Can Goats Eat Carrots

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

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Absolutely, goats love carrots! Goats love munching and crunching on healthy vegetables as part of a balanced diet. Carrots make a great treat for your goat, and as much as they might want to eat them all the time, you should still limit the amount of carrot you feed to your goat.

 

Goats love virtually all vegetables, with a few exceptions.

Carrots are a favorite, and very common in our cooking, so it’s great that goats can share your carrots.

You will need to keep a few things in mind, primarily moderation.

You can easily overfeed your goat with any fresh vegetable.

If you keep that in mind, your goat will love carrots.

Can Goats Eat Carrots

 

How many carrots a day can a goat eat?

Before deciding to start giving your goat carrots, you’ll need to think about its diet as a whole.

If you want to know how many carrots goats can eat, then probably a lot more than is good for them, if they have the option!

Goats’ eyes are often bigger than their stomachs, since most of what they eat is fibrous hay that is lower in nutrients.

This means they have to spend more time out of the day eating, and so might not realize that they’re harming themselves by overeating carrots.

Goats are ruminants and browsers, meaning in the wild they spend their days wandering around fertile ground looking for food.

The vast majority of their diet on your farm or homestead should be dry hay of some kind—whether that’s grass hay, alfalfa hay or legume hay.

They will need to eat around 2-4 pounds of hay per day.

Most of the rest of their diet should ideally come for browsing on a reasonably large pasture, where they can find roots and leaves to enjoy.

So, the remaining portion of their diet should then be made up of treats of various kinds.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are a great option, as your goats will love these. So, this is where you fit in carrots.

Carrots are certainly more abundant than a lot of other veg, so they might make a good regular treat, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week.

You should try and get other treats in their too, though, so they don’t get bored.

You’re also going to want to chop the carrots up. Goats lack front teeth, so they’ll have a pretty tough time crunching whole carrots up the way we do.

So, if you’re just buying carrots for your goats, make sure they’re chopped finely enough for the goats.

Another thing you can do, which I often do, is to feed the goats from the compost bin in my kitchen.

There are a few household foods which are dangerous for goats that you ought to be aware of, like avocado.

Eggshells can also cause some problems.

In general, though, your goats will love to sample the kitchen scraps, so my goats usually end up getting a lot of carrot this way.

Either way, just remember: moderation is key.

 

Related – Can Goats Eat Parsnips?

 

Can goats eat the green tops of carrots?

All parts of the carrot are safe for your goat.

As I said, whole carrots pose a logistical problem in terms of breaking them up.

But no part of the carrot is in any way dangerous to your goat.

They will probably enjoy the green bits more than we do!

 

What are the health benefits of carrots for goats?

Carrots are high in numerous vitamins which help your goats develop and keep healthy.

Let’s look at a few of them.

As the old saying goes, carrots don’t help you see in the dark, but they do contain a number of compounds that keep your eyes healthy as you age.

These compounds also help goats’ eyesight.

They’re called carotenoids (yes, really) and they provide protection both for goats’ eyes and for cardiovascular health.

Carrots are also a rich source of vitamins A, B, C, D and K. All of these are essential not just to goats but pretty much any animal like goats, including us.

They promote healthy digestion, muscle growth, bone strength, anything you can think of.

Goats need a whole lot of fiber in their diets.

For the most part, they’ll be getting this from the hay they eat and the browsing they do.

However, carrots are also rich in fiber, which will again help comfortable goat digestion and prevent constipation.

The hard texture, finally, will even act as a bit of a dental job for your goats, removing food debris and residue as they chew.

Carrots are endlessly beneficial to goats, then.

And, no doubt, your goats will love carrots as a treat.

Like anything, the important thing with any fresh fruit or vegetable in your goat’s diet is to make sure it’s in moderation.

Despite, or even because of, how rich in vital nutrients they are, it’s very easy to overeat these delicious orange snacks.

If you keep a close eye on it, your goats will love the occasional carrot.

 

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