× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! Even if you dam raise your kids, it’s inevitable that you’ll wind up with a bottle baby at some point. Our does have large litters, as many as five at a time, and it isn’t uncommon that we end up with one or two (or three) per year that are put on the bottle. This is the feeding schedule we use for our Nigerian Dwarf bottle babies; you can approximately double the amounts and use this for standard sized goats as well. Minis would be somewhere in between. So much of feeding bottle babies is intuition and individual decisions. I’ve tried to pinpoint specific weights to give you an idea of Read More
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What to Have on Hand for Kidding in a Holistic Herd
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! One of the most asked questions in my goat group, second to “should I vaccinate my goats?” (my thoughts here) is about what to have on hand for kidding. I rarely answer with my own list, simply because it’s a little…underwhelming. Having embraced a “less is more” approach in my holistic goat management, I really don’t keep much on hand specifically for kidding and there’s very little I do in terms of intervention. I realize though that this, too, is a useful thing to talk about even if it doesn’t directly answer the question. So in this article, I’ll do my best to go over what I do have on hand Read More
Thoughts on Vaccinating with CDT
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! This is my personal experience and my thoughts on my decision not to vaccinate my herd with CDT. I share it here to give a point of view, not to suggest one way or another what you should decide for your herd. CD is enterotoxemia, a bacterial overgrowth often caused by management issues. It’s called ‘overeating disease’ because it is usually significant increases in feeds that bring it about. You can read more here. Tetanus comes through wounds but is not as common as we’re led to believe. Importantly, oxygenated wound environments protect against tetanus, which is why in disbudding, for example, you want to avoid putting a salve or any Read More
Essential Oils for Flea and Tick Control
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! 🎶 Let’s talk about ticks, baby, let’s talk about “ew” and “ee!” 🎶 Ticks are a major concern in some areas. Down here on the bottomland we have some, but not that many and I don’t do anything to try to “prevent” them. If I were going to do something about it, I’d look to the data I could find on essential oils since of the more natural options, EOs are usually more convenient to work with for things like this. Let’s do that now. This study looked at 11 EOs for repelling a particular type of tick. It’s $50+ to get the full article, but the summary tells us enough Read More
Mineral Buffet Consumption Totals Month by Month
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! This page will track consumption each month and total it in pounds so we can get an idea of our herd’s consumption of the mineral buffet on a longer term basis. Unlike the monthly totals that display in ounces, this one shows totals in pounds. I have Nigerian Dwarf goats and standard sized sheep so to keep this consistent and easy to read, the total number of animals will count each sheep as 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats. For example, as I write this in July 2022, we have 11 adult ND does, 6 ND kids, 4 adult ND bucks, 6 adult sheep and 3 lambs. For simplicity, I will count this as Read More
Mobile, Small Animal Mineral Buffet Feeder Ideas
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! The big mineral buffet feeder we use for the does is great for an all weather, year round stationary feeder but for something mobile, I had to brainstorm with a different idea. This post will detail two small animal mobile feeder designs we came up with and some low cost feeder cup options. The first option uses a standard wire dog crate and is the easiest to put together. Filling it will be a bit more challenging because you need to reach in from the front. This feeder is ideal for poultry, rabbits and other small animals. It would work well for kids and lambs too. The second option uses a Read More