# Chocolate in Goats Diet



## breezywayfarm (Jan 21, 2008)

We can buy bags of ground up chocolate for cheaper than a bag of molasses. If we mix this chocolate in as a replacer of molasses, will it hurt goats? If their bred?
Thanks so much!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Molasses is mostly used to add glucose to the diet. Chocolate wont do that .


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## goatkid (Nov 20, 2005)

Do NOT give chocolate to goats. It's poison to goats, dogs and cats.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

After you've been on the board a while, you'll discover that molasses is pretty controversial. There's a faction that is opposed to molasses at all because it's bad for the pH of the rumen. There's a faction that uses sweet feed with molasses.

Just a heads up.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

> Do NOT give chocolate to goats. It's poison to goats, dogs and cats.


And small children.

Chocolate contains theobromine which is a stimulant similar to caffeine. Not good in large quantities.


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## prairiedog (Jan 18, 2007)

wish someone would tell my dog that he is 10 and has been eating chocolate all his life


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## CookingPam777 (Oct 16, 2007)

prairiedog said:


> wish someone would tell my dog that he is 10 and has been eating chocolate all his life


Tell me about it when we got our first ever dog she downed a pound of fugde I bought for my brothers b-day. As new dog owners we expected her to croak over that second. But she lived and is doing wonderful. And has since ate a ton of chocolate.


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

breezywayfarm said:


> We can buy bags of ground up chocolate for cheaper than a bag of molasses. If we mix this chocolate in as a replacer of molasses, will it hurt goats? If their bred?
> Thanks so much!



I would not feed chocolate to farm animals.


Molasses is used in feed for two main purposes.

1. To hold down and combine the dust together from the fines where it is ground up.

2. To encourage, and entice animals to try something new when they first start eating feed. Mainly to small baby livestock as a feed starter because it is sweet.

Molasses is not really needed in any feed, and it has very little feed value to livestock.

Just runs up the cost of feed, which the industries feed companies like.

Using to much can cause loose bowls ... diarrhea, scours.


bumpus
.


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## Naturaldane (Apr 24, 2008)

theobromine is a higher concentrate in darker bitter chocolates so if your feeding a milk chocolate your probably not going to see much effect unless your dog gets allot of it at once. It is a toxin to the body and the body has a hard time getting rid of it and it can build up. Kidney and liver damage is hard to see from the outside.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

breezywayfarm said:


> We can buy bags of ground up chocolate for cheaper than a bag of molasses. If we mix this chocolate in as a replacer of molasses, will it hurt goats? If their bred?
> Thanks so much!


Any chocolate you can buy cheaper than molasses is probably a very low grade chocolate. I have no personal experience with feeding chocolate to goats, so I won't say it will or won't hurt them, but I don't know why in the world you feel obligated to give chocolate or molasses to your goats in the first place.

Most goats in the world live their entire lives and never taste grain. It certainly doesn't _need_ anything sweet like that. When I want to give my goats a treat, I throw a tree limb with leaves attached over the fence, or I throw them out a banana peel.


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## TennesseeMama23 (May 10, 2006)

I am another that would like to know why you want to feed molasses to goats? What do you think it does for them?


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## breezywayfarm (Jan 21, 2008)

We don't feed the molasses directly to the goats, it gets mixed in the feed to help as a sweetner and to add energy. And the chocolate is not a low grade, there's nothing wrong with it. It all comes from Hershey. But some of the choclate they can not sell because the machine that does that wrapping gets messed up or something simple like that. We live in central PA so were only about 40 minutes from hershey.


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## breezywayfarm (Jan 21, 2008)

And I didn't mean to start anything by asking, I was just simply wondering if chocolate could be substituted in instead of molasses without endangering the goats.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I think the answer is.....

Don't do it.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Chocolate and molasses are 2 totally different things.
Pure chocolate isn't even sweet! Processed chocolate is pure junk and I dont see how it wouldn't hurt eventually. It doesnt provide people with any good.
It sure isnt needed for the goats. It could rot their teeth too out I would think.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Give the goats something else. I'll PM you my address to help you get rid of all that excess Hershey's chocolate.


