Feeding Our Mini Dairy Goats

We prefer to feed all of our animals as healthfully and naturally as possible. We avoid most commercial feeds because they are usually full of soy, GMO's, by-products, chemicals and other questionable ingredients. We drink the milk from our goats and eat the eggs from our chickens so we don't want this stuff passed on to us. Furthermore we want our animals to live a long and healthy life and we feel that avoiding certain feed stuffs will help them do so.

All of our goats get:

Free choice alfalfa hay. Some Orchard Grass or forage hay for variety.
Free choice loose minerals (NOT blocks - goats can’t lick/chew them well) - we use and recommend Crafts-MIN from Grass Farmer Supply. It’s all organic, really high in Copper and Selenium, which are very deficient where we live, and also contains Icelandic Kelp and a lot of other great ingredients. (If you can’t get CraftsMin then Sweetlix Magnum Milk or Meat Maker is our second choice and available at most feed stores. We do NOT recommend the Manna Pro mineral from TS. It's not well balanced and our goats wouldn’t even touch it!)
Trimmings from our non-poisonous trees

Grain:
We don't feed much grain since goats are ruminants and get most of what they need from high our quality alfalfa (and grass or forage) hay and free choice loose Crafts-Min minerals. Roughage (hay, trees, etc), not grain, is what makes milk and keeps goats healthy, so that's the foundation of their diet, while the minerals balance everything out. We do give some grain to does on the milk stand. Our bucks don’t get any grain. Grain is not good for male goats as most grains are high in phosphorus and can cause urinary calculi! Please, don’t feed your male goats grain, especially pet wethers. It can lead to a very sad end. (Alfalfa is ok for bucks and wethers as it actually helps prevent UC. Just don’t overfeed it or they can get too fat!) We have not found a need to feed our bucks grain even during breeding season because they get everything they need from alfalfa hay and CraftsMin loose minerals.

We don't like to use commercial feeds because of all the GMO's, soy, etc. We also refuse to use any feed that doesn’t use a fixed formula. Therefore we feed either whole oats or rolled barley or both to does on the milk stand, nursing does and kids and as an occasional treat to dry does. Sometimes we add a little BOSS (Black oil sunflower seed) for variety.

Electrolytes: when it’s really hot out we give electrolytes to keep the goats hydrated, especially does in milk and young kids. Our brand of choice is Sheep and Goat BlueLite, which we get at Premier 1.

Treats: We use DuMOR grass hay pellets or Manna Pro Saddle Snacks horse treats as a treat and the goats and horses love them. If you see the goats or horses mugging my pockets they are looking for these treats! ☺️

To learn how we feed our baby goats go here.

High quality alfalfa hay is the basis of our goats' diet and we go through a lot of it!

CraftsMin loose organic minerals balance out the hay and keep our herd healthy!

Yummy treats for our goats!

Electrolytes keep goats hydrated and boost milk production on really hot days!