# Going on vacation and feeding the goats



## Jubel (May 13, 2008)

First... I have three goats. Nobody is being milked right now. I feed hay and grain in the morning. They are not on pasture. 

Could I have someone come and feed and water every other day? Yes.. they wouldn't get feed every day, but we will only be gone 5 days. This is the only disadvantage of farm animals...getting away. 

TIA


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

I only trust one person to take care of my goats while on gone and she would have to take a vacation from her own farm. So we don't go on vacations. I would also feel horrible changing what they are used to eating but I don't see why they can't be fed that way as long as they have water and hay everyday.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Going on vacation is a trial. we have to actually hire an employee to leave for more than 12 hours.
What I would recommend is this. I don't know how your feeder set-up is, but you need to give them two whole square bales of hay. This will insure they do not run out, thus have no reason to freak out. They will be looking for someone who doesn't come with the grain, but if your enclosure is secure, they would be ok.


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## Jubel (May 13, 2008)

Lonely farmer.... questions? 

I was going to have the person come every other day. Do you mean give them 2 square bales of hay every 2 days or for the 5 days. 

Thanks!


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## gila_dog (Jun 17, 2011)

You don't say where you live. If you live in a place where the animals' water freezes, that could be the big problem. I think you could have somebody leave 2 days worth of hay and not have a problem. I would be careful leaving that much grain, tho. They are going to pig out the 1st day, and eating that much grain could be a problem. And they aren't going to starve if they miss 5 days worth of grain. 

I think the main thing is that they have clean water every day. If it freezes and they can't drink every day, that could be the biggest problem.

We solve our animal feeding problem by taking care of the neighbors' critters when they want to go on vacation. Then they do the same for us. What goes around, comes around.


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

I would have someone come every day. Yes, every day.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

I'd be concerned about the water - what if they poop in the water immediately after the person leaves? Then they won't drink for two days.


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## mpete (Mar 4, 2008)

If you can't have someone come to your place every day, can you take your goats to them?
I would not leave someone to care for them every other day because there are several problems:
*If they don't eat regularly then you can have life threatening problems emerge
*If they get injured or a predator gets in your pen, your person would not know about it for a day or 2
*If they get out of their enclosure no one would know
*something happens to your person and your animals don't get fed at all (yes, that happens)
*your person just doesn't feed them the right way


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## hiddensprings (Aug 6, 2009)

I agree with everyon else, it is better to have someone come every day. A lot can happy in a 24 hour period.


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## Jubel (May 13, 2008)

Cool, but not frozen water.
We are kind of in a neighborhood... no predators. 3 acres...etc. Secured fencing. 

I may have my helpers do a drive by and look at them on the days they aren't fed . ecspecially Wednesday.... it will be raining all day ( 3 inches) and the goats will stay in their house and munch all day. I won' t give them feed that day either. 

Thanks for your advice.


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## houndlover (Feb 20, 2009)

They need checked every day. Goats get out. Goats get into feed. Goats are goats.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

If you cant have someone feed everyday, someone should at least look at them and the water everyday. They need enough hay to last the whole time if possible. That way they are busy. When animals run out of feed is when they start looking for ways to escape. I always overfeed when we are going to be out of town. two square bales should last 3 goats 5 days. I have a dozen and they eat a bale a day.


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## FrogTacos (Oct 25, 2011)

I'm flying out Saturday for a week in Utah, paying a feller to show up twice a day for feeding, watering, and giving hay and giving everyone a good eyeball.

The best you can do is the best you can do - so long as the health of your herd isn't at jeopardy.


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## duckidaho (Dec 31, 2008)

We use a very responsible teen (his mother is our midwife and she serves as an adult backup) as a farmsitter. He comes twice a day for a very reasonable fee (I think $20 a day). He checks and feeds goats, feeds barn cats, collects chicken eggs, feeds and waters chickens, and checks on the house cat. I know that can add up fast, but it's the cost of having a farm and wanting to go out of town.

We will be sad when he goes to college. :-(


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

Hate to scare you but I must share a story...
Friends have a few animals just pets. They had an opportunity of a lifetime to go on a cruise. They hired a 4-H girl to come by 2x a day. They also had a neighbor that was very familiar with their animals to keep an eye on things.
They also left the girl my number, I am 15 mins away.
I got a phone call one day. One of the goats, their favorite , was bloated. What should she do. My response was " Call the vet , tell him it is an emergency".
She choose to call the neighbor. He decided to stick a knife in the poor thing's belly. She called me back, the goat is getting worse. I said 'CALL THE VET'

My friends got a phone call the next day that their beloved Natasha had died and that they buried her in the woods.

