Need some goat food advice

[vidpro23]

new to goats (3 months) When brought home my first girls the breeder told me they had been eating Tucker Goat food and to continue with that. easy enough to get at local feed store for 13.99 a 50 lb bag. all good.

When I go back the other day she asks if im still feeding. yes. then asks if my black goats are getting reddish in coat. yes. So she tells me to change that she didn't realize there wasn't any copper in the feed. And order a copper supplement which I did. but she changed to Noble goat medicated feed and I don't want to go medicated for no reason (I milk one) so I have been looking for new feed. Any suggestions that don't break the bank? (have only a local feed store and Tractor Supply). Another feed store I went to was trying to sell me a deer feed Sportsman record rack 20% or something but I don't know the price.

I did notice that the Alfalfa Oat that I feed the rescue horse has 35ppm copper and the goats really like that ( but 4% lower in protein) Should I continue with the Tucker and mix in the alfalfa oat or other suggestions?

thank you

[mygoat]

Copper for goats is difficult because they do need quite a bit of it. The feeds likely will not adequately supply them with the copper requirements. The best way to supply copper is in a free choice LOOSE mineral mix, preferably with fairly low salt and high copper. Quality goat minerals are available (I use sweetlix magnamilk) and many people use a quality cattle mineral (Right Now Onyx). A loose mineral is ESSENTIAL for good nutrition for many aspects, only one of which is copper.

On top of the loose minerals, I also give copper boluses at least 2x per year. This is long lasting copper oxide rods that lodge in the gut and allow copper absorption for about 3 months. I personally give it 1 mon pre-breeding as well as 1 mon pre-kidding. I give it an additional time mid-lactation if necessary.

[Alice In TX/MO]

35 ppm is nothing.

[vidpro23]

I do offer free choice minerals and baking soda and getting the bolus copper supplement delivered by the weekend

[Alice In TX/MO]

Sounds great!

[mygoat]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

35 ppm is nothing.

Yes, but they are eating a LOT more of a feedstuff than they are of a mineral. A feed with as high of copper as a mineral mix would be deadly. The 'dose' for a mineral is like a teaspoon/day, wheras most people feed a few pounds of feed to lactating animals.

[copperpennykids]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

35 ppm is nothing.

Actually, that is an appropriate level in a grain mix.

For a mineral most of us are looking for 2500-3500 ppm. And then of course there is the quality of the copper - organic chelated copper is top choice.

[Buckles]

How do you know if your goats are getting enough copper? Are their side effects to low copper?

My goats are kept with my dairy cows and I have a mineral block, primarily for the cows but I have seen the goats lick it. It is mostly salt, copper and iron if memory serves.

[billinwv]

Get the Noble Goat Dairy. The DQ is the medicated for young stock.

[Buckles]

This might be a really stupid question but I feed my goats sweet feed twice a day, morning and evening. I try to get around 5 pounds (3-4 cups) of feed at each feeding for my mating buck and females which are always either pregnant or being milked. Young bucks and young females not in milk or breeding I do half that.

They are in large fields with a lot of brush and some pasture grass but don't appear to each much of brush or grass. Girls and boys are separated into their own fields but each easily have 2-3 acres.

Should I also be providing hay for them? Would they need to be supplemented with anything else? They just seem to always be crazy hungry and sometimes thin. I try to worm as needed but give them a preventative worming supplements which seems to keep them clear, and they have a large area to move around in, although they keep to one place.