am I feeding enough?
I got my first 2 goats at the beginning of April and it’s been a steeep learning curve. 2 Nigerian dwarf does, when I got them one was in milk and the other was dried off recently.
I spent agggges looking at goats, visiting breeders, etc and these 2 looked great when I picked them up. drove them home in the back of the car 2 hour drive and within a week of being at our place the milker had lost so much weight. I drenched her, dried her off and upped their feed.
after 14 days their famacha score was still pale so I got the vet out to run tests and turns out they had liver fluke AND barbers pole. so I’ve drenched them for that and will do FEC again soon.
my vet says it takes 6 weeks to put on 1 body condition score but I just want to make sure I’m feeding them enough as a first time goat owner, especially as one of our does is like a body condition score of 2 (too skinny)
they eat better when they’re sharing a bowl of food, so each morning and night i give them a bowl of feed and this is what I put in: 1 cup of pellets (min 16% protein), a handful of cracked lupins, a handful or two of rollled oats. They often try to eat around the pellets and just get the oats 🫣
they have free choice lucerne hay plus free choice grass hay like Rhodes or barley hay
plus I give them a variety of branches (which they are so picky about) and banana leaves (which they LOVE)
they also have free choice minerals and free choice bi-carb
They have grass in their pasture but I rarely see them grazing
they are both dried off now and needing to gain condition, I want to breed them when they are fully healthy and get them in milk again, they are beloved pets though so their health is priority, and also I take them for a walk each day around our farm/forest trails they are realy beautifully lead trained and love it.