# How often do you feed your goats?



## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

When the does are not milking do you feed them once or twice a day?


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## Jo~* (Oct 26, 2007)

Hi there, its me JoAnn we been playing tag the last few days. LOL 
I feed my girls once a day when not milking. They always have some grass and spruce needles to pick at out in their field so I know they aren't going hungry. They think they are because they are always standing at the gate looking in my window.
JoAnn.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I check the feeders and water troughs twice a day usually but if I am going to be out, then I just do it just once a day, making sure that I fill the feeders and water troughs with enough to last all day and night. When the does are dry, I take that time to be more social with family and friends, staying out later than normal, etc. When kidding season hits, everyone knows my family will be leaving early from social functions!


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I do chores on all the livestock 3 times a day-0830, 1330 and 2330. They get hay and oats/alfalfa pellets 0830 and 2330. At 1330 they get hay and soaked beet pulp. Water 0830 and topped off when needed during the other 2 rounds. I have no area for grazing/browsing so if they get any its because I dragged the weeds or downed branches to them during the growing season.

Because I don't have much land, all my does are in together. I feed them all at the same time, so all my goats (lactating, dry or growing or bucks) get fed 3 times a day. 

If it's bitterly cold, they get an extra feeding of hay.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

24/7 alfalfa/grass hay and fed once in the AM until does are 100 days pregger. Then they start getting bumped up everyday until kidding. Bucks and juniors also get tummy fuel.
Tam


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I feed in the evening. If I have time I feed hay am and pm. If not I pile extra hay at the pm, to get them through the next day. I like to see full rumen when it is time for the grain feeding. I do not feed on the milk stand.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

I put out Chaffhaye (or alfalfa pellets when I was feeding them) for everyone once a day. 

Grass hay out 24/7. 

My does aren't dry long, usually only 2 months. I have 1 dry doe who will be a 2nd freshener and she's in great weight so she gets nothing but Chaffhaye & grass hay. My older doe Ginger is dry & gets 1 small bowl of grain once a day just because I'd like her to have a lil more weight before she freshens again...

My Jr does get unlimited Chaffhaye, grain twice a day.... 

Since it's rut & my buck is thin, he's getting a bit of grain once a day too...


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## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

Oh boy, between ignorance of feeding and ignorance of breeding I feel lost. I have been feeding like always, 2x day, I could have been sleeping in, s----t. I don't want to upset them right now (I have a buck in with them ) and for 30 when they breed, I guess I will keep this up until they freshen and dry off. I hope that by next year I will have asked all the right questions, LOL. Thanks for putting up with me. Dorit


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

Our does only get grain when being Milked at 6am and 6 PM.. Once they are dried off my feeding schedule changes a bit but it really doesn't matter when I go down. We keep the hay feeders full of alflafa and they are big enough so they have access 24x7 and are never empty.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Dorit, you are asking great questions! And in a few years, it will be old hat and you'll have your own way of doing things. Most of us don't do things exactly like anyone else but our goats thrive. I think the most important thing is keeping some sort of roughage out all the time so their bellies don't get empty, and not changing anything too quickly.


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## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

Thank you for making me feel better. I always have peanut hay and alfalfa pellets out, I think they are 10 pounds overweight, so I am, in fact, cutting back on grain and BOSS, beetpulp and oats. BTW do people soak their beet pulp? Ive been mixing it in with oats and BOSS


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I only feed beet pulp when I'm trying to get them to gain weight. I have fed it soaked and not.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I only feed it to get them to gain weight, also. My goats act like beet pulp is poison if its wet. LOL So I only feed it dry.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I go out to the barn morning and night. If a doe isn't milking or 100 days pregnant there is no grain to feed. More alfalfa pellets are added each time I go out if they are needed, I walk by waterers, I won't start feeding hay until after the first frost they have plenty of browse. If I am not milking I do walk through each pen and touch each goat, and unless rushed at least lean on the fence and talk to the boys and see if I can watch each of them walk around and pee. Vicki


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

That is a good routine Vicki - I hope no one thought that I didn't go down to the barn once we stopped milking - it's just that I don't have to be down there at 6 and 6 - a twice a day check of everything is still done - just not on as strict of a schedule.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Sorry Ziggy I didn't even read the other responses. Vicki


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Mine love wet beet pulp and refuse to eat it dry! I feed it during the late fall, winter and early spring when its cold. It adds extra calcium, calories and moisture.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Sully-have you tried giving them the shredded beet pulp or just the pellets. Mine will not eat pellets (wet or dry), but they love the shreds. Beet pulp is pretty cheap where I live, because there are a lot of sugar beets and sugar factories around here, so I feed it in their grain year 'round. In winter, when the grass is dead &/or they are dry and not getting grain, I give 'em some extra BP for roughage and keeping the furnace going (that and dried leaves ).

