# How do I get my goats to eat more??



## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

We are trying to get our boers ready for show- Our does look great , but our bucks could use a few more finishing pounds-We are feeding them a 17% protein pellet with medication, free choice hay and a 100% fat supplement sprinkled on their feed. They are eating about 3lbs a piece per day, and thats all they will eat. Our in-laws bucks are eating 9 lbs per day per head and they are feeding the same thing we feed-and growing their butts off! How can we get them to eat more??


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

Well I don't have boers, but I feed beet pulp to anyone who needs weight on them. I also feed BOSS and that seems to keep them pretty fat. lol Most of my milkers are on a diet right now. lol


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

how often do you feed? if you fed two or three times a day they would grow


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

We feed twice a day-they ahve great builds, but are lacking lots of "fat" to compete-here is a pic of one of them-


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

what are you feeding? i feed showmaster goatfeed and when they really wont gain i use the lamb feed start to finish. that adds weight ( mainly muscle ) fast!!


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

I have tried showmaster and they ate it great! But didn't notice any difference in their looks after 4 months


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

can you get that lamb feed? it seriously works.. i give my doe memphis a pound a day and she gains about 2 lbs a week average. and all she gets is that and hay. my friend feeds it to one of her does and that girl has grown!! seriously worth the money to put on weight

it comes in a green bag and its called start to finish. its like 17 bucks out here so i dunno out there


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## badnewsboers (May 9, 2008)

I'm having the same problem you are. My goats aren't eating enough to stay in show shape. I've chatted with a lot of breeders and most rely heavily on B12, either in injection form or in a topdress form(though injections are far more common.) The B12 is supposed to boost their appetite.


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

Can you get B12 anywhere besides the vet?? we have tried the B Complex and didn't see a difference.


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## badnewsboers (May 9, 2008)

Well I was looking at Jeffers and this has B12 in it. http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/pro ... f_id=16514


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## crocee (Jul 25, 2008)

I use Maxi-B 1000 from Durvet. It was $12/250ml at the local feed store. It contains 1000mcg B-12 per ml.
crocee


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## Ivy (Aug 9, 2008)

I dont know the difference in show quality vrs meat but my Boers that are 5 months are 80 pounds for the bucklings and 75 for the doelings. They are firm, meaty and nice. I only feed hay and pasture!
If I had to do more than that to get the meat on them, I would be looking for better growing Boers, which I did.

My Boer kids here have to gain 10 pounds per month the first year if they have any chance of becoming a breeder and for the parents to remain breeders.
Thats with allowing nursing the first 3-4 months then only pasture and hay.
I dont grain except the nursing does.

Breed the best and eat the rest!

Gosh my last 2 kids, bucklings were 2 pounds when born and art 3 weeks, 9 pounds each.

Thats what Boers are for, fast growing meat.
My Boers are the cheapest and easiest goats to keep.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Correct me if I'm wrong but with Boer goats, the percentage Boers grow faster, right? So, maybe it's just naturally more difficult to get the meat on them if they are pure-bred (or full-blood? I get confused which is which). Ivy, do u raise pure-bred Boers or percentage? 

Anyone here considered raising the TexMaster goats? Aren't they the Boers that are bred w/ Myotonic? Those animals look BEEFY!


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

Our bucklings are weaning at around 70 lbs at 3 months and our doelings are about 50 at 3 months- they are the fullbloods-Our percentages do not grow as fast as our full bloods-they get taller faster but some lack the meaty build that we look for. Example-jade 75% boer-4 months-she does not have the body capacity that we look for a broodoe







As far as their birthweights- the kids off of Trax are weighing 10-18lbs each at birth (single)and our other bucks are avg. 10 lbs at birth-twin births are about 9 lbs each-Here is a good example of one of our 3 month old fullblood does-she is in show shape and weighing 62 lbs.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Wow! Your Boers really grow fast!! We had the hardest time keeping our former pygmy buck in "show condition" - seemed like he was constantly in rut and smelled TERRIBLE!! He ate a lot of food but just "worked" it all off. . . . I just gave up. :roll: Your animals look awesome to me.


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

Thank you very much!! Most of it is genetics- the genetics that we have strived so hard to get carry muscle, muscle, and more muscle, most of them are very wide chested and have a great topline and rump on them (RRD or "Ryals" bloodlines) they are proven show winners and pass it on to their offspring very well. The only problem we have had with these genetics is that we have had to deliver several kids because they are so wide in the shoulders and have huge heads, and wean them at 2 months because of them pulling their dam down.we feed a lot of feed because we have no pasture until we move this winter. we usually keep our bucks separate and feed them very well to keep them in show shape- On the show off season-they are in breeding shape, because a fat buck sometimes will not breed. here is a pic of a 1/2 Ryals bred buckling that I have sale pending at this time-he is pictured at 2 weeks old-This is Empire's Lightning featured on my kids for sale page.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Oh, he is very handsome!! I love baby Boer goat faces, so cute! They have all this cute wrinkly skin, it's adorable!  My cousins raise Boers but they aren't into showing, they have mostly percentage. I love the little babies.


