinse and scrub with the cup scrubber is perfect. I have hard water and that is the reason I scrub every time I fill thier tubs of water up... It gets gross!!
Also, what I've been doing lately is dropping a couple cloves of garlic (about 1 per 5 gallons) in all my animal's water (except dogs, who eat it...  ) and 1 'glug' of apple cider vinegar per 5 gallons as well. My chickens hardly ever have runny poo anymore since I started doing that. My goats showed no adversion to it, and if they did they got over it... they had no option but to drink what's availible! hehe.
__________________
Dona Barski
"Breed the best, eat the rest"
Caprice Acres
French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.
|
10/03/06, 07:52 AM
|
 |
Pook's Hollow
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 4,570
|
|
|
Mine are all drinking far less now that the weather is cool. Apart from the milking does, I really only top up the buckets once a day (I check them at least twice a day since my barn became the "Jonestown for rats")
|
10/03/06, 07:57 AM
|
 |
www.HarperHillFarm.com
|
|
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Western NY
Posts: 3,087
|
|
|
Taste the water yourself and see if it's okay.
Or add a little ACV to it. Maybe that would improve the taste and encourage them to drink.
__________________
Charleen in Western NY www.harperhillfarm.com
A bite of butter greases your track. ~ Gramma Sarah
|
10/03/06, 08:05 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: western NY
Posts: 1,507
|
|
|
Sounds like there's a clue in the drinking from one container and not another. Are your dishes different? Maybe there is an odor from the dish in the sleeping pen they don't like. Or maybe it's simply their habit now to avoid the water in the sleeping pen. As long as you've seen them drinking they should be okay.
|
10/03/06, 10:32 AM
|
 |
Cashmere goats
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: CO
Posts: 2,023
|
|
|
OK, I know you are going to think I am crazy. I have a 4Her that has goats that are SO pickey. They will only drink out of white buckets. They have black, pink, blue and green. They will be full and stay full while the white ones are always empty. I have bought toilet brushes that are only used on the tanks, and they are just scrubbed out with water.
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:41 PM.
|
|
