As much as you may enjoy it, it’s certainly not good for your goats.
Their diet should consist entirely of plant matter, and there is no place in it for any kind of dairy, really.
Let’s look further into this.
Is butter good for goats?
No, it isn’t.
Nonetheless, let’s try and consider a few benefits of butter for goats—to illustrate how you can get the very same benefits from countless other foods that are much safer for them.
The fact is that your goats will probably enjoy eating butter.
This can, potentially, make it a good treat for them.
In very, very small quantities, very occasionally, perhaps even just being licked off your finger, it can be a nice treat for them to enjoy.
However, there are plenty of other, healthier treats that they will enjoy just as much.
There’s not even any guarantee that they will like butter—despite their reputation for eating anything.
They would much prefer fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes—plant-based foods.
Butter might be a good treat that they will enjoy, but it’s nutritionally void at best and potentially dangerous at worst.
So, while your goats may apparently enjoy the taste of butter, the fact is there is no advantage to giving it to them and plenty of disadvantages.
Let’s look at why butter is bad for goats.
Is butter bad for goats?
Yes, it is, for a wide variety of reasons.
To start the most common kinds of butter, are all going to contain dairy since they are derived from milk.
All butter will contain lactose, a special kind of sugar found only in animal milk.
While infant mammals possess a gut enzyme capable of breaking this down, adults do not.
Thus, if a goat eats butter, that lactose will sit undigested in its gut, causing pain and discomfort, and even diarrhea.
But the problems associated with butter don’t end there.
Most butter is also oil-based, and goats are also not equipped to handle these oils.
As I mentioned, these oils do not break down properly in the gut, and the goat’s gut microbes can be put off balance by such foods.
This, too, can lead to diarrhea.
Furthermore, butter is almost always very high in salt and other preservatives.
While salt is an important part of a goat’s diet, the amount they eat needs to be better regulated than it would be from butter.
The salt content in most normal butters is too high for them.
Broadly speaking, your goats should not be eating any highly processed foods on a regular basis.
Around three quarters of their diet should consist of high-quality hay or forage—the rest should be made up by a good variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes.
As you can see, all they need is plant matter.
So, apply this rule to their diet in general, and you will see why butter ought to be excluded from their diet.
But there are supposedly healthier versions—let’s consider these.
Can goats eat unsalted butter?
Unsalted butter might be better than butter with a high salt content, but that doesn’t mean it is good for them.
It’s still going to be high in oils and fats, and the lactose from the dairy. Again, butter is always going to be a highly processed foodstuff.
Unsalted butter is still off the menu for your goats.
Can goats eat plant-based butter?
You might think that butter without the issue of dairy would be safe for your goats since we have focused so much on that.
But dairy alone is not the issue, so even plant-based butter is still not a good idea to give to your goats.
Again, they will be high in salt, oils, fats, and other processed ingredients that are not good for them.
Don’t give your goat plant-based butter.
Can goats eat ghee?
No, goats cannot eat ghee, either.
Ghee is an Indian butter, what’s known as clarified butter, and is very commonly used in cuisines in India and the Middle East.
The main difference is the fat content.
It still contains all the issues with dairy, oils, and preservatives.
It is quite different to ordinary butter and used mostly for cooking rather than as a spread.
It is not safe for goats, and probably even more so than other butter due to the high-fat content.
Butter is just too highly processed to be safe for your goats, then, even before we talk about the actual ingredients themselves.
The most important thing is that your goats do not eat dairy of any kind, as they are simply not equipped to digest it.
Beyond that, even plant-based butter is going to contain quantities of fat, oil, and preservatives that are far too high for your goat and will almost certainly cause digestive troubles.
More in Dairy
- Can Goats Eat Butter?
- Can Goats Eat Cheese?
- Can Goats Eat Yogurt?