# how do i handle the feeding frenzy?`



## Charlene (Nov 9, 2011)

my goats have hay 24/7 so i know they are not starving! however, when i feed them grain (mornings and evenings), i have to fight them off just to get to their feed pans. i have 6 goats, 7 feed pans. all 6 of them weave in and out of my legs and just make general nuisances of themselves. i have tried throwing out handfuls of frosted mini wheats but they clean them up before i can even get in the gate. help! :GAAH:


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

tie them up first. When I had individual hook ups for my goats they would all stand next to their hook up and wait for me to hook them up. I woud then bring out their dishes and they would eat in peace and I wouldnt get trampled!

Im soon going back to this way of feeding grain!


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## Allipoe (Sep 8, 2010)

I also found a neat article once while going through the net looking for hayfeeder plans. A fellow had made a feeder that was a loooong trough, but it rocked OUT of the fence towards him (Think mailbox drawer that you drop the letters in and can't reach all the way through) and so they couldn't mess with him while he poured the grain. Then he just rocked it back in and locked it, and voila! No fuss. I keep thinking I should do that, because I can't even get grain in. The buggers are so in the way I end up putting more grain on their heads than in the feeders lol!


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## JessaLynn (Aug 30, 2009)

Our trough is on the outside of their pens and I to end up putting more grain on their heads then in the feeders :roll: Crazy goats! :laugh: I like that idea Alli.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Both sound like good ideas! 
I have started letting them all out of their pen, then I go in and fill bowls after I am done I left them back in. They are getting smart to that though and not all want to go out and or they try and slip back in.


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

I have a feed pen. I put the feed down, then let them in. While their in the feed pen I give them their hay in their pasture.

When my goats will have barn access I will be tying them up first and then feeding. :3


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## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

Soon as we finish fixing the barn I will be feeding them in there...locking the goat door up before I feed :laugh: then letting them in once I have peacefully put out grain...I too get trampled..or they try to stick their heads in the grain bucket before I can even start to put it in their feed trough


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> I have a feed pen. I put the feed down, then let them in. While their in the feed pen I give them their hay in their pasture.


 That's what I do...if I don't... they will have me on the ground... fighting for that grain.....then spilling it everywhere...it really irritates me.... :roll: :thumb:


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

toth boer goats said:


> > I have a feed pen. I put the feed down, then let them in. While their in the feed pen I give them their hay in their pasture.
> 
> 
> That's what I do...if I don't... they will have me on the ground... fighting for that grain.....then spilling it everywhere...it really irritates me.... :roll: :thumb:


I started feeding them outside of their pasture when we found out that the troughs and dishes could harbor Coccidia. We actually had an outbreak of it several years ago, and had to feed them in a feed pen to catch and administer a Coccidiastat. Haven't looked back on that decision!


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## GoldenSeal (Sep 14, 2010)

Maybe I am mean but I do not like being trampled so I tend to bring a small stick and hit their heads with it when they try to attack. I rarely have to hit them nowadays (just raise the stick) they know they must wait for it to go into the feeder for them to eat. I figure theirs heads are pretty hard since that is what they fight with. This is how I teach my bottle babies it's NOT okay to attack me and they must wait for the lambar to be set down and me out of the way before they get to eat.


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

I only have six goats and I have them in pens of 2. 2 older girls, 2 younger girls and a buck and wether. So it is fairly simple for me. At grain time they all know to go to their pens and get locked in and wait for me to get their grain. I can see where it wouldn't work with more goats.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Allipoe said:


> The buggers are so in the way I end up putting more grain on their heads than in the feeders lol!


Been there :ROFL:



GoldenSeal said:


> Maybe I am mean but I do not like being trampled so I tend to bring a small stick and hit their heads with it when they try to attack.


I too believe in training. I had a run-in with ChaCha last week. She knows she is not supposed to rush the gate to the milking parlor. She got a smack on the head, one one the butt and had to wait 'til last. The next day when I opened the gate she stood back and waited. :wink:

Right now while the weather is still dry my girls line up at the barn door which is open. They just know to wait there. I do have to close it or they will rush in once they see the food. I mean, they are goats. Once all the food is in place they are allowed in and it can be crazy but to me it is part of the fun; as long as I wait to the side and do not get trampled. When it starts raining and they are all huddled in the barn it is going to be harder as I have so many more than last year. Tieing up all 9 of them seems a lot of work but it may be the only thing to keep us from the stampede.


