The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Thrift Bee on February 06, 2014, 08:30:48 am
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With the help of you lovely people here, Bramble and Buster are happy healthy rapidly growing kids. Dairy nuts doesn't seem right for the kids. Our local farm feed store suggessted calf rearer which seems reasonable.
How can i possibly leave out food for the little ones that Mum and Granny won't snaffle first?
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We give calf weaner mixed with a bit of rolled barley and soaked sugar beet , youngster tend to sample mums food in small portions as they want to, gradually they will start to eat more and more, they normally start sampling hay first , you can try a creep feeder later on but might find you are wasting more food than they eat.
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Agree with Tiz - whatever you feed to the Mum's the kids will start to sample and eat more and more. My first lot of pygmy kids just under 4 weeks old are in mums feed bucket at feed time (in fact they sleep in there too) and activly eating. I feed sheep crunch as we can't get Dairy nuts here so it's is smaller and some very small bit in it.
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iv fed harbro calf rearer to all my goats with no problems. beef stock nuts are a bit cheaper though.
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My girls eat sheep crunch, but the kid didn't really eat anything until about 2 months old - she just fiddled about a bit with in her mouth and didn't really have anything meaningful - just make sure they eat enough or are still getting enough milk esp as their bones are growing.
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I don't buy anything special. They just eat whatever is there for the others. It's only hay for the first few weeks then they start to investigate concentrates.