What’s New on Pasqualina’s Plate?
Last summer was our first summer with goats, and my first experience with goats, so I wasn’t very adventurous in what to feed them. They were only between five to seven months old at that point, so I was nervous I’d give them something that would upset their digestive tracts. We stuck to feed, fresh grasses, and hay.
Now that lots of fruits and veggies are coming into season, though, and we have a big strong Mamma goat, I feel like it’s time to test Pasqualina’s palate. Besides, there are also a lot more peels and shavings and even the errant strawberry that’s going off, so it’s a great way to recycle the food, so to speak (if the goats don’t eat it, it goes to the chickens).
So after making sure the food is not poisonous for goats, I’ve been trying new samples with Pasqualina, always a little at a time as you never want to give goats large amounts of any new food as it can, indeed, upset their digestive systems.
You’ve already seen some results of our new experimenting with pea pods and cantaloupe; Pinta hasn’t shown interest in anything but the pea pods and prickly pear cactus so far, but we’ll keep an eye on that too.
One huge surprise for me has been the strawberry. Pasqualina won’t even take one! How can you not like this fresh from the garden?
It’s been a fun experience for me, so I’m now keeping track of what Pasqualina (and eventually Pinta) likes and doesn’t like to eat on a page called “Goat Eats,” which you can always find in the upper right corner of every page.
Please feel free to tell me what your goats like and don’t like in the comments!
12 Responses to “What’s New on Pasqualina’s Plate?”
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GoatSpotting!
Goats that readers have spotted out and about. Send your photos to michelle(at)goatberries(dot)com!
Oh, I love strawberries and apples and oak leaves and maple leaves and all kinds of flowers. I like most anything.
Ooh Pasqualina and Pinta *love* oak leaves too; we don’t have maples here, but I’m sure they’d love them. They also *love* olive trees…don’t know about olives, but one of my dog steals them off one of our little trees!
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That looks delicious! Poor Pasqualina doesn’t know what she’s missing!
My goat, Spot, is VERY naughty for any petsitter if we want to go away… she plays keep away very effectively. I started giving her a Ritz cracker or some raisins every time I caught her for milking… hoping against hope it would help our petsitter.
We are visiting my Mom-In-Law in September… let’s hope Spot’s love of raisins and Ritz crackers overcomes her “naughty” ways! grin
Haha, good luck to the goatsitter! I’m sure Pasqualina would love raisins; I seem to recall her liking the growing grapes on the grapevines…must add that to the list!
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Oh, and pumpkins and squash. We get all the pumpkins that aren’t carved for Halloween or turned into pies. Yummy!
We don’t have a whole lot of pumpkins around here, but I’ll bet Pasqualina will like zucchini! Love it!
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Oh, my three goats LOVE almonds, tortilla chips, cuties, olive trees, oranges, apples, bananas, radishes, and pretzels!!! We Adore your Website Ms. Michelle!
-Livi (13-year-old girl), Nico (Pygora Goat), Jac (Nigerian Dwarf Goat), And Charlie (Also a Nigerian Dwarf Goat)
Thanks so much for coming by Livi! Looking forward to visiting your place 🙂
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I’m a little concerned because I have just checked out the Fias Farm site and noticed that she has tomatoes as being ok for goats. I actually fed organic tomato tops and tails to two of my goats and POISENED them with it. They were both extremely poorly and Dylan died! Please please be careful with tomatoes – I won’t ever feed them to my goats again!
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michelle Reply:
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Oh my goodness, Jane, I’m so sorry to hear about Dylan and your other sickly goat 🙁 How terrible! I don’t ever give mine tomatoes because the hens like them so much, but I do know that tomato leaves/stems (anything in the nightshade family) are not great for most animals if not all. I wonder if they got a bit too much of the plant and not enough of the fruit? Ugh. My heart breaks for you 🙁
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michelle Reply:
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Oh I should also add, you might want to contact Molly at Fias Co. and let her know what happened so she can reconsider tomatoes on the list?
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We have seven Pygmy Goats and peanuts have almost become part of their regular diet. We purchase salted peanuts in the shell. At first they will eat the shell only. They have learned to crack the shells and spit out the nut. When they are done eating shells they will then pick through the nuts. Our kids also love acorns in the fall. We noticed that they are very selective about the acorns they ate. Curious, I started cutting open the acorns they refused and found every one of them to have a worm. Pretty smart Kiddos!
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michelle Reply:
September 13th, 2011 at 7:22 am
Haha they are smart, aren’t they? I think I’d like to come to your house for snack time…I love peanuts too 🙂
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hi, i’ve been reading your blog i think its gr8, i have reared several goats in my time but i have 1 special girl her name is jj she is as part of our family as our dogs, cats ,birds & the rest of the menagery… she is an absolute gutz, adorable gutz that is !!! she will eat ANYTHING ! her fav apart from grain, hay & cabbage leaves are kiwi fruit peel & flesh, if your outside eating “oh boy” you’d better have 1 for her, or yours will be gone.!
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Banana peels!
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michelle Reply:
December 10th, 2012 at 10:21 am
YUM! (that was from the girls) 😉
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