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## breezywayfarm (Jan 21, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies. Ha and Ernie, I don't think you'd wanna eat it, it's all grounded up, so itd be like eating cocoa powder or something.


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## AnnaS (Nov 29, 2003)

You could get a sample of the chocolate and have it analyzed for feed value by a DHIA lab or university vet lab. These test are pretty cheap- under $20, usually. This will give you a breakdown of what nutrients are in there. Once you have the analysis, a dairy nutritionist at the same place should be able to give a recommendation.

The feed "bible", Morrison's "Feeds and Feeding", condemns cocoa meal (ground cacao hulls) as a feed, mostly because of the theobromine and caffeine. Chocolate, however, may have a completely different composition, especially the Hershey milk chocolate.

A side note-dark chocolate, like baker's chocolate, is quite toxic to dogs. Fudge and milk chocolate are more diluted and much less likely to cause problems.


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## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

I have been to Hershey a few times and I am glad I do not live close to there. Heck I don't care if it is ground up I would toss it in the microwave for a few seconds and eat melted chocolate, probably gain 10 pounds too, lol.

My dogs have eaten chocolate so many times it should have killed them. One bottle baby goat discovered that he could reach the kitchen counter and while I was heating his bottle found he loved chocolate cake. None of it was dark chocolate as I do not like it.

River I disagree they have found Antioxidents in chocolate, the darker the better and have found it is in fact benefical. And the other benefit is that I happen to like it so it can make me feel better and not rip people's faces off at certain times of the month.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

hmmmm...Maybe Gretta could use some chocolate to stop being such a bully


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

Annette Maze, ADGA director for many many years, ADGA judge, owner of Kismet Marvin's Smooth Operator when he finished his championship, owner of very competitive Nubians for years and one of the original owners of the first imports of frozen embryo boers and ABGA, INBA guru....used to get a truck load of skittles delivered to her barns. She used to tell us the goats got a handful and so did she at milking time.

What you using the feed for? With good alfalfa for calcium and protein the chocolate or candy or donuts could eaisly supply goats the energy, fat and calories they need.

With the economy we all are going to have to rethink our set in stone ideas about nutrition. I kept my group in excellent flesh over the winter during the last part of lactation and early milking on day old bakery products, not molded or nasty, just out of date. My first show out we topped every milking class we went into. Over 60 kids, almost 50 of them doelings born to 21 does, no metobolic disease and I have a 6 year old Nubians milking 15 pounds. So I would say it was a success, I will repeat it next winter, if I could continue it during the year I would, with our humidity I would be fighting mold all the time.

I think Anna's adivce is sound I would ask a nutritionist to run the chocolate you can get through his feed calculator, you know darn well there are farms all over your area feeding this!

My goats have never died from M&M's, the oaks the pines and the many other things that others will tell you are poisionous to them.

Of course like everything, start slowly and build even slower. One donut for them, one donut for me  vicki


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## DixyDoodle (Nov 15, 2005)

I've heard stories also about how some people have fed chocolate to their dogs and they were ok. On the other hand, why risk it? I love my dogs and don't want to take the chance. Too late once they're dead, right? 

My Aussie mix scarfed down a whole "chocolate orange" on Christmas Day. I rightly freaked out and called the vet. She said to dose her with a tablespoon of salt and stand back before 10 minutes were up. It definitely worked! She also said that dark chocolate was the worst for dogs (the orange was milk kind). So maybe people that proclaim chocolate is safe are feeding their dogs milk chocolate? Be careful if you feed dark, perhaps a nasty surprise will be in order! 

I would not feed chocolate to my goats. Aside from it being a generally non-nutritious form of feed, I would be concerned with the sugar content, that it might cause hoof issues (founder).


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Well, I don't feed chocolate to my dog or goats because (A) it's too expensive and (B) it's not natural. 

Whether it's poisonous or not, I have no firsthand knowledge of. However, a dog's digestion did not evolve to handle something that sweet. When I want to give Samwise (my Australian Shepherd) a treat, I toss him a chicken heart or liver or a fresh egg. My wife says I dote on that dog, so he gets lots of treat. But I ask you ... how can you not love a dog who throws back his head and howls along whenever you play Merle Haggard?


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