# Goats not eating their mineral - good goat mineral recommendations?



## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Best local minerals I could find for my animals is Ranchway feeds Ranch-O-Min loose goat minerals. When I first got this a couple months ago, oh my, the goats chowed down like they were afraid to let them stay in the mineral bucket. Now, they leave it mostly untouched.

I have cleaned out the mineral tray several times, in case there was something in there making them avoid it. That didn't help. 

I have given them Manna Pro minerals before, but have to go down into Colorado to get those (and the last time I went to get them, the store was out and I ended up getting the Ranchway minerals from a local store). They didn't consume much of it either, which is what shocked me when I saw how much of the new mineral they would go through.

Ruby-of-the-perpetually-thin-tail-no-matter-how-often-I-give-her-copper probably needs to be getting more minerals into her, I imagine. She looks good elsewhere, but has had a fishtail since last winter. 

Any recommendations on good loose minerals for these goats?


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Cargill right now onyx is a good one. I use Payback Ultramin Cattle Minerals, my goats love them and its high copper.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

I use cargill onyx right now and sweetlix. My goats go through a ton of them, but I also have a ton of goats.  Your goats might just have adequate mineral levels and their bodies are telling them they don't need more. If they look good, nice shiny coats, I wouldn't worry. Has Ruby had a copper bolus in the last six months? If not, I would go ahead and do that. If she's due for a shot of BoSe, I'd do that as well. Sometimes that's all they need to get back on track.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

could be they dont need it as much which is a good thing..if they ate like crazy at first...I sit out just a small amount for my goats...if they slow on eating it..I will sip a day or so and then start again...or serve less ...they will gobble it in sperts..


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

My goats go through the Manna Pro by the shovel load , then sometimes they don't tough them for days . 
I would like to get bigger bags of the Manna Pro or other good brands like Sweetlix or the Cargill but the feed stores around here don't carry it or won't order the big bag of Manna Pro for me  Im so sick of these stores ! ( small rant , sorry ) The only big bags i can get is the Purina


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

Mine go through spurts.. Sometimes I can't keep the dish full and others it seems I don't have to fill it for the longest time.. The way I see it is they know when they need it and when they don't.. So I let them do their thing and don't worry about it..


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

It may have something to do with the newer pasture. They were put out on a different pasture at nearly the same time that I got the new minerals. The girls had been out on the old pasture since last July (it is a 2-3 acre pasture, with plenty of grazing), but the new pasture that we just fenced in has more yucca plants and I think a different kind of grass up in one area. 

I am thinking about getting a second type of mineral, as their mineral feeder is one of those two tray types. I could put out both types and let them pick and choose what they want to take in. 

I don't think they have hardly touched their mineral in at least 3 days. It is higher in selenium than Manna Pro. I pulled over into a restaurant parking lot to borrow WiFi and see how the two compared the day that I first bought the Ranchway minerals, and was happy with the fact that it wasn't salt city like the purina minerals are. I will look into those Cargill minerals and find out what I can about them. 

I copper bolused all of the goats back in late May. I gave Ruby only one KID bolus then, as I could not get a good weight estimate on her then. She has growth-spurted since, so I gave her another bolus a couple weeks ago. Again, I have only the kid dose ones, so I gave her two boluses at different points in the last 2.5 months. I also need a balling gun that does better at getting it past her teeth. She chomped the capsule last time.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I have to agree that they are probably all good on minerals and that's why they have backed off. My goats have never really been into minerals but I found wind and rain cattle minerals with Very high copper (I think 3000 or 3500 ppm) and I can not keep it in front of them. They even get in fights and knock the pail tub on the fence over even though it's tied on there. 


Sent from my iPhone using Goat Forum


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Try giving the copper in a treat , i used banana and it worked like a charm. From what i have learned here that it doesn't effect the copper bolus if they do chomp down or chew them. That coming from a very knowledgable source on here. Anyways , yeah , i feel the same way about the Purina minerals , the salt is much higher then the others.


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## chuckles (Aug 7, 2014)

Since your feed store carries Ranchway products, ask them about special ordering Sweetlix Meat Maker mineral. The last time I checked, the Ranchway store in Fort Collins carries it.


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Hmmm, will have to see about that. I go down into Colorado regularly for pelleted goat feed (not that it is the best feed, but Murdoch's stopped carrying pelleted Noble Goat feed, and only has pelleted MEDICATED feed for them, or a showmaster blend that was not really what I needed for the girls). 

On that note, any northern Colorado dairy goat folks have pointers on where to get pelleted goat feed for dairy does? I end up getting the Dumor pelleted feed at TSC, but would like to learn more about other feeds for them. Can't get ADM here, tried that (her breeder gets it, but gets it from someone they know from a ways away from here). Bree has had digestive issues since freshening this spring (that are hopefully being resolved through this cocci treatment we have given her this past week, and she had strongyles before that in May), and I saw way too many undigested grains going through her earlier this year to give her mixed grains or sweet feed right now.


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Just for reference, this is the shape all the girls are in. I took these about ten days ago. Ruby is the red/brown doe, Silvie is the grey doeling, Molly is the black doeling, and Bree is the blond. The boy's picture in my avatar was from that same day too. 

Silvie still has her stubborn little cough, in spite of being treated with broad spectrum antibiotics/wormer/Baycox (she wasn't running a temp, cocci was in her stool, went ahead and wormed her with ivomec in case she had lungworms, and the vet recommended I try a broad spectrum antibiotic in case it was from an infection). I gave them all (the young ones) a prevention round of Baycox last weekend, before the vet told me my doe had a moderate cocci load. I am about to see if Benadryl does anything for this cough, to rule out allergies. 

Maybe Ruby's tail is just the fact that it hasn't grown new hair for the fall yet, so I am still dealing in old issues looking like ongoing ones? I did trim Ruby's tail a little too short accidentally when I gave it a snip recently to even it out, so it makes her tail look woefully short next to Silvie and Molly's, whose tails are LONG!


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## jrf2013 (Oct 17, 2013)

I have had the same problem my 2 goats, they won't touch their MannaPro minerals. One day I decided to take the minerals out of their house and put it with their hay feeder. That seemed to help, for now lol


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## cheesedoddle (Nov 19, 2013)

Not that am very experienced, but they look well too me. I always try to keep soaked kelp out free choice in addition to any other minerals I give. (my herd of five does two doings and five kids went though about fifty pounds in the last four mouths) I would make sure give probiotics, once you stop the antibiotics.


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

I haven't tried Manna Pro. Mine love Sweet Lix Dairy Magnum, but don't usually like the Cargills Right Now Onyx.


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