# Goats not drinking water!



## Debara (Apr 21, 2006)

Hello, Can anyone please tell me why or if your goats at times will not drink water through the day? My two goats are otherwise healthy.... Picky hay eating, fun loving goats.
Thanks, Debbie


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## Sher (May 10, 2002)

Hi Debera..Do your goats have plenty of salt/minerals out? Salt intake will definitely "encourage" them. Good luck!


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Also, how old are they?? Is the water clean and freshened daily??


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## Debara (Apr 21, 2006)

Our goats are 8 months old now. Yes, we scrub the bowl out at least every other day. What is odd is that, they will not drink from the dish they have in their sleeping pen... but only from the bowl that is out in the play pen. That bowl is used occasionally by our dogs and rooster. I am a fanatic about keeping all of our animals bowls cleaned! Yes, they also have salt and baking soda available to them. They do eat it.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

If they have lots of fresh browse and grass they are getting their water intake from that.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Maybe you should stop scrubbing the bowl, possibly the soaps leave a residue. Drop the bowl and use buckets, this may discourage the rooster, dogs and whatever else from quenching their thirst. Call me crazy but I never scrub a bucket, just rinse and fill. My twelve goats drink about four gallons of water a day, that's not much. Just trying to show you how little they tend to drink and if the water is touched by other animals they will even drink less...Tennessee John


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## AllWolf (Dec 27, 2005)

I agree with Bearfootfarm and another 


Good Luck on your goats.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Yes, I would try using a bucket as compared to a bowl. My goats drink water better if the tub is deep and mostly full.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Find a tub or a bucket to use. Actually, I reccomend one of those short metal tubs that you can use with a de-icer for the winter. For scrubbing, get one of those cup scrubbers and designate it as pet usage only! LOL Don't use soaps or anything, a simple rinse and scrub with the cup scrubber is perfect. I have hard water and that is the reason I scrub every time I fill thier tubs of water up... It gets gross!!
Also, what I've been doing lately is dropping a couple cloves of garlic (about 1 per 5 gallons) in all my animal's water (except dogs, who eat it...  ) and 1 'glug' of apple cider vinegar per 5 gallons as well. My chickens hardly ever have runny poo anymore since I started doing that. My goats showed no adversion to it, and if they did they got over it... they had no option but to drink what's availible! hehe.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

Mine are all drinking far less now that the weather is cool. Apart from the milking does, I really only top up the buckets once a day (I check them at least twice a day since my barn became the "Jonestown for rats")


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

Taste the water yourself and see if it's okay.
Or add a little ACV to it. Maybe that would improve the taste and encourage them to drink.


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## moonspinner (Jul 2, 2002)

Sounds like there's a clue in the drinking from one container and not another. Are your dishes different? Maybe there is an odor from the dish in the sleeping pen they don't like. Or maybe it's simply their habit now to avoid the water in the sleeping pen. As long as you've seen them drinking they should be okay.


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## Sweet Goats (Nov 30, 2005)

OK, I know you are going to think I am crazy. I have a 4Her that has goats that are SO pickey. They will only drink out of white buckets. They have black, pink, blue and green. They will be full and stay full while the white ones are always empty. I have bought toilet brushes that are only used on the tanks, and they are just scrubbed out with water.


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