Feeding Pregnant does.....now I'm confused....

[savingdogs]

So I've been doing a lot of research regarding my goats and have some that are due mid-February, their first time.
In some of the things I have read, they discussed taking them off of alfalfa during the last month of pregnancy and first month of lactation to avoid ketosis.

I had been feeding an alfalfa/orchard mix and switched them over already to high quality grass hays/Timothy, they love it. I do supplement with grain and have always fed them a little alfalfa pellets with the grain because they like it. They had been getting a couple cups each of the alfalfa pellets (they are minis).

I have also been reading about this wobbly kid syndrome thing....and one article I was reading (written by a vet) said that removing alfalfa from the diet contributed to that, especially if the kids were born late in the season. Mine will be early, but still....

Should I keep giving them some of the alfalfa pellets through their last month and stick to the Timothy? I had planned to give them straight hay and grain those two months, but that article has made me unsure as to the proper thing to feed. I would like to use Timothy hay if possible because of my other livestock.

As with all things goat, there seems to be too many opinions, especially "over there".....and I want the frugal, self sufficient method of doing this, so I ask it here of you guys.

 

[Javamama]

I have heard alot of different opinions too and I'm just going to feed what I have - I give them grass mix in the day and alfalfa at night. My only reason for feeding this way is because they don't waste as much of the grass as they do the alfalfa, and they actually seem to prefer the grass. I bought grass bales and alfalfa bales for no reason other than it sounded good at the time
The breeder I got them from fed alfalfa only, all the time for all the goats. Her goats looked great and she didn't have any problems with kidding.
As long as the hay is good quality, I'm not sure it really matters too much before kidding. After kidding, I think the alfalfa helps with milk supply.

I'm going to start feeding raspberry leaf in the last month - that's a good all around toner for the uterus. Good for people and animals! I already have that on had because I use it myself. I also give sunflower seeds and kelp and an herbal copper/selenium mix every couple days. I buy my herbals from Kat at FIRMeadow. She's got great stuff.


I think wobbly kid thing is due to selenium deficiency in the soil. And it's a regional thing, which I know I need to watch for. I'm going to be reading up on that stuff soon. I have selenium gel and the B vitamins and supplies for everything else that might be needed at that time just in case.

 

[savingdogs]

We do have a problem with enough selenium here.....

 

[FarmerChick]

www.tennesseemeatgoats.com

go to right side
find articles on Health/Nutrition/Management Articles

every single thing you ever wanted to know about a goat from the hair to the hoof to the guts and feeding etc is in this site

I learned goats from this site and have been in the biz over 12 years now. hope it helps you

 

[Blackbird]

In goats, ketosis/pregnancy toxemia is usually caused by the babies requiring and using up too much protein and energy than the doe can provide. It doesn't make sense to me to stop feeding good quality alfalfa when they need it most. We save our best quality hay and alfalfa for the 5 months of pregnancy.

Restricting foods that have beneficial properties can very well lead to health issues, I'm not sure alfalfa has that high of a selenium amount, but what you can do is feed a little BOSS (black out sunflower seeds) which is high in selenium and helps with hooves, skin, and hair/fur. It makes their coats nice and sleek and shiny!

Our first doe we lost to ketosis. The buck got in with her when we didn't want her bred, so the week she was due, it was down to -60. She was off that morning, we had the vet out who was of little help (not much he could do anyway) and the doe was gone by noon. We cut her open to try to save her triplets but it was too late (two bucklings and a doeling), she was three days away from her due date. We were still fairly new to goats at the time, but in that case her body couldn't handle the demands of her kids all while trying to keep warm.

 

[savingdogs]

I do already feed BOSS, that is the favored treat around here. I'm glad to hear that it is good for them.

So Blackbird, you would have me go back to alfalfa, even though I'm feeding alfalfa pellets?

I also have a wether in with them. He does not get their grain but does eat the same hay. We currently give him a little bit of alfalfa pellets since we are feeding grass hay.

