Skinny doe hates sweet feed?

Cygnet · #1 01/10/13, 12:55 AM

Fancy -- my 40 pound Nigerian doe -- is getting desperately thin. She's heavily in milk. She's a two year old. I dried her up early as a yearling for the same issue.

This doe has all the alfalfa she can eat right now -- and it's very, very good alfalfa. I just keep throwing more in her pen. She eats until she's as wide as she is tall, but she's milking like a cow right now and she just needs more calories.

She's refusing sweet feed (COB) and has turned her nose up at various pelleted goat feeds, senior horse feed, and even popcorn and potato chips offered as a treat in the past.

Never met a goat that wouldn't eat potato chips ...

Any ideas on what to try to get calories in to her safely? I've tried adding salt.

She'll eat dogfood all day, grr, but that's not safe!

I'm going to keep offering her the grain and see if I can convince her it really is tasty. If I can't get her to eat it, however, the birds will eat well ... I don't have any other animals to feed it to!

(I used to make a rice-crispy-treat like bar out of sweet feed and marshmellows to hide nasty tasting meds in for an old horse. Do you guys think marshmellows would hurt a goat? She likes them, and I'm thinking if I melt some and mix the sweet feed with some, she might eat more.)

I never thought I'd find a picky goat ... much less one who NEEDS to eat more!

Frosted Mini's · #2 01/10/13, 02:20 AM

I wonder if she isn't having some issues with acidosis? The high quality alfalfa, plus molasses laiden sweet feed could do that. I would start by trying to offer her some COB without molasses, or cut the molasses feed with dry COB. Or switch her to whole oats. Some beet pulp would help add in some calories, and being bulky, might help buffer her rumen a bit. This may sound counter-intuitive, but if those things don't help, maybe adding some grass hay to help buffer would help as well. Maybe offer some baking soda to get her over the hump. As a kid, did she have a good coccidiosis and worm prevention program? It seems that cocci stunted animals tend to be more unthrifty.

I would not add more sugar to her diet by giving her marshmellows...it will probably only make things worse. As a treat is fine, but only once in a while, not as a regular part of her diet. She is a small goat, so "little" things like a marshmellow can be pretty significant. (Think about feeding a dachshund a marshmellow vs. feeding a great dane one...the equivalent amount for the great dane would be several marshmellows, just because they eat more total food.)

sammyd · #3 01/10/13, 03:38 AM

I would try rolled or cracked corn by itself or barley

GoatJunkie · #4 01/10/13, 05:04 AM

I had this exact problem with my milk mama. She got so painfully thin that I stopped milking her in the evenings. Once a day she gives me half a gallon now (as opposed to only 3/4 of a gallon before - which my goat experienced friend assured me was not enough to be the problem,) and she started gaining weight immediately.

Along the way I did try switching her food around a bit. I even went so far as to add hot water to her sweet feed and let it sit.... making a warm cereal-like mash that she was almost ready to knock me down at the gate to get. Even this did not put weight on her.

In the end it was only halving her milking that turned her weight loss around. I switched her over to Kruse Equine Advantage Jr as summer hit and it became too stinkin' hot to offer anyone hot cereal for breakfast!

Alice In TX/MO · #5 01/10/13, 07:20 AM

Offering new food is something you need to do SLOWLY. Just putting it out seems to set up their psychological defenses. Add just a tiny bit to their current breakfast. Increase slightly over days/weeks.

DownHome · #6 01/10/13, 12:14 PM

Didn't see any information on her last worming. A heavy worm load or coccidiosis can cause these symptoms too.

downhome

Frosted Mini's · #7 01/10/13, 12:59 PM

Oh, just had a thought. Wonder if adding a little anise (the herb) would encourage feed intake? It is in the product Calf Manna, which my goats go crazy for (and they don't like "off brand" Calf Manna, I think because they don't have anise).

Cygnet · #8 01/10/13, 01:22 PM

She's been wormed. No signs of acidosis. Other than being too thin, she's bright eyed, active, acting like herself.

She ate a little more sweet feed this morning -- maybe she just needs to get used to the idea. (She's been nibbling one or two mouthfuls and walking away. I am offering her about 1/3rd of a cup to start. I know to start slow.)

I may try some plain COB -- good idea to eliminate the molasses. Maybe she just doesn't like it? She'll definitely eat dog food, which salty, has lots of corn in it, and is not sweet. I have to make sure she's penned up when I feed the dogs or she tries to horn in on their food.

**mygoat** · #9 01/10/13, 02:41 PM

Chronic acidosis can cause the exact things you're describing.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in...&word=acidosis

CarolT · #10 01/10/13, 03:09 PM

My Nubian doe snubs anything with molasses in it. She doesn't like fruit much, either, unless it's green (only eats green blackberries). Maybe she just doesn't like sweets?

fishhead · #11 01/10/13, 03:12 PM

Does she have access to baking soda?

CaliannG · #12 01/10/13, 06:10 PM

Try sprinkling a half a cup of baking soda on her sweet feed and mixing it in. If she goes hog wild for it them, her problem is acidosis, and you will need to start keeping baking soda out for her. (It's only about $12 for 50 lbs at the feed store.)

If that turns out to be the case, you will be able to get her to eat nearly anything by sprinkling with baking soda.