The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: langdon on May 02, 2010, 08:46:50 pm
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can goats drink rain water that has been collected.
:goat:
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Personally I would not give water out of a but to an animal to drink, only plants. Have you seen the buggies that live in rainwater tanks? yukky little things. Mine get water buckets and they wont drink out even of them if a bird has pood in them, super fussy or what!
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most people will probably be shocked but my dad lives on a tiny island in tasmania and loads of people drink the rain water. And no one has died...yet!
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My dogs rather drink rain water than tap! never had any ill effects! and my sow wees in her wallow and sometimes drinks that!!
If its collected into a clean container thats regualrly cleaned out, then I dont see why not?
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Sorry, I forgot to reply to this.
I don't see why not, as long as there is a good flow of rainwater. Ie, if it doesn't rain for 2 weeks in the summer, the water in the butt may start going a bit green and yucky- I wouldn't give them that!
We did use to have a barrel- an open top one that just sat underneath the end of the downpipe, and we used to give water from that to the males. No ill effects- and the goats always preferred the water better from our field which was partially rain water.
Beth
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All my animals usually have water from the well at the side of the road. The tap water here has a lot of lime in it, so I think they prefer the more natural sort!! As to rain water, I have a tub which collects water from the drainspouts, and I have seen the goats drinking that water. If its clean and fresh, I cannot see why not.
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thank you!
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there you go! many replys with a good report, just what i wanted to hear ;D
i dont have a butt, what i have is an open plastic large basin/sink type thing which i power wash when needed and never give them
any water when it has horrible bits in.
so ther you are, get yourself a container and use that water! ;)
langdon :goat:
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Similar to what I have Langdon - and Cain and Abel have been drinking from that source probably 5 years, and are still here. I think we have to give our animals credit for knowing whether the water is good enough to drink. Like I said, mine have a choice of well water, and rain water, but the rain water is always taken, so it must be ok!!