# feeding bread to goats? is it ok?



## zukgod (Jan 28, 2007)

So I bought a ton of 2 day old bread to feed to the animals. I am hoping it is ok to feed to the goats? None of it has any mold advice.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

Not as a sole food source. A treat only. I wouldn't feed more than a couple of slices of bread to any goat. I wouldn't feed more than a couple of slices of bread to any livestock. I hope you have a lot of animals, or maybe you can freeze it.


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## zukgod (Jan 28, 2007)

what is the reason to not feed them to much bread? Seems like it would be just like grain. I am sure I am wrong.


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## oberhaslikid (May 13, 2002)

I buy a grocery cart full every week to feed to my 100 chickens and to 13 goats.I only feed as a treat the goats get 4-5 loaves a day and the chickens the same so they dont over do it but I would give them a small amount to start with Dont over do it .They can get bound up if they get too much.


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## 13Blackbirds (May 29, 2005)

We feed day-old bread as a protein suppliment. We raise meat goats who need lots more to eat. They get medicated grain plus bread. We feed about 40lbs of bread a day. The only down-side - how much time it takes to open all those loaves!


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

13Blackbirds said:


> We feed day-old bread as a protein suppliment.


How much protein can there be in day-old bread? :shrug: The loaf of rye we have open right now says that there are 2g per 1 slice. It is worth your time?
We don't regularly eat white bread, so I don't think we'd feed it to the animals. We don't feed wheat to our goats (gluten) so wewouldn't feed wheat bread to them. 

Got any pigs?


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## zukgod (Jan 28, 2007)

no pigs yet, but we are working on it. I guess I will just use it as a treat for the goats. Maybe a loaf a day or something. They sure did enjoy the maple bars =-)


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

the maple bars!!! thats a riot. My [human]kids would be Mad at me for feeding stale maple bars to the goats. They'd at LEAST want to lick all the frosting off em first. We feed our goats the grist from brewing: barley, corn, rice, etc... they eat a LITTLE, then the horse cleans up their mess. Goats can be pretty picky, in my opinion. Poop in grain bucket full of feed, then go eat the bark off the walnut trees...?! blech.


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

zukgod said:


> So I bought a ton of 2 day old bread to feed to the animals. I am hoping it is ok to feed to the goats? None of it has any mold advice.


I don't know anything about goats. But I do know that they used to throw a loaf of white bread to the bears at Yellowstone Park so the tourists could take pictures, and they had to stop the practice because too many of the bears were dying from tumors in their liver.

It kinda makes you stop and think.

Donsgal
who doesn't eat white bread - ever


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## LomahAcres (Jan 21, 2007)

Our goats LOVE bread. It's nice to have around during worming time. Lay it on a slice of bread and it's gone before you know it.  We don't feed it regular, just every so often when we have extra on hand. A fellow goat person I know, gives a loaf a week to each of his goats.


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## zukgod (Jan 28, 2007)

We don't eat white bread either. With the bread I purchased there was about 50 loafs of white and I tossed em all in the compost. I would only feed the whole grain to the goats or chickens because that is all I would eat. Thanks for all the advice I sure appreciate it.


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

I know some folks do this, but I wouldn't suggest it. I fed day-old to my goats? I about killed them. Seems it was too much yeast for their rumen.

IF you gradually build up? Maybe. But don't feed any sweet treats (ho's, dongs, twinks, etc.) to them. It's too much sugar and yeast.

My goats took quite a while to recover, but I learned my lesson.

And I did have a dog that developed a taste for those 'shortcakes' for strawberries that were with the day-old? I couldn't secure them well enough for Ginger. She would find them ANYWHERE. She gained 30 lbs. Wowzers.


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

The dairy farmer I bought some babies from last year feeds his goats tons of bread. He buys it at an outlet. That includes lots of white bread, doughnuts and cakes and cookies---thinks it makes the milk sweeter.

I have to say, his goats aren't the healthiest. He is an old French-Canadian farmer and he thinks that the bread is superior nutrition because it is "made for humans"... :help: 

Last winter, we got several loads of bread from a food pantry that couldn't use it in exchange for eggs. We didn't take any white bread. Did you know that rats fed a diet of only white bread and nothing else die of malnutrition? 