(Off topic, but funny story. We went to get barley from the farmer we buy it from, and he was driving a beet truck that day-when they harvest the beets, the trucks are driving all day back and forth farm to the pick up site. I noticed several of them along the way, and they all drove like maniacs! They are busy busy busy I guess during harvest and trying to get it done as quickly as possible. My husband grew up around here and he said the warning was always not to get hit by any beet trucks. Or, "Your going to live to be 100, so long as you don't get run over by a beet truck." Hehe. They are pretty scary though...).


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

I feed 1 time a day in the evening when I check and look them all over, They do have grass, brouse and brush and when it rains they have hay and feed in the afternoon as they are spoiled.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Everyone is fed twice per day. Hay and fresh water. Right now, all goats get fed grain 2x/day, although the ration may differ between the bucks and milkers and kids. Milkers get grain on the milkstand. When we dry off the milkers, no grain, but still hay 2x/day (which, like Ziggy is essentially hay 24/7). Out of rut, bucks will get no grain, but a grass/alfalfa hay 2x/day (again, essentially hay 24/7). The kids will continue to get grain until they kid at a little over a year old.


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## VictoriaK (Jul 8, 2012)

I am a late night type of a goatie lady..I learned early on, unless milking, the girls are fine with a nicely filled hay feeder, and fresh water till evening. I usually mosey out after supper, and fill that hay feeder, and milk. The does that are not milking get a portion of alfalfa, and a nice butt scratchin. THis is when the weather is good to fair. 
When it's blowing ice, snow or just plain frigid through about 1/2 of the year, I give warm water and extra alfalfa twice to three times a day. There are usually three to four weeks of cold where I am out three times a day breaking ice, and checking on coats, etc...I have a sweet little trash burning stove in my milking parlor, so during winter months, I go out earkly and start a little fire, so when I do milk I am not freezing my face off. The doaties love it too, I usually spend hours reading and playing with the does. I worried the 1st year I had the stove that it wouldn't be good for the does to be in a warm milking parlor, but they love it, warm up, get milked, and go back outside. So far (3 years) no prolems. It was either the trash burner, or I was gonna bring them in my kitchen to milk...=) I am a bit of a sissy....anyways, thats how I feed heehee


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

Yes - heat is nice. We have natural gas to the barn for the water heater so I also added in one of those wall type natural gas heaters in the milking parlor. I keep it set at about 40 degrees in the winter and it doesnt require any electricity so I don't need to worry about pipes ever freezing and it can easily heat the room up to 70 in just a couple of minutes. The problem is just like when I have the AC on in the summersometimes they don't want to go back out.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

One doe in milk gets 1/2 lb grain twice a day in milk stand. 
5 other does get grain each evening (about 1/2 lb each feeding). 
Retired pygmy doe gets about a handful of grain in evening, enough to shut her up  - she's a fatty.
Buck get 1/2 lb twice a day right now during rut. 
Does are turned out in daytime, several acres of good grazing/browse/woods and fresh spring for them.
My feeding/milking schedule is 9 am/8 pm. I'm a bit lazier than most 

I use a blue plastic feed scoop from TSC...I *think* it's about a 1 lb scoop?


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Since we've got winter pasture coming in I'm trying not to feed hay in the mornings....getting those girls out to graze is not the easiest thing in the world. LOL. All the girls get grain in the evenings at milking time. Everyone is either a young doe kid, or a milker, or a milker feeding a young doe kid so they all get grain. I do have one fat alpine in with them that had a cloudburst pregnancy this year...I don't have an individual stall for her or she would not get any grain at all. Hoping to get her bred and settled ASAP. I am only milking once a day, in the evening. Their pasture is about 30 feet from my front door and I can see them out of all the windows on that side of the house which is SOOOO much better than when they were in the back paddock and I couldn't see them unless I went outside. 

The bucks get hay twice a day, good clover and orchard grass hay plus some plain old grass hay. Their pasture is greening up and coming in also, but I just got the horses off of it about a month ago so I can't count on it for all their forage needs just yet. No grain for them. 

I planted a lot of winter rye and barley in both pastures this fall and it's about 5 inches tall in some places now. Not as thick as I'd like to see, but it's getting there.


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