Goat is sneaking into chicken coop???

[lea]

No we have no fences as yet. Somehow a saanen goat (full grown) is sneaking through the chicken sized pop holes into the shed to eat their mash. We have put all sorts of barriers outside and inside including making the hole smaller. Is she missing something in her diet? I cannot fathom how she does it?! I thought poultry mash would be bad for goats etc.

[mikethebike]

Hi lea
Dont know about mash but our goats and sheep will kill for grains that we put out for the chooks and goats are full on Houdini's so i guess if they can get out they can get in! especially if theres food at the end i'm fairly sure mash will be harmless to your goat but others might disagree, as for missing something in their diet i doubt it just greedy.

[Simkin]

Hi Lea,

it is VERY bad if your goat gets chook mash. As far as I'm aware it says on chook food bags that this food contains meat meal and is not intended for ruminants. This is how BSE surfaced - ruminants eating dead ruminants. So far no case of BSE has ever been identified in NZ but that doesn't mean that it can't get established here.

You should take a video of your goat entering the chook pen through the chook size door - I'm sure TVNZ would be interested in this.

Are your chooks free ranging? You might get away with giving them grains only plus a few scraps or organic chook mash does not contain meat meal - but check with the manufacturer just to make sure. Then it does not pose a risk to your goat.

Or - feed your chooks a bit of grains in the morning and get pellets and feed your chooks in the evening when your goat is tied up?? Only as much as the chooks can eat within a few minutes.

[HarryPotter]

Hey Lea..it is quite bad for goats to eat chook food because it contains animal biproducts such as bone meal etc. There are laws against it I think. This is why there are now notices on bags of mash, pig food and horse food to warn against feeding such feeds to ruminants.

[lea]

Try telling the goat that. I thought I had read it on the bags as being bad for ruminants. Next time I will carry a camera. It's not just getting through a chicken size hole but through barriers on either side. How??? I just cannot work that one out. Greedy yes. Why is there bone meal and animal by-products in chicken mash? Going to make the holes even smaller and more of them so we don't inconvenience the chickens too much. Maybe put a box in front to make a little tunnel to shed proper.

[Telly]

Originally Posted by lea

Why is there bone meal and animal by-products in chicken mash? .

Because chickens are omnivorous.

[Kiwi303]

bone is a cheap source of calcium... and the meat and blood scraps are good sources of protein, and as slaughter house discards, cheaper then soy protein meal or other sources.

it's a case of the almighty dollar winning out.

[Simkin]

Meat meal contains lots of protein (compared to grass) and chooks need this for optimum nutrition. Goats don't

[lea]

Just never thought of the protein being from animals. Yes I know they eat meat as they can be vicious little things sometimes. The home hens scare my cats from their food if I am not around.