Ideas making bucks gain a little.

[Donna1982]

We leave for the buck show in Neosho Mo in a few weeks and my boys look like thin crappy former selves. I moved them away from the girls pen and plan on putting trailers in their view so they can't see them so hopefully it will help with the fence running. They have free choice hay, free choice beet pulp and they get 18 % goat pellets twice a day (about 4 lbs) and they still look to thin for my liking. So any ideas? I know this time of the year bucks tend to go stupid and not eat much and run what they had eaten off because of pretty girls but this is the first year I had to deal with this.

[southerngurl]

What's the fat percent in the feed? All I can think of is adding some fat. You don't want too much though. Other than that keeping parasites down of course. Also, reducing the protein in the feed may help if the hay is high quality. Protein speeds up the metabolism.

[mygoat]

How old are these bucks? How many do you have? Are they housed together? Do they just not have good capacity (fill) or are they truly skinny? I can't imagine any animal being skinny on the diet you described, lol.

[Donna1982]

They aren't like bone thin but these boys run the fence all day long. All three are together and have been since they were little. There is two seniors in there will be 2 in January and a buckling who will be a year in November. Here's a few photos.

[Donna1982]

Sorry the pictures are sideways I have no idea why they are.