Is timothy not considered a good quality hay for goats during pregnancy?

 

[Blackbird]

Some people feed alfalfa pellets as their main diet of legumes and browse... Not to be confused with grain pellets.

I just don't think that feeding alfalfa will induce or help ketosis. I would need to see some more proof I think. It is true that alfalfa will help them to produce more milk, as milk production uses up a lot of those nutrients that would go towards their body, but their lactation would hinder before their overall health, in the case of a life threatening issue coming along.

I don't see anything wrong with feeding both pellets and timothy hay - but keep in mind, I have no experience in timothy hay, we can't get that up here. We buy alfalfa pellets if they are on sale and really cheap just to stock up just in case, but buying alfalfa by the bale is much cheaper so that is what we usually do.

For your wether it is important to maintain a 2-1 calcium to phosphorous ratio. Feeding a wether high quality alfalfa or too much grain with the wrong balance can lead to urinary calculi. Those molasses covered pellet and corn grains are absolutely great if you want your wether to get it! LOL
What we occasionally do with our wether's grain is we add a light frosting of ammonium chloride, this changes the acidic content of the urine to prevent stones. We found out the hard way, believe me!

I'm not sure of the exact dosage at the top of my head so you would have to look it up somewhere.

 

[ksalvagno]

A lot of people actually feed the alfalfa pellets instead of giving alfalfa hay because of the waste of the alfalfa hay. I don't think that giving alfalfa pellets and timothy hay will hurt. If I remember correctly, you could add some molasses to their water and that is supposed to keep ketosis at bay.

I give BoSe shots. It is a selenium injectable that you get from the vet. I give it along with a CDT shot to the dam 1 month prior to kidding. Then the kids get it a couple days after they are born.

As far as the wether, you could give him hydrangea root twice a week to keep UC away. If he is of Nigerian Dwarf size, you could give him a teaspoon of it. Start out with giving him a teaspoon once a day for a week. Then go to every other day for a week. Then you can go to the twice a week. I give it to my intact boys as well.

 

[savingdogs]

Where do you get hydrangea root, do you grow hydrangea? Or how about ammonium chloride, where do you get that? We have a problem now that the wether thinks we are terribly MEAN that we don't give him grain like the others. We have to be quite pushy and he is very upset. He is usually the biggest pig of the three so he doesn't like us not feeding him what the girls get!

So my plan of giving timothy or other high quality grass hay, combined with a generous ration of alfalfa pellets and a few increasing amounts of grain (goat grain), then adding some molasses to the water the last month, that should work? I was planning on vaccinating the kids but didn't realize I should do the does while pregnant, thanks Karen.

If I could add something that would make it okay for Donald to even have the alfalfa pellets he would be most grateful for your advice.

 

[ksalvagno]

There is a long thread on UC on BYH. Supposedly lots of alfalfa is actually good for wethers. But I don't understand the whole thing and at this point just don't have the time or ambition to really read up on it. I buy the hydrangea root online from an herb place. You want to get c/s and not powder. I don't know much about herbs and I don't even know what c/s stands for. I got a couple of my goats from a goat breeder who is also a certified herbalist and she was the one who told me about the hydrangea root and ordered my first batch of it for me.

You can get ammonium chloride from Jeffers or Hoeggers or Caprine Supply. I do have it on hand but on another forum there was a huge warning about using it. Someone had given too much and killed a couple of her goats from too much copper. So that kind of scared me off from using it.

I use Sweetlix Meatmaker 16:8 loose goat mineral. It has 1750 ppm copper in it and the goats love it. I have also had to copper bolus some of the goats with Copasure. It is copper particles that you put in an empty 00 capsule and shove down their throat. Seemed to work for me. The problem with the Copasure is that is comes in these huge pills that you have to carefully open and then measure out the proper amount for the goats. A friend of mine was told to just use a third of a pill for adult Nigerians and smaller amounts for kids so that is what I did.