Can Goats Eat Buttercups?

Can Goats Eat Buttercups? (Are Buttercups Safe For Goats?)

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While it would take quite a large amount to do any serious harm, the simple fact is that buttercups are toxic to goats. For the most part, goats will avoid them, especially after trying them once out of curiosity. So, while there’s very little real danger, my advice would still be exercise caution.

 

Buttercups might be small and unassuming flowers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hide a dark secret.

After all, it isn’t the goal of most flowers to be eaten—they want to avoid this, if possible.

A universal way that many flowers do this is by becoming somewhat toxic.

Not enough to kill the animal, but enough to put it off eating it again.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Buttercups?

 

Are buttercups good for goats?

No, is the simple answer.

There is some nutrition to speak of, but I will do so to highlight how you are better off getting such nutrients from other sources, in greater quantities and more safely.

Firstly, in general, goats are quite attracted to colorful flowers.

Goats don’t have the best color vision, but they are far from colorblind.

They actually use color vision to identify tasty flowers in the wild.

So, your goat might seem to like buttercups in that sense.

Being able to forage for a wide variety of foods is good for them in a few ways.

In terms of actual, tangible nutritional benefit, though, there’s not much to speak of.

The plant is a reasonable source of fiber, which should constitute the backbone of their diet.

Even eating a diet of 75% hay, they can still benefit from extra fiber.

That said, there’s little fiber in buttercups compared with countless other, much safer foods.

So, there’s really not much advantage to feeding them buttercups.

They would much prefer fresh fruit or vegetables, and there are many additional advantages to these foods.

Let’s look at why they might be actively harmful.

 

Are buttercups bad for goats?

Though it would take a rather large quantity, as I said, to do any serious harm, the fact is that it is still entirely possible.

The problem is that buttercups do tend to grow in quite large quantities, and if your goats have nothing else, then they may well turn on these flowers.

Buttercups contain something called ranunculin.

When you grind or crush the leaves, that compound breaks down to form an oil called protoanemonin.

This is a toxic substance and it can even cause skin conditions like dermatitis if goats come in contact with it.

When ingested, it is even worse.

It can cause indigestion, pain, diarrhea, and in the most extreme cases, eventually fatal injuries.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so even though it would be a lot of buttercups before your goat had these problems, for my money they’re best avoided entirely.

Can goats eat buttercup flowers?

Buttercup flowers, as I mentioned, are what will most likely attract your goat to the flower.

They may well try them, but they shouldn’t. In most cases, your goats will know instinctively what to avoid—especially after they’ve already tried it.

In any case, the flowers contain less of the ranunculin than the leaves, but they are still far from completely safe.

And, besides, your goat would do very well to eat the flower without eating the rest of the plant, too.

 

Can goats eat buttercup stems?

If there was any worthwhile part of the buttercup plant for your goat to eat, it would be the stem.

This is the most fibrous part of the plant, and likely contains the most nutrients.

As I said, though, you can get much better sources of fiber out of things that aren’t also poisonous.

Not to mention the simple fact that it is only trace amounts of fiber, anyway.

Don’t let your got eat buttercup stems.

 

Can goats eat buttercup leaves?

The leaves are the worst part of the plant.

As I said, it is when the leaves are ground or crushed up that they release the toxic oil that causes harm.

In a large buttercup plant, there could be enough leaves to at the very least cause your goat serious harm.

So, as you can see, there is really no part of the buttercup plant that is safe.

Even if it were, it would only be minimally beneficial in any case, so there’s really no reason to give your goats buttercups.

 

So, while I may sound like I am being excessively cautious, the wider point is that there really isn’t much benefit to goats eating buttercups in the first place.

As far as goats are concerned, they are more or less nutritionally void.

There isn’t anything in them that your goat could not get in better quantities from a non-poisonous source.

You don’t have too much to worry about if there are buttercups growing on their pasture, but don’t go out of your way to feed them buttercups.

 

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