We kept a lot of the wheat and whole grain and multi grain breads for ourselves and put our favorite stuff in the freezer. The rest we fed to the goats and chickens. Not a lot at a time. I would add five ripped up slices into each grain trough. Each grain trough feeds about 5 goats. 

Boy, they went for those pieces of bread first! It is also good, as one poster mentioned, for giving wormer. They don't even notice the wormer when given that way!

But I wouldn't feed too much, I wouldn't feed it exclusively, and I wouldn't feed anything but whole grain.

It really isn't good for their rumens. I didn't do it this year. Just to worm them.

HTH!


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

Bread is often not as cheap as it may appear. In terms of Total Digestable Nutrients, available protein, and often in terms of just plain per-ton cost, bread and cookie plant wastes are often beaten soundly by other bulk feedstuffs.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

donsgal said:


> I don't know anything about goats. But I do know that they used to throw a loaf of white bread to the bears at Yellowstone Park so the tourists could take pictures, and they had to stop the practice because too many of the bears were dying from tumors in their liver.
> 
> It kinda makes you stop and think.
> 
> ...


Hmmm... where did you read this, or did you work at Yellowstone at the time?

Not meaning to be rude, but I must respectfully disagree.

The Park (Yellowstone NP)had seats built at their dumping site, so visitors could watch the bears rummage through the food wasted by park visitors at Old Faithful and other establishments in the park. The practice was stopped by the Park Service because it was unnatural (in their eyes, although the Craighead brothers disagreed... they wanted the feeding program phased out over time, instead of all at once). The bears were congregating too heavily in one area, and were gaining dependence on humans. A dangerous situation, in which when bears become accustomed to human food, they sometimes lose the distinction between humans having food and humans being food.

Bears love easy food.

I'm sure loaves of bread were tossed by visitors... The practice is now a crime! Not because of tumors, but because it encourages the bears to beg (and sometimes attack humans).

I don't know diddly about goats and bread, (I do know my catfish and chickens dearly love bread, in all it's glorious manifestations...from white to black, and everything in between) but I can guarantee you, the grizzlies in Yellowstone weren't dying from tumors caused by bread. They were dying from lead poisoning, after the Rangers shot them, cause some yokel was feeding them and encouraging them to attack humans (Park Service frowns on bear attacks... its bad for business)

12 years experience as a Park Ranger (10 of those in Denali National Park, working directly/daily with grizzly bears)


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

When I go to the bread outlet I buy what is called "animal bread" It is a garbage sack full for $3. I put what I can in the freezer, and ration it out to the dogs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and treats for the goats. But it isnt their mainstay. 
Hey Texican, when I was a kid ( long long ago ) we would go to Yellowstone every summer. One summer a black bear attacked our camp. opened every ice chest, and ate all the contents! We were in tents, just feet away, listening to all the crunching and crashing! it was scarry for an 8 year old!! I can remember that as being the first (perhpas only) time I litterally shook with fear.
Any way, the ranger said we did everything right, cause all the "boxed" food was in the car, and we never dreamed the bear would break into the ice chests! (old metal kind with a secure latch)
Anyway, was intersting reading your post and remembering the bears at yellowstone, back in the 60's, when everyone fed them out the car windows.


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## Tam319 (Jan 6, 2007)

An excerpt from the NDSU Department of Animal and Range Sciences publication "_Alternative Feeds for Ruminants_" (page 11) found here: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/beef/as1182.pdf:

"These products vary greatly, depending on the particular 
product which was discarded. They are generally high 
in energy, and may contain relatively high levels of fat. 
These products also tend to ferment rapidly in the rumen. 
Therefore, levels should be limited to 20 percent or less 
of the diet to prevent digestive disturbances." 

Here is a great website about feeding alternative feeds to sheep and goats:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/dairy/facts/03-005.htm

I feed a small amount of bread to my pygmy goats as a treat in place of concentrates. I haven't had a problem. I typically feed the whole grain/brown breads to the goats and let the horses and pigs eat the white (in moderation of course).


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