# Is the ammonium chloride in loose minerals enough?



## italgal81 (Aug 16, 2014)

For my 2 month old wether? 

We will bring him home in two weeks. Currently his owners give some sweet feed which I would eventually like to wean him and the doe we are also getting off of (side note can I do that cold turkey?) and give nutritious treats in addition to the hay and taking them out to browse on walks around our 2 acres.

Anyhow, the loose minerals I bought have ammonium chloride in them. Do I need to give him more than that?


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

It will certainly help. Another thing that will help is kelp. Give it free choice, to both your doe and wether. It is a great source of iodine. Another is making sure his feed has a good phosphorus/calcium ratio. What are you planning on feeding him grain wise? What hay are you using?

And no you cannot do it cold turkey. They need about 2-3 weeks to switch over to a different feed so their gut bacteria can adjust. Otherwise you will end up with diarrhea everywhere. lol So basically give them the feed their on, add a little of the new food in the same amount for a 2-3 days, then add a little more, etc. If you feed a cup of grain each feeding for example, feed 3/4 cup regular grain, 1/4 cup new grain.


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## italgal81 (Aug 16, 2014)

Right now the people we are getting them from have them on dumor sweet feed and hay from a local farm. The wether is still nursing but is getting a bottle once a day so they can milk. (The doe we are getting is not the mother) They are beginning to slowly feed them less grain. They take good care of their goats but I don't think researched much. They have never had a wether. 

Ideally I think I want them either off the grain or down to barely a handful. I would rather give them some apples/carrots/other veggies as a treat instead of the grain. We have access to the same hay so I will use it I also would prefer the wether to be on cows milk instead of a replacer. But I'm not sure what they have him on so I may have to switch that over too.

I will start to look into the kelp. And see if I can find the ammonium chloride at a good price, jeffers has a dumb freight fee on it.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Sometimes paying that is worth it. I had to pay $27 shipping on a $9 cobalt block but I'm seeing good results already and it will take a long time time for them to go through it.


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## Greybird (May 14, 2014)

I found a 3lb bag of A/C on Ebay for $10.00, and that was with free shipping.
It seems to be lasting pretty well since I barely use a handful of it a week.
Their Manna Pro minerals already have A/C included, but they have a second very salty kind of mineral that they like too (Redmond) so I've been adding it to that one every time I fill up the dish.


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

Are you going to continue milking the doe? What breeds are they? Growing kids need the extra energy that concentrates provide, same goes for milkers. If you were feeding alfalfa hay, that could replace some of the grains, but most milkers do not produce well on just hay and browse.


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## italgal81 (Aug 16, 2014)

They are nigerian dwarfs. The doe isn't the mother. We are getting them from friends who live in the city so they can only have 3 at a time. They bred one of their does, who had a girl and boy. We are getting the boy and one of the other does and they will keep the doeling.


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