Be very careful about leaving them. Anything can happen.
Just yesterday one of our sheep got himself all tangled up in a small bit of electric fence wire like 18" long. Had I not been there for two days he would have lost his leg or worse.


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## hardworkingwoman (Jun 4, 2009)

I don't go away anymore either. Two times that I did something bad happened and I thought I could trust the person I had feed for me. One time I came home to a dead dog. The second time we were gone for 5 days and there was poop in the water buckets! I don't know how long it was in there but I did emphasize that if they do not change the water daily that they won't drink. So I stay home. They blamed it on having the kids with them and couldn't focus. Bull!!!! Leave the kids in the car or at home.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Unfortunately I have to agree. Almost everytime we leave, something dies. When we went to texas this past july for my brothers air force graduation, we hired the farm hand that had been working for us the whole summer already. two of my three billy goats died under his care. Both 3 years old, in their prime, hard to find grand national grand champion stock. Irreplace-able.
Thats life. We fired him when we got back, but that doesn't replace my billies.


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

I have a friend that gets me to farm sit for them when they go away. They insist on paying me something, but I would do it for free because they are good friends. They have a neighbor that is closer to them (lives across the road actually) that they asked to watch things for them before. My friend left her 2 small dogs at home and the neighbor was supposed to let them out to potty and check to see that all the other animals had water, etc. My friend was gone for 3 days and the neighbor never even let the dogs out of the house. No emergency or anything explainable - they just forgot or didn't have time or some other lame excuse. With the exception of an emergency situation (which I know does happen sometimes), I don't understand how anybody can agree to take care of animals for someone and then not even check on them once?? I was farm sitting for my friend last spring and my dad had to have emergency heart bypass surgery at a hospital nearly an hour away. I didn't get much sleep that week, but my friend's animals were cared for.

I have my mom and another good friend that would be willing to take care of things for me if I needed to be away for a few days and I trust them to do what they say they will.


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## hengal (Mar 7, 2005)

What about letting them out in the morning and locking them up at night? We just came back from a five day trip from California and had our neighbor come over every day, twice a day. Yes, I do realize we are incredibly blessed to have her so close. If we didn't, I would still have someone there at the very least, once a day. And yest, we pay her. She has a fuss about it but the peace of mind is priceless.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

We pay two local kids (brother and sister) to come out twice a day. Their mom supervises (they're 12 years old).

I insist on paying them well, b/c these are kids who were taught how to bust hiney to earn their money. I reason that, if they do a good job and I pay them well, they will be eager to come and chore and I'll have someone for at least another 5 or 6 years. 

You have to do what you must do, but leaving goats alone for a couple of days seems to be a recipe for disaster.


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## FrogTacos (Oct 25, 2011)

Dunno how your fencing is set up, I have cattle panels. One of my does is fairly good at getting her head stuck in the fence. Walked outside at 0530 yesterday and there she was, stuck in the pouring rain. 2 days of that would have killed her.


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## AuntKitty (Oct 25, 2004)

I may be jinxing myself by saying this, but since I got the auto filling things to go on top of the square "hang over the fence" buckets I use for water, no one has pooped in the water - not even once. Can't be coincidence because they poop in the food bucket that is a couple of feet away all the time :grump:

If you are going to leave them with just hay, I would wean them off the grain a little each day until you leave and then gradually put them back on the grain once you get back. They won't be happy, but at least it will cut down on possible tummy upsets.

If my Nubians don't come to the fence and yell for food when my neighbor gets home from work (before I do), she immediately goes looking for them to see if something is wrong...little divas!


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## HappyFarmer (Jun 17, 2006)

When we built our goat pastures we spent the money for chainlink. We scoured the pastures of old remnants of fencing, and made sure there was NOTHING they could get hurt on. There are only 3 ways for them to get hurt: jumping off a rock and landing wrong, drowning, or getting butted. 

When we go away for a week, they get hay enough for the whole week (pasture too). We request my kids, if they can, to stop by to check on them. IF they have time, grains measurements are located above the grain barrels. That's it.

They have the ponds for water, the dogs for protection, the safest pasture area possible, enough to eat (though no luxuries), and they are fine. They don't need grain during this week nor the off chance that they will get fed too much or the wrong feed by someone else.

HF


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