# Does anyone feed their goats this feed?



## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/more-species/sheep-goat-feed/17-goat-textured-feed/index.htm

Country Feeds 17% Textured Goat Feed.

Pros? Cons?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Do you have a copy of the tag?


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

I have heard about this brand…..unfortunately i don't think any of it was good.. 
I think its owned by Purina..i could be wrong though.


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

I've been wondering about this also.. But can't find a tag for it anywhere!

And it is owned by Cargil


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## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

No, I don't have a tag. I was looking at this online. And yes, it's made by Cargill,the same company that makes the feed we are using right now. I ask because a local feed store carries it. I am going to call them and ask if they can order our current feed. If not, this other feed seemed like a good match.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Good to know Purina doesn't make it  Thanks Skyla !


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

I do feed a small amount of that to my goats. I mix it with feed from my local mill. The mill stuff is better for them that isn't textured, but since my goats were kind of hooked on sweet feed, I mix it to make them happy. This one is the best I've been able to find for a sweet feed. I'm gradually giving them less and less of it though to get them on regular pellets. The pellets of course only make up a small portion of their diet. Hay and grazing are the majority.


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

I'll try to get a copy of the tag later.... If my goats haven't already ate it. If they see the feedbag for 1 second when I'm scooping their food, the paper tag disappears instantly. Apparently it's the most delicious part.


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

That would be great thank you!

I just ordered a bag of it to try out while I was at work..
A breeder I know uses it and it looked fairly nice and his goats all look pretty good on it


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

That is what I feed my goats. My reasons are simple. When I farm/goat sat, the farm owner fed his milkers a pellet feed to his nine milkers. The pellets always disintegrated into dust in the bottoms of their dishes and they wouldn't touch it - Lots of waste! Then my best friend, who was starting to breed Nigerians sold me a doe and told me to buy this feed. Her goats look great and I've been seeing them consistently for several years. Why argue with success? 

My girls are doing well on it. Though I have had to add a little Calf Manna for one milker who is having trouble keeping the weight on. I like the Nutrena and will keep using it.

Oh...and I may have a tag. Lemme go look.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

It's a leeetle hard to read. My camera stinks at getting photos of text.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

It was bothering the heck out of me , i knew i read somewhere that the Nutrena Feeds had issues….maybe they corrected them , i don't know. But i did a search here on that feed and came up with some not so good things….
First , it can be poisonous to dogs and other animals its not meant for.
And i also read it contains "urea" (sp) that is toxic to goats….

I hope I'm wrong here , do a search for yourselves and read the threads…


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Trickyroo said:


> It was bothering the heck out of me , i knew i read somewhere that the Nutrena Feeds had issues&#8230;.maybe they corrected them , i don't know. But i did a search here on that feed and came up with some not so good things&#8230;.
> First , it can be poisonous to dogs and other animals its not meant for.
> And i also read it contains "urea" (sp) that is toxic to goats&#8230;.
> 
> I hope I'm wrong here , do a search for yourselves and read the threads&#8230;


Wow...well, a little research seems to be in order. I shall be a-looking and a-reading today and tomorrow. Thanks for the heads-up!


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

Trickyroo said:


> It was bothering the heck out of me , i knew i read somewhere that the Nutrena Feeds had issues&#8230;.maybe they corrected them , i don't know. But i did a search here on that feed and came up with some not so good things&#8230;.
> First , it can be poisonous to dogs and other animals its not meant for.
> And i also read it contains "urea" (sp) that is toxic to goats&#8230;.
> 
> I hope I'm wrong here , do a search for yourselves and read the threads&#8230;


I did come across the thread I think you're referring to when I was researching giving this food to my goats. Turns out it's only the boer show goat food that's toxic to dogs, not the regular nutrena textured goat feed. Also, it's best to avoid letting dogs eat goat food anyway due to all the grain, high copper, etc. It's always best not to let other species eat the same foods unless they have the same dietary requirements. Even a food that isn't immediately poisonous, if not intended for their digestive system can cause longterm kidney or liver damage. But I did want to make sure if my dogs ever accidentally got a taste of it, they wouldn't fall over dead. It appears this feed is safe.


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

groovyoldlady said:


> It's a leeetle hard to read. My camera stinks at getting photos of text.


Glad you posted this! I went to look for my feed tag and my goats had eaten it.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

If it has urea in it then it should say on the tag. Groovy goat lady can you see if it does? I'm really thinking no, but if it does my 2 cents, stay the heck away from it. I as well as another lady fed urea for years with no issues, then one year all my goats aborted and the year before she lost 2 does. I know a lot of people swear a little is ok, but I personally stay far away from it.


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

Jessica84 said:


> If it has urea in it then it should say on the tag. Groovy goat lady can you see if it does? I'm really thinking no, but if it does my 2 cents, stay the heck away from it. I as well as another lady fed urea for years with no issues, then one year all my goats aborted and the year before she lost 2 does. I know a lot of people swear a little is ok, but I personally stay far away from it.


The feed tag does not show it is in there. It would be possible that it's not listed, however I can't find any credible reason to believe it's in there. I did find a thread that someone said it contains it, but that could be nothing more than rumor. I'm not sure where they got that info (it was on a noble goat feed thread). If that were the case, I wouldn't feed it. I guess contacting the manufacturer is the only way to know for sure.

****Edited to add:

I just did some more digging and I think I got to the bottom of this. There seems to be more info out there about urea now. This Nutrena food we're discussing says on the label "17.0% (This includes not more than 0.82% equivalent crude protein from non-protein nitrogen.)" 
That is urea from what I'm reading. According to the TSC website: Urea is a non-protein source of nitrogen commonly used for ruminants due to convenience, availability and low cost. Micro-organisms in the goat's rumen, or part of the goat's large intestine, use urea to produce protein. The protein is then digested and absorbed by the goat's body. Goats can digest urea, but it is highly unpalatable to them. As a result, they may actually avoid feed or supplements that contain urea.

