[SunnySal]

Hi Everyone

I’m new to this site although I have been reading for a while.

I have 3 female pygmy goats, and a rescue xbreed, all 2 years old. They are my first goats. They eat the pygmy goat mix from the Smallholder Range. Yesterday one stopped eating the mix, she shows no interest in it at all. She is eating hay & forage and acting normally – apart from not eating the mix. It was a new bag last Monday so she has eaten it for a week. The only change to their regular routine is they were vaccinated on Wednesday. She is and always has been the bottom of the pecking order.

Should I be getting her vet checked?

Thank you

[fiestyredhead331]

hi SunnySal 

i don't have pygmy goats just big ones but I wouldn't be too worried unless she shows sign of weight loss or loses condition, lethergy etc.
I'm sure another pygmy keeper will come along and give you some advice

[Lesley Silvester]

  and welcome to the forum.


Do you feed them separately with their own buckets or all together? Are the others stopping her from getting any? If not, I agree with fiestyredhead. I do only have dairy goats though but I would have thought the same applied.


Someone else should be along soon. Plenty of pygmy goat owners on here.

[SunnySal]

Thank you for your replies. They have their own bowls which I spread out but they still swap over. She did eat a little bit of mix this morning but left the bowl and went off to the fresh hay in the hay rack. She seems totally normal and alert.

[plumseverywhere]

Mine (also dairy) are anchored to their own bowls by means of a lead at feed times. It means that little Puffin who is bottom of the pecking order gets to eat all of her own feed and stops the others pushing her out.

Have you tried adding something like caprivite to it? not only will you get some minerals but the taste is appealing to them and might encourage her to eat her rations? How are her stools? she's not runny at all?

[Anke]

If these are not milking goats and are out on grass/branches during the day and get hay/haylage or cut grass/branches at night time - they won't need any concentrate at all!

Maybe a bit of soaked sugar beet shreds, but at this time of year they will be fine without additional feed - unless they are growing youngsters and/or in-milk (raising their kids on them or being milked at least once per day).

[plumseverywhere]

If these are not milking goats and are out on grass/branches during the day and get hay/haylage or cut grass/branches at night time - they won't need any concentrate at all!

Maybe a bit of soaked sugar beet shreds, but at this time of year they will be fine without additional feed - unless they are growing youngsters and/or in-milk (raising their kids on them or being milked at least once per day).

Oh yeah!! good point!!  I'm so geared towards milking goats i don't think outside of the box sometimes, good thinking Anke