Can Goats Eat Elderberry?

Can Goats Eat Elderberry? (Revealed!)

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Yes, they can! Goats enjoy eating elderberry as a snack every now and then, although you shouldn’t let them eat too much, and they must be ripe. Elderberry represents a very tasty and nutritionally rich snack that your goats will love, but too much will cause problems—moderation is key.

 

So, the simple answer is yes, and indeed elderberry actually comes with a great deal of benefits for your goat.

You have to keep the quantities in mind, though.

Too much of any one complex food like elderberry is eventually going to cause problems, even if not immediately.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Elderberry?

 

Is elderberry good for goats?

The simple answer is yes—but it does take some planning.

Elderberries are packed with many benefits and nutrients in the right form, so let’s take a look at them.

Firstly, your goat will most likely love eating elderberries.

They are juicy, tasty, and flavorful, and you goat will really enjoy eating them.

They will keep them happy by adding some tasty variety to their diet.

Beyond that, they are a great source of fiber.

A goat’s diet should, really, be mostly fiber, since most of what they eat is hay.

Despite that, they still benefit a lot from any extra fiber they can get!

Further, elderberries are a good source of a variety of vitamins and minerals.

They are really rich in vitamin C, which is a great antioxidant.

Antioxidants are one of the most important things you can get in your goat’s diet—they prevent the formation of free radicals which damage your goat’s cells.

Elderberries contain many minerals, like potassium, folate and calcium.

These serve a variety of funcitons in the body from the functioning of the immune system to the strength of bones and muscles.

All this said, there are caveats.

 

Is elderberry bad for goats?

Elderberry is not inherently bad for goats.

They are not dangerous, as I said, as long as they are ripe—unripe elderberries can be seriously toxic, so you need to know how to distinguish ripe and unripe elderberries.

That said, your goat can probably do so better than you can.

The most important thing, though, is moderation.

You shouldn’t feed your goats huge quantities of elderberry.

The very fact that they are so nutritionally rich means that they only need to eat a small amount before they’ve extracted the full benefit.

Any more, and they could experience digestive pain and discomfort.

Once or twice a week, at most, is plenty.

Switch them out for other snacks in the rest of the week.

This will both keep them from getting bored and make sure they get the greatest range of benefits from their diet.

Now, the most important thing when it comes to giving your goat’s elderberries is that they are at the correct ripeness, so let’s look into that.

 

Can goats eat unripe elderberries?

No, absolutely not.

Unripe elderberries are potentially very dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs.

If you have an elderberry bush growing on your property, you needn’t really worry about your goat’s eating the unripe berries.

As I said, they are typically smart enough to know to avoid them.

That said, I would still keep an eye on it when the bush bears unripe fruit.

Unripe elderberries contain a number of compounds that, in the right quantities, are potentially deadly.

Again, your goat would need to eat a very large amount to suffer serious adverse effects, but you should nonetheless avoid them entirely.

But are they safe ripe?

 

Can goats eat ripe elderberries?

Yes, they can, and this is the safe way to feed them elderberries.

These do not contain the dangerous compounds, and pose no danger to your goats—indeed, they will love them!

You can tell a ripe elderberry from an unripe one mainly by the color of the fruit and the juice that comes out of it.

An unripe elderberry will be lighter, and the juice inside pale and watery.

Despite what you might think, goats are actually not colorblind.

This is how they are able to tell, usually on their own, a ripe from an unripe elderberry.

 

Can goats eat elderberry branches?

The branches of the bush aren’t off limits, either.

Again, as long as there are no unripe berries hiding anywhere on the branch, then they are perfectly safe for your goats to eat.

Whether they want to eat branches and bark is entirely up to them, of course.

It wouldn’t really do much good to try and actively feed them a branch—just give them the fruit.

 

As long as they are safely ripe and you aren’t feeding them too much, then, your goat will have no problem eating elderberries.

They are packed with all sorts of benefits, in fact, and your goat will love them.

The really important thing is that you only feed them ripe elderberries, as unripe elderberries contain problematic toxins.

As long as you keep all this and moderation in mind, your goats will have a great time eating elderberries.

 

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