Feeding Pellets

[dutch007]

I've fed goats on fine timothy before and haven't had problems with waste as long as I'm not feeding too much. I say cut their ration way down and see what happens. Goats tend to waste 1st cutting alfalfa because of the stems, but 2nd cutting is usually plenty fine enough for goats who still have their teeth. I only started getting late cutting alfalfa when my old goat Cuzco stopped being able to chew stems a couple of years ago. The type of hay they waste most is anything brown. I've found they'll happily eat weedy hay but not brown, dry hay.

One thing grass hay does not have is enough calcium. This is where alfalfa or alfalfa pellets are important. These contain the calcium your goats need to grow properly and absorb their other minerals. So while I don't recommend feeding them an exclusive diet of alfalfa pellets, I definitely recommend it as a daily supplement if you're feeding grass hay. I feed my old goat Cuzco about 2 cups of alfalfa pellets every morning and every evening, but he gets a lot because he can't eat much else. Younger goats who are eating other hay should probably get about 1/2 or even a 1/4 of that--maybe 1 or 2 cups/day as a supplement to their regular diet. Maybe try feeding alfalfa pellets in the morning and hay at night. If they've been wasting half their hay, then cut their ration in half and see what happens. They probably don't need as much as you're giving and this invites them to waste it.

With 3, 2 year olds and a 6 six, how many leafs of hay would you give them per day? I generally just fill the feeder when it is empty