Can You Feed a Goat Cucumber and Romaine Lettuce?

Goats have the reputation of being the ultimate omnivores, cheerfully willing and able to eat anything from the toughest weeds to laundry from the line. In truth, like cattle, sheep and other ruminants, they require a varied diet to stay healthy. Grass, hay and commercial feeds are the primary foods for most domestic goats, but they appreciate other tastes in their diet.

  1. The Standard Goat Diet

    • For farm-raised goats, pasturing is a primary source of food during warmer months. Allowing goats to browse in a natural manner is satisfying to the animal and inexpensive for the farmer. Those keeping goats as pets many not have enough land for adequate pasturing, in which case fresh, good-quality hay is the best replacement. This is also standard winter fodder on farms. Commercial goat feed is also available, but at a somewhat higher cost. Commercial feed combines compressed hay with grain and a variety of other foods, providing valuable proteins, fats and trace minerals.

    Grain and Goats

    • Grain is cheap and readily available in America, and it's common practice to feed it to domestic livestock. However, ruminants such as cattle and goats don't digest grain very well, and it should be just a small portion of the overall diet. Corn is especially problematic because it is difficult to chew; it's best to purchase cracked or milled corn for goats. Grains are higher in protein and fat than most forage foods, so they are valuable nutritive supplements for pregnant and nursing does, in particular.

    Garden Vegetables

    • Goats are fond of a varied diet, and escape attempts or poor eating are often the result of boredom with daily rations. Vegetable trimmings from the kitchen are always a welcome treat, and so are succulent garden vegetables like cucumbers and lettuces. Larger, harder vegetables, including turnips, rutabagas and carrots, should be shredded or cut into small strips before they are fed to the goats. Introduce new foods like these in small quantities and monitor your goats for any adverse effects.

    Food-Related Ilnesses

    • Goats can show food-related illness at any time, but it's most common in spring and fall when their diet changes. In fall, when the animals are brought inside and given dry fodder in place of forage, it's important not to give them too much grain too quickly. Many common plants and shrubs produce poisonous compounds during autumn when leaves are falling, especially when frozen overnight. In spring, as goats graze enthusiastically on new forage, they sometimes accidentally eat poisonous plants like water hemlock with fatal results.