Questions About Feeding

[BiGtImEfArMeRs4]

We feed our goats, does, bucks, and kids alfalfa hay, but our vet said we shouldn't give it to them, and that they should only have timothy hay..is this true? Never heard this before, but I have no clue.

Also, the one breeder we buy our goats from feeds her bucks amonium chloride, and we bought a buck from her. So we were going to buy amonium chloride for him, but our vet said we don't need it, because it's very rare that bucks get urinary calc., mainly just wethers. Should we stil get it for him or should we just keep feeding him without itt?
Thankss!

[christij]

I think a lot of people feed the alfalfa hay or pellets... mine will actually go on a hay strike if they don't get the alfalfa.....

Do you have milkers or meat goats?

[DocM]

Get a new vet.

[Jen H]

It used to be thought that the calcium in alfalfa caused urinary calculi, but now it's known that the cause is actually the phosphorus in grain. So, your vet needs to get up to date on his research.

If your bucks get any grain at all in their diet, you need to have them on ammonium chloride. It's true that wethers are more susceptible to urinary calculi than bucks are, but male goats in general need to be careful of it.

[KSALguy]

GET A NEW VET<

Alfalfa is the BEST choice for Hay you can get, and has NOTHING to do with ANY health problems in any goat.

its the grain the messes up Male goats if fed wrong, but even this can be avoided if grain is fed properly

[bgraham]

How much grain should a buck get daily? I don't want to risk urinary calculi and am afraid I may be giving to much.

Also, where does one get ammonium chloride and what form is it in (pellets, loose, etc.) ?

Thanks,

Beth

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Bucks of all breeds do just fine on alfalfa hay or pellets. If you want to use a grain product for them why not use one of the hundreds of meat goat pellets out there that already has ammonium chloride in it and also a drug for coccidiosis? I feed my bucklings as much as they want of this until the end of their first breeding season, and my adult bucks get about 3 pounds each day of this when they are heavily used or can stand to gain a few pounds after being used.

If you are going to use real grains...as in whole oats, crimped barley etc...than you sort of start with 1 pound a day and only up it if you don't like what they look like...but their hay is the most important. When feeding grain purchase some Ammonium chloride from pipevet.com it's about $5 for 5 pounds plus shipping. Start them on 1 teaspoon per head per day, if you grain or pellets are dry you can add a small amount of any oil, corn, sunflower, to the pellets and dump the AC on it...it looks like salt, so the AC will stick to the pellets. My bucks don't care at all about the AC.

There is soo much good literature out there about goats, letting your vet read some of it for themselves in Goat Medicine, worth it if you have a good vet that just needs some more education.

What you will find is what we all find, your goats are much better off if you educate yourself and not ask the vet for anything about the day to day management. Vicki

[bgraham]

Vicki,

Well duh! lol. Sorry. Don't know what I was thinking. I feed my goats Dumor Goat Feed from Tractor Supply which has ammonium chloride in it (not actual grain). They also get grass hay free choice and my does get alfalfa cubes.

All this talk about goats dying and people feeding the wrong stuff had me a little paranoid!

Beth

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

I feed my goats Dumor Goat Feed from Tractor Supply which has ammonium chloride in it (not actual grain).
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The sad thing is I know what you mean exactly...except that this goat Feed should be grain ....sad it isn't 'actual grain' Just make sure when you do rely on a goat feed pellet like this for your goats AC that you can't dilute the AC by mixing this and that with the pellet. They have to eat the whole amount listed on the sack or they don't get their daily ration of AC. vicki