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## Charlene (Nov 9, 2011)

thanks for the suggestions, everyone. for those of you who tie each time you feed grain, do you leave collars on your goats all the time? i don't like doing that as all but one of my goats has horns and i am afraid of them getting caught up when they play. and oh boy, do they play! :greengrin: 

my 6 goats (and the pot belly pig) all run together in a 100' x 80' dry lot. they have two barns, one of them contains their hay feeders, the other is bedded with straw which is where they sleep. neither is big enough for separate stalls.

my fencing is cattle panels. before i got my first goats, and because they were so tiny, i had to put chicken wire part way up to prevent them from crawling under or through it and getting out. now that they are grown, i could probably take all of that down and hang several "over the fence" sort of feeders out. that may be what i do as i see it as my only option.

i have also heard that a squirt bottle is ok to use to discourage crowding and bullying. opinions?


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

I have the same thing going on. I have to lock some in stalls and I tie a few and the others I let just eat.

No I NEVER keep a collar on my goat. 

I just have the collar tied to the fence and I catch the one, and tie her up.

Tehn when everyone is done they get to go out together. It is funny but annoying how they act when it comes to the grain, they act like they have never had it before. :leap:


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## Tolers Boers (Jul 4, 2011)

I agree with Stacy.... Line em up. Hook up up. rawhide.


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## Charlene (Nov 9, 2011)

Tolers Boers said:


> I agree with Stacy.... Line em up. Hook up up. rawhide.


IF i'm gonna do that, i will have to charge admission because i know at least 20 people who would PAY to see THAT rodeo! :leap:


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## crgoats (Nov 8, 2011)

Count me in, I want to watch, Charlene. I have 5 goats right now, and I have three dishes. I throw the rubber dishes on the floor of the barn, and they all gather around the dishes. I scoop some grain and throw it into one dish, and they all eat out of that dish, but I quickly throw some grain in the other two dishes, so they all move back and forth and share the dishes. They all get along, and no one charges me, so it seems to work. I think throwing the dishes down distracts them while I scoop the grains.


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## Jdyson (Jul 20, 2011)

I put their bowls on top of the hay feeder and fill them up, lol. They are too short to reach up there, but believe me they try!


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## Devin (Feb 6, 2011)

I only have 3 right now, and the buck is fed in his own pen. I tempt him with his grain to put his head through the cattle panel and when he does I quickly pour it into his bucket in the split second it takes him to dislodge his head LOL! Sometimes he gets so excited he hits his bucket too hard and spills half the contents on the ground. I call him an idiot and move on lol! The chickens clean up whatever he misses.

Then I go to the pen my doe and wether are in, feed the wether a handful of grain over the gate while I am opening it to let the doe out. This is to keep him from shoving through the gate while trying to get her out. He can be a pain! LOL! She then goes to her feed bowl and waits for me to get there (we have a feed bowl in the area we will have the milk stand) and she is actually very polite most of the time and will let you pour the grain. She is my bottle baby, but has ALWAYS been the most polite thing! 

I then put a rope on her while she is eating and when she is done I take her back to her pen. If I don't put a rope on her she plays "keep a way" and stays about 3 feet out of your reach LOL! She thinks it funny. :ROFL: 

When I have more than 1 doe to deal with I will most likely go to the tying them each up.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Oh the feeding frenzy joy! <not!>.
I feed in the addition we built on the barn. I have my kids block the doorways off with pallets, and then feed the youngest goats first, then I let the older ones in. 
I only have one trough in there, but I may be putting my other trough in a stall and feeding the younger goats in there that away I don't have to wait to feed the 2nd group. 
I don't want to build a feeder outside because I never know what the weather will do, and don't want to feed or having my goats eating out in the elements.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

I feed from the outside of the fence. We have pvc pipes mounted to the fence up high, and they have a sort of bench built to stand their front feed up on to reach. I cut holes all along the boxwire to fit my scoop in the pour the feed in. The only thing I don't like about it is that if gets filled with snow and I have to go inside the pen to clean it out first sometimes (without food in hand!) I like the idea of having a pen just for feeding.


