Vegetables/Fruits & Goats.

[CarolinaGirl]

The produce stand near my house asked if I could use their unwanted or "scrap" produce for my animals. I said sure, seeing as if it wasn't fit for them in my opinion, I could always toss it in my compost.

Since then, I've been making my goaties a bucket full of produce every night to go with their usual stuff. The produce is very good quality, imo. I'd eat it, honestly. On the off occasion, I get something completely gone and I won't give them that. If it just has a bruise, I cut it out and then give it to them.

My question is, is there such as too much? It's a 3 quart bucket full of chopped (yeah, they're spoiled) veggies and occasionally some fruit split between 5 goats. I give my buckling just a handful if that. Fruits and veggies are nothing new to them but it used to be maybe one apple split between all of them or something like that. They seem to be eating less of their goat ration since I've started this as well.

Also, what about cabbage? She seems to send quite a bit of that but I worry about it being too gassy even for my chickens so I give them maybe one leaf

And the goats get maybe 2 leaves between all of them and I throw the rest in the compost. It's still crisp inside, not rotten at all... The outer leaves are just a bit limp.

I have a poisonous food list that I reference and it claims it's safe... I also won't let them have over 2 or 3 strawberries a piece when she sends them because I worry it'll cause tummy troubles. I'm just over protective, perhaps!?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[helmstead]

Too much of a new thing all at once can cause entero...but I don't think you need to worry too terribly much. I agree on the strawberries, they can be a little too acidic in quantity. Avoid onions and avocados (you prolly knew that). Don't think cabbage is a problem...

BTW LUCKY YOU! I wish our local stand would give us their spoils!

 

[greyfields]

Although I agree you should be cautious; there is very little harm in vegetable/food culls. There isn't enough energy in it to eat themselves to death (like they will with grain) and it's incredibly good at rounding out their diet.

My piggies get most my culls, though, except for leafy greens which go to the geese/ducks.

 

[Smoky73]

The goat farmers around here often feed nothing but onions to the goats with no ill effects, as there are alot of onion producers as well.
My bosses have been getting the non-saleable tomatoes from the greenhouses around here for their cows and goats, by the 1/2 ton at a time and they eat alot they said!
Personally, my goats love cabbage, and when I was getting it from the grocery store, there was always alot of it too. They also especially love corn husks.

 

[gila_dog]

My goats eat lots of different things in addition to their basic hay and wild forage (pine, pinon, oak, juniper, weeds, yucca, etc) and kitchen fruit & vegetable scraps. Last summer they ate a lot of watermelon rinds. All year they get grocery store produce dept scraps like lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, etc. They LOVE orange rinds. After halloween last year a farmer let me load my pickup with pumpkins from her field. I stored them in a big cardboard box out in the barn. Thru the fall and winter I chopped them up with a machete (like John Belushi at the Samuri Delicatessen) and fed them to the goats. They gorged on them for months with no ill effects.

I think if your animals are used to eating different stuff all the time they can adjust to new things easier than animals that are fed a monotonous regular diet.

 

[CarolinaGirl]

Thanks so much

I needed some reassurance as these guys are just my big babies. My chickens are loving this as well. Today we got a huge box of cantaloupes. Sliced one in half and put it in the chicken run and the ladies went nuts!

30 minutes later, all that was left was a cleaned off rind!

Gila_dog, I have a friend who has a pumpkin farm so I'll have to ask them if they'll have any after Halloween, I didn't know goats would touch them... of course, I've never tried, though.

 

[greyfields]

I think pine needles can cause abortion for some reason.

 

[gila_dog]

Quote:
Maybe so. My goats are wethers, tho, so I don't worry about it that. Also when they are browsing they eat a little of this, and some of that, and so on. I have been pleasantly surprised that my goats have never been sick on anything they've eaten. They seem to have a good instinct for what's good, and bad, for them.