pelleted feed

[cjean]

My goats won't eat it. My boer buck is 14 months, we bought him at 3 months, and from the beginning we had a hard time getting him to eat the pelleted creep.

We recently bought some alfalfa pellets, for him and our newly freshened nubian. The first couple of days, they gobbled them up, but now they don't want them at all.

The twin kids are 4 weeks, and have no desire to eat any sort of pellet. So, is this normal?

Goats are so danged picky! My sheep will eat anything, and are glad to have it.

[mygoat]

Goats are picky eaters. I'm going from pelleted grain to actual whole grains because with the pellets, the company can switch up the ingredience on you and not tell ya. Plus they seem to enjoy the whole grain better. Are you feeding the alfalfa pellets free choice? If so, they'll only eat what they want, when they want. If you're giving them a couple times per day, they should still gobble them down.

[Sarah J]

It's possible that they ate the pellets up right away because it was new and different. Now they aren't as gung-ho about it because they're used to them. Are they 100% alfalfa? After a week or so they start only eating what they need to eat because it's "just hay" not treats. I don't feed any kind of "feed" to my goats unless they're milking. Then, and only then, so they get 100% grain mix on the milk stand. Everyone else gets alfalfa pellets and/or grass hay (the boys get an high quality grass hay only), no grain or pelleted feed.

I've heard that some goats just plain old won't eat the alfalfa pellets. My guess is, if you want them to eat it, take everything else away and they won't have a choice - they will not starve themselves for lack of hay - they'll merely wait until they believe they won't get anything else. Who is more stubborn?

Reminds me of my children...

-Sarah

[cjean]

Originally Posted by mygoat

Goats are picky eaters. I'm going from pelleted grain to actual whole grains because with the pellets, the company can switch up the ingredience on you and not tell ya. Plus they seem to enjoy the whole grain better. Are you feeding the alfalfa pellets free choice? If so, they'll only eat what they want, when they want. If you're giving them a couple times per day, they should still gobble them down.

I've been feeding about a pound in the morning, then again in the evening, and they have alfalfa/grass hay at the same time. They'd rather have the hay. In fact, they'll just stare at the pellets until I put the hay in their feeders!

And yes, they'll inhale the combo rolled grain, but I'm worried about our dairy girl not getting enough nutrition. We are milking her. And what about the kids? (these are our first baby goats - way different than lambs!) Shouldn't they be eating some creep pellets? What do you think I should be feeding them? They don't even like calf manna.

[cjean]

Originally Posted by Sarah J

It's possible that they ate the pellets up right away because it was new and different. Now they aren't as gung-ho about it because they're used to them. Are they 100% alfalfa? After a week or so they start only eating what they need to eat because it's "just hay" not treats. I don't feed any kind of "feed" to my goats unless they're milking. Then, and only then, so they get 100% grain mix on the milk stand. Everyone else gets alfalfa pellets and/or grass hay (the boys get an high quality grass hay only), no grain or pelleted feed.

I've heard that some goats just plain old won't eat the alfalfa pellets. My guess is, if you want them to eat it, take everything else away and they won't have a choice - they will not starve themselves for lack of hay - they'll merely wait until they believe they won't get anything else. Who is more stubborn?

Reminds me of my children...

-Sarah

My own kids are less picky than these goats!!

Sarah, you make sense. They probably did think it was a great treat at first. Now they are bored again. I can't believe how much like humans goats really are.

Yes, they are 100%. And I'm not so sure about our buck not starving himself - he is the biggest cry baby I've ever met! He has my daughter convinced that she needs to go pick all the brush for him to eat instead.

[Sarah J]

If you're milking the dairy girl, or she is nursing a kid or in the last third of the pregnancy, then she should be getting a grain supplement ON THE MILKSTAND, not anywhere else. But if she isn't actually in milk or late in pregnancy, she doesn't need the extra nutrition - 100% alfalfa is just fine.

Kids are weaned straight from milk onto alfalfa pellets at our farm. No hay, no grain. They don't need it. Alfalfa they need. Grain or pelleted feed, they don't. Honest!

The boys, at about a year to a year and a half, are weaned OFF of the alfalfa pellets and onto the good quality grass hay. If they get alfalfa they end up potentially getting urinary calculi - same with giving them grain. It's just SOOOO much easer to know that they really don't need all of the commercially pushed grains, pelleted feeds and other such nonsense. Yes, they like them a lot. Yes, they'll eat it. But the commercial people are trained to convince you they need it. In reality they don't and it can just make them fat or give them more excuses to have stomach problems.

-Sarah