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

Geese- we all have different problems- I can't get my Boers from getting too fat- the vet laughed at them and I hardly feed them. They get a cup of alfalfa pelllets with mineral mix added twice a day (just to get the minerals into them) and a pound grass hay twice a day. I do sprinkle a little corn oil (very little) to make the mineral mix stick. The pasture is totally nuked so they can't be getting much from that.
But that is not muscle as much as fat on them...............

I do know that leaving them on mom makes for much better size and muscle. Maybe instead of pulling all kids, you can leave the one you plan to show? Putting the extra food into mom?


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

Some goats just stay fat-I don't know why? Some of our big bodied does are just "fat", but our smaller framed does can't handle feeding huge kids -I guess the kids are drinking them dry? what we usually do is take the buckling a little early-they usually grow faster-we will try to leave the doeling (or smaller kid)on the dam for 3 months. we feed our brooddoes very well, but the strain makes them look like they are about to blow away-and they are great mamas, so the kids drink a lot and very frequently-that is our main problem-The smaller kid that is left on the dam comes right on up in size. It s just that when kids are weighing 50+pounds at 2 months old and are 1/2 the size of the dams, it takes all the nutrition the dam can muster to produce enough milk. We have a 1/2 dairy doe that produces almost a gallon a day-Fluffy- Her kids aren't pulling her down as bad as I have seen the kids from Boers pull-we weaned the buckling 2 weeks ago and are weaning the doeling today. Here they are at 1 week-(they are 3 mos now)you can see how large they were already-


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## alyssa_romine (Oct 5, 2007)

As for the TexMaster question. I have a few friends that raise TexMasters and you are correct about the cross. They are mainly myotonic with a little bit of boer for faster growth. They have an awesome meat to bone ratio. I will be getting a TexMaster buck in the future. TexMasters would improve my herd a lot!!!! They are beefy goats and truly, if they aren't beefy, they aren't a TexMaster. The breed was formed based on their muscle.


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## Ivy (Aug 9, 2008)

capriola-nd said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong but with Boer goats, the percentage Boers grow faster, right? So, maybe it's just naturally more difficult to get the meat on them if they are pure-bred (or full-blood? I get confused which is which). Ivy, do u raise pure-bred Boers or percentage?
> 
> Anyone here considered raising the TexMaster goats? Aren't they the Boers that are bred w/ Myotonic? Those animals look BEEFY!


All but one of mine are 85% to FB.
I had ones that were less percentage of Boer, but they are gone. They didn't hold good enough weight, had slower growing kids.
The one I still have thats less Boer, about 60%, I hung on to because she is a really big girl.
I want to see what kids she throws when bred to one of my bucks.
My bucks are FB.


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## rgbdab (Nov 26, 2007)

I raise boers also and have both percentage and 100% goats. I have got a bunch of fat goats right now and they are just on pasture. The 2 bucks are getting feed because they have been breeding and are a bit thin pluse their pasture is much smaller than the girls. But even though they waddle up at the end of the day, they would still eat feed if I gave it to them so I can't really give any advice for your problem.
Normally be this time of the year the pasture is a dried up, brown mess, but we had some good rain in August and the pasture just sprang back to life. The girls are getting bred so that should help them lose some fat over the next few months, but I don't like them to get overwieght at all. Oh well, stuff happens.

Good luck!


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

we don't have hardly any grass. The main problem we are having is the bucks are eating until they are about to pop. You can throw hay out there and feed and they look at it-They just arent filling out around their hips- This is what I mean-HELP! Is it because he is only 8 months and still filling out?


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## rebelshope (Sep 21, 2008)

I have not help to offer, but I think your goats look great. 

I told someone that they look like the pit bulls of the goat world.  Just all muscle! (just so you know I love pits bulls so that was a complement)


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

I love pits too- I used to breed BFKC pits- but I quit because everyone started fighting my dogs. thanks for the compliment!!


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## CountryGalwGoats (Sep 19, 2008)

I'm really trying hard to get mine to fill out. I noticed that this was mostly people with meat goats. Do you dairy goat keepers have the same problem, or is it just me? I know my new one had worms, and we are going through all that, trying to worm them all. And they are eating, but I don't think they are keeping it in their systems. I have noticed that two of mine are starting to have looser stools, but maybe with the second worming they will get better. I am giving them a lot of fresh vitamin supplemented water every day. They are grazing a lot, too. As well as eating grain, corn and oats. Hopefully, things will look up. :roll:


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