Feeding Goats Acorns

[CarolynRenee]

We've had a bumper crop of acorns & I've been feeding them handfulls of them at every feeding. I've also started collecting them in bags & figured I'd freeze them for a few days to kill any bugs in them. I'd like to have enough to keep them in acorns for a few months during the winter.

I'm wondering how much I can give them with their feed. Do you think they'd just eat "enough"? Anyone else supplement their goat's food with acorns?

I figure if they fatten up the "wild" pigs & the deer get fat off them, shouldn't it work for goats?

[Backfourty,MI.]

I just seen it but haven't read the thread yet but on the next page there is a thread titled (I think) "Acorns poisonous to goats".

[coso]

Mine are eating them like crazy right now off the ground, they are falling like crazy. I lost a doeling one year to bloat. She was being a pig with the acorns and compacted. But as far as being fatal, all of mine would be dead if they were. Acorns will cause a loss of production in milk also, something about the tannins I believe. I have read that if that is all they have to eat that the tannins can effect there kidneys and cause big problems. So to answer the question. Yes, they are toxic but not deadly unless there are other things going on.