Copper question

[Ruby]

I was reading where you could put copper pennies in the goats water for copper supplement. How many would need to be put in there. We have a 15 to 20 gal. water tank.

Also would a piece of copper pipe work just as well? We got them a mineral block a month or so back but it had limited copper so it could alse be used for sheep. Where could we get the copper rods I read about. Our TSC don't carry them.

[GoldenWood Farm]

I have no clue about pennies or copper rods but the copper bolus I order online. You can get it at like Jeffers and Hoeggers as well I am sure at other online farm places. Also there is a few people on here who sell already made up copper boluses ready to give to the goats.

Justine

[eclipchic]

Would just pennies or copper in water leach or would it need an acid to break it down?

[Donna1982]

Some how mine would eat the pennies lol. Also mineral blocks dont really work for a goat. Loose is better.

[prairiedog]

better to just bolus and get it done with

[CarolT]

The copper on pennies doesn't break down very well or ones in goldfish pools would dissolve, same with pipe, how long would water lines last if they leached constantly?Better to just order the bolus and do it that way

[Alice In TX/MO]

Bolus. It works.

Imagine all the pennies that spend YEARS in fountains. They don't dissolve.

[CaliannG]

Not to mention that pennies today are not copper, but mainly zinc that is copper plated.

The copper-plated zinc pennies I have seen break down and leach away. As in, I know for a fact that last year, my cousin accidentally dropped her car ashtray full of pennies in a certain place and decided not to bother with most of them because she was in a hurry. Last week, my foster-daughter came in with a handful of them that she found. We scrubbed the mud off of them and most of them, you couldn't see Lincoln any more.

I do all of it. I have a copper pipe in the water trough, loose minerals free fed, AND I bolus.