What Should Goats Not Eat?

Goats are a browsing animal. They will eat grass if that's all that's left in the pasture, but they'd rather munch on leaves, twigs and bushes. They like weeds when they're young and tender, but their special favorites are rosebushes, flowers and anything you have planted in your garden. Even discounting all of the old wives' tales about goats eating tin cans and that feeding them tobacco rids them of worms, there's a long list of things goats should not eat.

  1. Animal Protein

    • Goats are strict herbivores and should never be fed animal protein in any form. This includes dog food, cat food, cattle feed (which often contains animal protein) or any commercial feed labeled for another animal. Stick to feed formulated especially for goats because these will meet their nutritional requirements.

    Alfalfa Hay

    • Alfalfa is very high in protein and is too rich for goats unless they are being milked daily. It has been implicated in a digestive problem called "frothy bloat," and also in the formation of crystals in the urine. Goats require a lot to roughage to stimulate their digestion, and grass hay is much better for them in general, besides being much less expensive.

    Poisonous Plants

    • Among the many plants that are toxic to all animals, including goats, are: milkweed, oleander, rhododendron, azaleas, lily of the valley, boxwood, holly, lilac, hydrangea, rhubarb and avocado leaves. Many of these are popular garden items, so goats should be kept out of the ornamental shrubbery and the kitchen garden.

    Rubbish

    • Oddly enough, goats have something in common with sharks -- they both bite out of curiosity, to see if something unfamiliar is edible. Goats will have an investigative nibble at almost anything, which is why they are reputed to eat tin cans when it's really the paper label and the glue attaching it that they are tasting. If they get at the trash cans or rubbish heap, they can encounter non-food items that they might swallow, including stray bits of sharp metal like wire or nails. These can pierce the reticulum (the second of a goat's four stomachs) and cause traumatic reticuloperitonitis, also known as "hardware disease."