Cabbage comes with a lot of great health benefits, then, as I’ll get into, but the very fact that it is so nutrient rich means you need to be careful of how much you give them.
Cabbage itself should be an occasional treat that is swapped out with other treats.
Let’s look into this.
Is cabbage good for goats?
Yes, in lots of ways!
For one thing, goats, even though they are known to eat virtually anything, are also known to love cabbage.
Getting some tasty and interesting snacks into their diet is really essential, and cabbage is one of many great choices.
It is filled with many health vitamins, such as vitamin C, K and B12.
These vitamins serve a wide variety of purposes in the body, but overall they aid in blood sugar levels, they help keep the immune system strong, and they promote hearth and respiratory health.
Other than that, cabbage is a fantastic source of fiber.
Fiber is an essential part of your goat’s diet, since most of what it eats is fiber in the form of hay.
Nonetheless, it can always benefit from more in the rest of its diet.
Fiber helps your goat break down the rest of its diet, and keeps digestion flowing smoothly.
Cabbage is also rich in many antioxidants.
Antioxidants prevent the formation of free radicals in your goat’s cells, which can do serious damage to their body if your goat isn’t getting enough antioxidants.
All this said, though, there are important caveats you need to keep in mind about feeding cabbage to your goats.
Is cabbage bad for goats?
Inherently, no, cabbage is not bad for goats. There is nothing toxic or poisonous to them in cabbage.
That said, the name of the game is moderation. You’ve got to know how much they’re eating.
Three quarters of your goat’s diet should be hay and forage from the pasture.
Almost all of it, basically.
The rest should be made up of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, of which cabbage would be a still smaller part.
The fact that cabbage is so nutrient rich is precisely why it must be strictly moderated.
They only need to eat a small amount before they get all the nutrition they need.
Any more, and it will cause them digestive pain, sitting undigested in their gut.
So, only feed them small amounts of cabbage once or twice a week, and be sure to change up their diet as much as you can to get the best range of nutrients.
Can goats eat raw cabbage?
Raw cabbage is definitely the way to give cabbage to your goats.
The food you give them should do its best to mimic a natural, wild diet, and obviously, this means that all their food should be raw.
They will prefer the raw cabbage, not only for the taste but for the texture and crunch.
Not to mention, cooked cabbage may well have been covered in more ingredients, like oils or spices, that are less than pleasing to a goat.
Raw cabbage is the way to go.
Can goats eat cooked cabbage?
While they certainly can, and if you have some small amounts of leftover cabbage that you’d rather not throw away, the likelihood is your goat will be fine eating it.
However, there’s no reason to specifically prepare it for them in this way.
If you have the option, always give it to them raw.
They will prefer it this way, and it stands no chance of harming them with something else that has been cooked into it.
Cabbage is a great and very healthy addition to your goat’s diet, then, when used in the right amounts.
Overfeeding will quickly become a problem, and affect your goat’s health, as well as depriving it of other nutrients it needs.
As long as you can keep it to a minimum, once or twice a week in small amounts, cabbage is a great treat for your goats.
Just remember, it’s just that—a treat!
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