I'm sure it is debatable whether or not these small amounts are safe, however I started pulling up Purina and other goat foods and I'm seeing it's common to have up to 1% of this "non-protein nitrogen" and Dumor even has 1.5%. I'm not sure how we avoid it. Manna Pro goat treats (which my goats love!) have up to 2% of this. All brands I've found are doing it. I think we need to stick with as low percentage as possible.

Welcome to the world of cutting quality and health to cut costs. It seems unavoidable.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I just read the label thoroughly (between stirring my goat milk fudge!). I don't see urea anywhere on there. And if it's what you say, then there is less than 1% included in the protein analysis. Correct?

So are we saying this Nutrena Goat Feed is OK?


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

groovyoldlady said:


> I just read the label thoroughly (between stirring my goat milk fudge!). I don't see urea anywhere on there. And if it's what you say, then there is less than 1% included in the protein analysis. Correct?
> 
> So are we saying this Nutrena Goat Feed is OK?


OOOOH goat fudge! Great, now I'm hungry.

Based on what I found above, the Nutrena textured feed is one of the BEST out there for having low levels of urea, however the topic interested me, so I started a new thread just on urea. I hope to find out more people's opinions on it, safe levels, and other feeds that may contain even less. It's just another junk ingredient everyone's using to cut costs.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

From what i read and understood on the thread , it wasnt listed on the label at all.
That was the problem…idk….but i didn't want to not say anything and let it go and animals get sick…better safe then sorry IMO …

Im glad you started that thread gonegoaty !


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Where's Jill when you need her…..she'll straighten this right out , lol..


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Trickyroo said:


> From what i read and understood on the thread , it wasnt listed on the label at all.
> That was the problem&#8230;idk&#8230;.but i didn't want to not say anything and let it go and animals get sick&#8230;better safe then sorry IMO &#8230;
> 
> Im glad you started that thread gonegoaty !


No it was a good thing to bring up. 
I see what's being said about the protein but it still should be listed In it. To be honest a lot of the things feeds list I have no idea what they are so maybe one of those is what they are referring to in the protein.
And your right there's so many people who say a little urea is ok, and it probably is, but when I look at a tag and it says urea I don't get it.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

At this point, I think I'm going to keep on using the Nutrena. My goats love it, it is affordable and my goats are doing quite well on it at all stages. The kids grow well, the dry does flourish, pregnancies went great and only one doe needed the extra boost of Calf Manna for milk production. 

So unless someone gives me something concrete, I'm hooked.


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## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

I was confused before,but now,my brian is spinning!:crazy:

What about the Nutrena/Cargill Showmaster? That's what we're feeding right now. They love it,seem to be thriving on it. I only wanted an optional feed in case I can't find the Showmaster.


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## gonegoaty (May 15, 2015)

Beckngoats said:


> I was confused before,but now,my brian is spinning!:crazy:
> 
> What about the Nutrena/Cargill Showmaster? That's what we're feeding right now. They love it,seem to be thriving on it. I only wanted an optional feed in case I can't find the Showmaster.


From what I recall (so I encourage you to verify this yourself) the Nutrena showmaster is specifically the feed that is toxic dogs, so be careful of that. There may even be a warning on the bag. Aside from that, I don't know anything about that feed. I would suggest you check the label to see how much non-protein nitrogen is in it. From the feeds I've compared, it should be pretty easy to stay under 1%, and I think the less, the better. I created the other thread specifically on urea to try to get more info on how much is truly safe. It's only used because it is cheap and it converts to ammonia in the rumen.


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## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

Yep, research is definitely in order! Thank you for the info. I want to make certain they get the best!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

groovyoldlady said:


> At this point, I think I'm going to keep on using the Nutrena. My goats love it, it is affordable and my goats are doing quite well on it at all stages. The kids grow well, the dry does flourish, pregnancies went great and only one doe needed the extra boost of Calf Manna for milk production.
> 
> So unless someone gives me something concrete, I'm hooked.


I would too........but I'm also sitting here eating pretzels for breakfast 
But seriously I've had people swear a feed is so great and healthy and it hasn't done crap for my goats on condition. I'm with you, if it works for what I want And no one is getting sick or croaking I go with it


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I've been feeding it for a couple years now, and have good success with it. Although my girls are on the picky side right now, so I mix this, calf manna and haystack special blend together..., hopefully in a month I can do away with the calf manna....


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Non protein sourced nitrogen is from urea, so they're not putting it on the tag for what it is.


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## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

I'm bumping this back up. 

I just found out why I can't find Showmaster S series Goat Feed.... They are discontinuing it!
Now I need to find a good replacement. What can we give our two wethers? Help!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

What are the choices in your area? I had to drive around to the different feed stores and ask for tags. Then I just compared them.


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## Beckngoats (May 16, 2015)

Sorry I'm late answering,been looking around at our feed stores.

The bottom line: The only Goat specific feed available in our area, is the medicated type. And the Showmaster made by Cargill is changing over to to Sunglo, also medicated. 

So what should I do now? Nobody will custom mix feed. It seems that around here,perhaps elsewhere too, Goats are not a priority. All of the emphasis is placed on Cattle and Horses,and a few sheep. When I asked the stores what people fed their Goats, I got a blank stare,and was told " I guess whatever". ��


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

What brands of Horse feed are available? Purina? LMF? etc.


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