# Silverleaf nightshade



## jross (Dec 20, 2008)

Up until yesterday I didn't worry (what, me worry?) about anything. I figured the goats would naturally avoid anything that was bad for them. We have a lot of silverleaf nightshade growing around here. The goats have always avoided it. But now that things are dieing off due to colder weather they are eating all kinds of stuff they never ate before. They seem to really like leaves and weeds that have died and are drying out.

Yesterday they started chowing down on the leaves and berries of the silverleaf nightshade. Then later in the day I noticed their bellies looked bloated. Moose was pretty uncomfortable. But they were jumping around, banging heads, and didn't seem to be be in mortal danger. This morning all seems well. Bellies have gone down and everybody is ready to go out for breakfast.

I googled sliverleaf nightshade and here's what I found:

http://texnat.tamu.edu/cmplants/toxic/p ... shade.html

I was surprised to see that goats don't seem to be bothered by it. Maybe my goats were a bit affected by it, or maybe they were just over stuffed with food. I think I'm going to go out with the mower and knock most of it down anyway.


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## smwaldrip (May 6, 2009)

*Re: What plants do you worry about?*

Wow, Jeff, thanks for posting that link to the Silverleaf Nightshade. I have that all over the place (the goats have plenty of tumbleweeds to eat so they don't bother it, but...). I've looked it up in a few books but never found a clear enough photo of it to know that's what it was. Guess I'll be getting out the mower soon, too!

Susan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Susan Waldrip
Enchanted Packgoats LLC
Moriarty, NM


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