bedding for goats

[madwitch]

Hi all
I am about to get a beautiful new goat house in which I hope our hens will also roost. I am currently using straw to bed hens and goats but was wondering about changing to wood shavings. This will make it a lot lighter to clean and will compost better.
I am a bit worried though that the goats may eat the shavings. Obviously I could buy a bag and see but wondered if anyone has any experience of different beddings for goats.
Any tips gratefully received!

[little blue duck]

We use wood shavings (try and get the dust-extracted one, less coughing & sneezing for you and the goats!)
on the floor, then a layer of straw.

they get some shredded paper too - this is really just to play with,its no good as bedding as it sets like, well, papier mache when its wet! It distracts them from eating the wood shavings !

We have a large indoor hay rack ... goats being goats, they soon get bits all over the floor! so I dont put much straw that end.

And often, they scratch the bedding back & lie on the bare floor, or outside...

Do you deep litter? I know lots of goat keepers that do, but personally I think its abit grim, especially if its wet weather.

What breed of goats do you have?

[little blue duck]

But sometimes, with wood shavings, they end up looking like this...

[madwitch]

Thanks for the advice. We have 2 pygmies and they are adorable! They have been fantastic at keeping the foxes away from the hens (touch wood).
My goats do seem to prefer to sleep outside unless it is raining when they are in before the drops hit the ground! The shed is open so that they can choose.
I don't deep litter. I have horses and I keep thinking to give it a go but it just seems so mucky that I cant bring myself to do it. Strangely I also find daily mucking out quite therapeutic - particularly if I can do shavings and it is not so heavy as straw.

[little blue duck]

our billy sleeps out, but rests in the shed when its hot!
we leave the shed open, he'll break the door down sooner than be shut in...

yup, goats don't do rain! Geraldine (in the picture above) will call out, as if its my fault its raining!

[madwitch]

I am also surprised at how little my boys are foraging. The previous owners kept them in a fairly small enclosure on a diet of mix and hay. I have reduced the mix and give no hay as they have an acre of paddock to browse. They do not seem to want to forage at all though, they will eat bits if I 'show' them but otherwise stand at the gate yelling when they are hungry. Is this normal? should I reduce the feed further to encourage a little more self sufficiency?

[little blue duck]

I'd say...
*reduce the mix a little. (If they are not milking goats, they don't need as much from it & boys can get urinary probs from too rich foods) I can't tell oyu the recommended amount for pygmies off the top of my head, but I'll get banck to you!
* don't cut back the hay, make it available ad-lib. Its the best thing for them & can help reduce digestive problems. And fresh forage has a huge water content which their digestive system will waste time removing rather than getting the benefit from the food.
* reduce the area they have to forage. Then you can give them fresh pasture when they've eaten through one space, and your paddock will have chance to recover. More appreciated in winter!
*spread the feed mix across the paddock area - they'll smell it out and search for it. (they probably won't eat it off the ground)
*goats are browsers not grazers, check what forage is available at their eating levels...

hope that helps
:)

[madwitch]

thanks for the advice. I am still concerned that they still don't seem interested in looking for their own food. The paddock is not grass. It is a mix of shrubby bits and pieces and trees. They did strip the bark off a hawthorn tree but don't seem inclined to eat the lower leaves etc. When I go with them they will nibble at some brambles and leaves but mainly they have no interest at all. We turned down the offer of several free lambs this year on the grounds that the paddock was more suitable for goats. I am getting a bit inclined to not feed them for a couple of days to break the 'being fed' habit. Any thoughts?

[little blue duck]

it'd be safer to cut back their food (mix) over a few days - goats, being ruminants, have sensitive digestive systems, its essentailly the bacteriain their guts that do the digesting not the goat, so any changes to their diet has to be really gradual.

If they are used to lots of concentrates & not much forage, then its a big step for them, bless 'em, to change over completely.
And domestic goats are used to their mix! And get abit lazy :)

What sorts of forage is it?
They will love brambles, and to strip bark of native trees. Dried nettles are popular with ours (not so much with me who has to pick them!)

[madwitch]

there are plenty of brambles, hawthorn, some nettles, elder bushes, a few docks etc and a little grass. I will try to do this quite slowly but I really think that they are just conditioned to waiting for their buckets!I am very surprised at how fond I have become of them-I can imagine how people become goat fanatics!

[Potter's Farm]

We keep 2 goats, one is being milked and the other will be put into kid this month and then milked next year aftr her kid(s) are weaned. This particular goat was given to us by a lady who thought she was 'cute' as a kid but didn't realise the responsibility of keeping livestock. The poor thing was chained up - no collar, just a heavy chain cutting into her neck. We put her into a purpose built pen to start with and i constantly worried about her diet. When we purchased the milker, we removed 1 side of the pen and fenced in a bigish paddock for them. We were amazed how much both goats graze, we had been told that goats don't eat grass. They also browse the hedges which are mainly gorse, hawthorn and bramble and we give them our own hay in the winter too. They also get any prunings/weeds/veg gluts from the garden. Neither goat gets any purchased concentrate ration at all. They are both incredibly healthy and happy animals, and yes....it is very easy to love a goat!! I'm sure your goats will quickly get used to finding their own food very quickly, they just like to see you fussing around after them when they holler!