# Is it ok to feed goats pumpkins? how?



## nuzmom

We have some pumpkins leftover from our garden. Are pumpkins safe to feed to goats? The whole thing - seeds and all? Do you cut it up or just give them the whole thing to chew on?
Thanks for any help!


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## Epona142

My husband throws them high into the air.

They explode upon impact.

Then the goats gobble it down.

:rofl

They love it, it's supposed to be a natural dewormer, and it has never caused any harm.

Of course, my goats get a wide variety of produce. Hubby manages a grocery store.


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## hsmomof4

They will probably love them. I would just cut them into big chunks, and if they are not used to that sort of thing, give them just a bit at a time...depending on how many goats you have, you might give them one pumpkin to share, and feed more another day.


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## buckrun

Our more vigorous foragers will take care of pumpkins without help but we take a cleaver to them and do bite sized pieces to avoid that choking it down as fast as we can thing. 
The seed coats of the pumpkin seeds contain a de-wormer that is effective in single stomach animals like rabbits but I am not so sure about anything in ruminants except the high levels of zinc boosting immune function which can help with some stages of some parasites and pumpkin seed oil is a terrific source of omegas. Any squash will be palatable and safe for goats.


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## Hearts In Dixie

We raise extra garden produce every year to give the does some extra treats for nutritional benefits. We usually just throw the pumpkins down hard onto the ground causing them to split open. The does and bucks go crazy for them. I just gutted 19 pumpkins today using the shells with silhouettes cut into them for decoration at my son's wedding rehearsal tomorrow night. My does ate and ate until they had to nap and rest then came back for the rest. 

Marla


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## NubianSoaps.com

And here we all thought that our throwing pumpkins into the air and letting them smash was just something peculiar to only our families  Watermelons come to mind also! Goats love them. And if you are lucky you can have all your friends and family bring all their pumpkins also...my goats will not eat, even cut up the little mini pumpkins I decorate with.


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## tendermeadowsnigerians

We toss all our leftover pumpkins in to the pasture, the horses to a great job of smashing them and the goats enjoy the treat. The only down side is I now have pumpkins growing all over my pasture from the horses eating the seeds and "deopsiting" them everywhere!


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## milkmaidranch

Well, we all learn something no matter how old we get. I do give them watermellons but now I will do the pumpkins also. This has been interesting.


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## mysacrificenubians

I guess my goats are weird... They barely touch fresh produce I give them. We had an abundance of watermelon this year and they didn't touch one. Gave them a pumpkin about a week ago and again they just looked at it. 

Years ago when I had pygmy goats, they would try just about anything. My husband was handing out peppers and one was a chili or jalapeno. My doe gobbled it up and then the poor thing was screaming, mouth open and tongue out.


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## nuzmom

thank you so much for all your replies. I'm slightly concerned about them choking and was wondering if I needed to cut a pumpkin up first, but I think I'll just take a pumpkin and smash it in their pasture.  If I see any "concerns", I'll just remove it.


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## ellie

Re Kathleen's comment...I read a study in 
"Wool and Wattles" once many years ago about testing what goats would eat that was unusual and they concluded that people-raised goats were far more open to trying new produce/products to eat than dam raised goats. Makes sense since the new stuff comes from people, if they are trusting of people they're more likely to think it's a goodie.


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## nuzmom

Ellie - that's really interesting.
Here's how it went with us today...
I gave my gals the pumpkin. Smashed it open and showed it to them. Sunny (the older one) wasn't that interested. She's a bottle raised, HOUSE RAISED, very friendly doe. Her daughter, Honey (dam raised and very friendly) was thrilled to have the pumpkin. Eventually, they both ate the pumpkin but Honey was first and most enthusiastic.


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## Epona142

Most of my does are dam raised and most will eat just about anything. There's a couple who are more picky, but they were dam raised as well.


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## buckrun

Well they didn't test my dam raised goats. They eat out of the garden from day one and watch mom chase us for garden goods -just try to get to the house from the garden with out getting mobbed. They know the sound of a chainsaw from acres away. I guess they tested wild pasture raised animals that had no human contact? We have pavlov goats. They know the back door- the gate- the car door- the truck coming down the gravel road- the clippers coming off the rack- the scoop hitting the bottom of a bucket- the gate to the stanchion opening. I mean you cannot pull one thing on these goats that they do not associate with food and they are all dam raised - 5 generations. I guess they qualify as people raised.


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## mysacrificenubians

It was a struggle for me to get them to eat an animal cracker for goodness sakes! They would smell it and show no interest. I forced it in their mouth and tried to keep them from spitting it out! I finally had to crumble them up into dust and slowly put larger pieces in their feed. Same thing with Tums, spinach, greens, etc. I have always fixed them a little oatmeal and Karo for a treat after they kid and only one will touch it. 
Although, I used to have one that would suck the Cydectin right out of the bottle if she could. Once they saw I had the wormer out, everyone else ran, but she thought it was a treat! 
I told you my goats are WEIRD!


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## nuzmom

Kathleen - "weird" sounds so harsh, hmm, let's just say "picky".  I guess they just know what they like and don't like. I'm new to all of this, but my girls seem to be a little slow to try something, but if I leave it accessible long enough, they'll end up digging right in. I think they actually like some variety.
They're all such individuals, huh.


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## Hearts In Dixie

Our herd loves Christmas trees also. We have bought a real tree for the past nine years decorating it carefully to make sure we wouldn't leave any ornaments or tree hangers on it when we undressed it. When the tree comes down the does get their Christmas present.

Marla


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## Drycreek goats

Mine have no Problem eating the garden when they break in but kinda pickey other wise.HEHE.Tammy


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