garden treats

[christie]

A couple goat sites say they let there goats at the end of the season devour the garden before tilling, another said they take out the tomatoes/ potatoes first. I seen that anything in the kale familly is poisonous as well. I have cauliflower /broc, eggplant, lots of tomatoes , lots of peppers, hot ones too!
Should I let them in there what your advice?

ps I lest my basket filled with cherry tomatoes and my lil girl ate a bunch, I am sure she'll be okay, shes acting fine..
Thanks
Christie

[Shazza]

I've never heard of Kale being poisonous...we planted it specially for our goats last year.
If my goats accidentally get into the vege garden they eat all the turnip tops, tomatoes, lettuce etc...I think to deliberately let them in would certainly clean it all out before tilling. A small amount of posionous stuff wont kill them...not if no more than 25% of their daily intake...or there abouts anyhoo. A goat wont eat anything that they dont like the taste of.

[MamaDee]

I was wondering about a similar question.....

we are processing apples and tomatoes right now. Can I give the goats apple peels and cores and cut tomato peices?

If I have five does, how much of this stuff would you let them eat at a time?

Dee

[Shazza]

My goats eat about 3 apples each a day....cut up on top of their grain when I milk...plus carrot etc. So cores and peel equal to a few apples each...a small bucket between all 5 for the day. I dont think goats would eat tomatoes, its the plant that they will eat.

[goatsareus]

kale and kale family, brasiccas, are not poisonous. I raise some veggies especially for the goats, including kale, collards and spent broccoli plants. Currently I am feeding whole chopped apples daily to the goats, maybe two apples per goat, but my apples are med/large. BTW, I am also pulling spent bush bean plants are putting them in their pasture. I've never tried tomatoes, too messy for the hay manger and they would not eat them off the ground

[sungirl]

Kale is safe for goats, if it is fed in small doses. Large doses are poisonous to goats. (I can't remember what it does to the body.) Kale is a great green as it is full of vitimans. I feed apples every day at this time of year, we are lucky to have found another farm with 30 crab apple trees! I cut them in half , (if they are to big them in half again.)
Tomatoes on the other hand are good & bad. The tomato itself is 100% safe, but the plant is poisonous the them.. In fact most animals & humans the plant is very poisonous.

Patty.

[christie]

so how is some feeding tomato plants, and its poisonous. They're in the nightshade family as well as eggplant and potatoes. So a little is okay, but how much is to much?
I have apple trees in the pasture, and althought they say not to let goats eat apples, mine engorge themselves on them!, I make sure they have plenty of baking soda if they need it. I try to fence the apple trees off, they manage get in every time.

My lil goat like I said above was chowing the tomatoes.

[sungirl]

Who says not to let them eat Apples? If this is from a book toss it now. As long as you slowly start feeding something like Apples, you shouldn't worry about giving to much. If after 2 weeks they are so used to them, and they eat them freechoice as many as they want. On the other hand, you don't want to be feeding a fat doe alot of apples... Thin goats need hay & pasture/brush, Not more apples!

Patty.

[Jeanette]

There is a listing of plants at http://fiascofarm.com/goats/poisonousplants.htm
She admits that some plants are on both list because different people have had different experiences with what their goats will eat or tolerate. Much like the answers here.
Tomatoes and tomato Plants are both listed as acceptable. While it is true that many nightshade plants are poisonous, they are not all poisonous to all species. Pepper plants are also nightshades and our goats love them! The poultry keep our wild, native peppers picked clean of fruit. So like many other things - one man's poison (trash) is another man's treasure. You and I wouldn't dream of getting into poison ivy but I understand that goats will clean it up.
Although there is probably evidence that some animals will eat what is bad for them, most will not if given a choice and they are not living in starvation conditions. In general animals are a whole lot smarter than we give them credit for. Now people on the other hand......... LOL

Jeanette
Always Learning!

[Shazza]

Every year we had the pigs they got every tomatoe plant at the end of the season...they loved them.
For a while in the autumn we were getting a gardeners cuttings from his jobs throughout the day....the goats loved it...some ate different things to the others, the milkers being the fussiest. The only thing they didnt really like was the odd stinging nettle...which I now have growing in their paddocks grrrr.

[Backfourty,MI.]

Originally Posted by Shazza

I dont think goats would eat tomatoes, its the plant that they will eat.

My goats love the little grape tomatoes, I don't ever give the plants though! They also like the cucumber peels, apples, oranges(as long as I peel them), all different kinds of melons, summer squash, zuchini, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, even the leafy tops of the celery, romaine lettuce and this is just the fresh stuff I can think of off the top of my head.
Of course they only get a little of one or the other for a treat not as a food source.
Plus there are a number of other things they like for treats too like bread, stale rolls, muffins, raisins, animal crackers, popcorn, etc.
My goats must sound like little piggies to all of you! hahahaha! they seem like it to me sometimes too!