# How much should i be feeding them?



## billyjane (Nov 11, 2013)

Hello, how much alfalfa should I be feeding my two 5 month mini LaMancha doelings a day?


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I have Nigerian Dwarf and Pygmy/ND crosses.... I don't have straight alfalfa to give mine but will split a flake of timothy/mixed grass between 3 goats twice a day, the feeders I use are 4 gallon bucket size and hold a separated and packed half flake.
I do give alfalfa pellets once a day to does and growing kids at a rate of 2 cups per adult and one per kid, crushed alfalfa/timothy cubes are also given to compensate for what the current hay lacks, usually this is a mid day feeding with a 2 gallon pail split between 11 goats.
If all you have is alfalfa hay, no browse then for 2 " bigger than a ND but smaller than a standard " go with a flake for each in the morning and see if there is waste by the evening feeding, if there is waste then cut back to a flake and a half am and pm.


----------



## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

A 5 month old standard sized kid will eat 3, maybe 4 pounds of hay a day, so I would say somewhere around 1 to 2 pounds of hay for a mini. If they were mine, I would start them out at 1 1/2 pound for the both of them and see what they look like the next time you feed. If they are sunk in in front of their hip bones, increase by a half pound and check again the next time you feed. If there is wasted hay, cut them back a bit. I would also suggest that you keep in mind a young kid cannot eat enough hay to meet their nutritional needs and they need grain to support their growth. I would also be starting them on a good goat grower pellet at the rate of about 1/4 pound for both of them, and increasing every 3-4 days until they were getting maybe a pound each. An easy way to determine how much a flake weighs is to count the number of flakes, then divide the weight of the bale by the number of flakes. Our 65 lb bales have roughly 18 flakes, so that means each flake weighs 3.61 pounds.


----------

