feed questions ms viki or other veterans!

[FD2N4P]

Hi this is sue again..............i have the 2 does and 2 wethers.......just pets. no milk or kidding. i use bluebonnet minerals and right now they are on 12 acres. that is it. when winter comes here to georgia what can i feed them. can i get away with beet pulp instead of hay. i noticed you suggested some meat goat pellets for them to keep them warm on another post. hay to me is a waste, but if that is what they need ..we will do it. thanks for all your help!

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

I could get away with no hay because I feed alfalfa pellets, but also all my goats have access to wooded acreage, and we don't have freezes or snow...but my pampered girls also don't like to get wet so I do leave grass hay out in the stalls for them so when they don't go out and eat they can eat hay...they eat very little from spring to winter, but do go through more hay when heavy bred.

Since you have wethers and don't breed your does I would feed a meat goat pellet during the late fall, winter and early spring. Tapering on how much you feed and tapering off how much you feed, go slow. Meat goat pellets usually if you find a good one are ground up alfalfa, grain by products and they contain ammonium chloride something that is super important for you to feed to your boys when you give them grain, it prevents urinary calculi, it won't hurt the does. If you can't find a good meat goat pellet you like, than just feed them whole oats and order some AC from pipevet.com and feed 1 teaspoon per head per day eating the grain. So 4 teaspoons. Since oats are dry, put the amount of oats you are going to feed the group into your bucket, then squirt of maybe 4 tablespoons of oil (corn, soy, anything you can get) then pour the AC in the oil. Swirl the bucket to coat the oats on your way to the pen.

Feel over their ribs...just ribs and tight skin than they are too thin. You can feel some flesh over their ribs they are perfect. Fat roll over the ribs, they need less calories. So use this to figure out how much to feed. Also you should never see dog poop esepcially with grain in it...too much grain too fast. A small handful each to start is not too little, then just increase every couple of days.

Now if you could find some good oat hay, you wouldn't have to feed grain. vicki

[FD2N4P]

i have access to a mill by me, so i a thinking i will stick with the oats and use the ac. tanks for the advice again..........sue