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## Steph (May 7, 2009)

I have 8 spring kids that are getting grain. I bring them into a separate pen away from the big girls. I have two 4 foot long goat troughs filled with food that I put down once the right goats are in. It's impossible to fill them once they are in the pen. Could you fill the feed bowls outside of the pen and put them out quickly? I never had luck with individual pans, they all wanted to eat from the same one then move on to the next pan while fighting with each other.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Steph said:


> they all wanted to eat from the same one then move on to the next pan while fighting with each other


Yep, that is what goats do alright :laugh:


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## Charlene (Nov 9, 2011)

luvmyherd said:


> Steph said:
> 
> 
> > they all wanted to eat from the same one then move on to the next pan while fighting with each other
> ...


mine included!! i'd look like a juggler if i tried filling all the pans and carrying them inside. joker would surely trip me up and grain would fly in every direction. he almost had me on my keester this morning. i will say, the pig would have a blast rooting for all of it! :leap:

i think i am gonna invest in some of those shallow feed buckets than hang on a fence and put six or seven of them out, a distance apart from each other. that way, i could pour grain from the outside of the fence, and then hope we don't have a blizzard like we had last winter because they would be buried!! :GAAH:


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I actually have everyone's feeding containers outside the pen spaced a few feet apart with a leash tied to the fence next to each one. In the morning I put everyone's grain in their spot then let them out of the pen and they all go running to their designated spot to eat. Everyone knows whose bowl is whose so I can put different food in each one. While they are chowing down I tie them up and go in their pen to fill up their hay feeders. Their is no feeding frenzy or stealing from each others bowl everything is all nice and orderly.


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## BillyMac (Nov 3, 2011)

I chain mine to the wall before I put the feed out in individual pans. I don't need a collar. Rather, I put an eye bolt in to the wall. Then I attach a swivel, snap, and chain to that. I put another snap on the end and I use the chain itself to use as the collar. I just wrap the chain around the goats neck and then snap it back to the chain to secure the goat. 

The chain and snap makes it possible to dial in the length of the tie out and allows you to snap the goat in place in just a second. I use a swivel to make it just a bit more safe and I can leave then unattended while I do other chores.


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## Devin (Feb 6, 2011)

BillyMac said:


> I chain mine to the wall before I put the feed out in individual pans. I don't need a collar. Rather, I put an eye bolt in to the wall. Then I attach a swivel, snap, and chain to that. I put another snap on the end and I use the chain itself to use as the collar. I just wrap the chain around the goats neck and then snap it back to the chain to secure the goat.
> 
> The chain and snap makes it possible to dial in the length of the tie out and allows you to snap the goat in place in just a second. I use a swivel to make it just a bit more safe and I can leave then unattended while I do other chores.


I like that idea!


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## Mandara Farm (Sep 12, 2010)

I also chain my girls up before feeding grain. They're all dry right now, so they arent getting grain, but it works really well, and now they are all trained to it. They go and stand in their station when I walk to the 'feeding area' of the fencing and then I just hook them up. Very easy and no one jumps on me. I've also started to hook them up before giving their weekly dosage of herbal wormer. The goat stand is outside the pen right now, and they were all rushing me at the gate and basically making life miserable, so now they get hooked up for that too. Silly goaties!


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

Oh the feeding frenzy learning curve. Something I wouldn't wish on any of our family to have to tackle when we leave for a few days so we had to make a better system. We do feed the pregnant does separately from their yearling does now. They are trained to go in the feed area. We can also throw the hay through a window area to feed. This system really helps if my mom has to feed them for a day or two. She doesnt need to go into the pen at all.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

When it rains, we can feed the does in this area. We just built another feed shelter like this. There is a window to put the feed through. I like this so far.


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## PznIvyFarm (Jul 25, 2010)

Steph said:


> I never had luck with individual pans, they all wanted to eat from the same one then move on to the next pan while fighting with each other.


I was distributing the grain into 5 different pans and they did just that - all would eat from one pan and move on to the next. The problem was that with all the jostling for position they kept dumping the grain so yesterday I fed most of them from one big pan with a large rock in it. That seemed to work well, b/c i could dump and run before getting attacked.

Bailey is the only one who got fed separately, she has a window shelf that only she and the doelings can get onto, the rest are too big, and I screwed a plastic dish onto the shelf a long time ago b/c Mink and Chara bullied her so much. She has learned to stand up for herself, and pushes the doelings (and sometimes Mink and Chara) around but still likes her private hiding spot on the window ledge.


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