Can Goats Eat Christmas Trees?

Can Goats Eat Christmas Trees? (Revealed!)

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While the simple answer is yes, the full truth is a bit more complicated than that. Conifers commercially grown as Christmas trees often utilize a lot of potentially harmful chemicals in the growth process. It’s safest not to let them eat such trees.

 

So, while conifers in general are safe and in fact potentially beneficial to your goats, I wouldn’t recommend letting your goats recycle your Christmas tree.

If you know the precise origin and growing process involved in your specific tree, then you may well be able to safely let you goat eat them.

If you are even a little unsure, don’t risk it.

Let’s look at why.

Can Goats Eat Christmas Trees?

 

Should you let goats eat Christmas trees?

No, is the simple answer.

If you have goats, I’m sure you have heard of their reputation for being able to eat just about anything.

However, in reality, this is far from the truth.

When it comes to conifers broadly, there’s really nothing about them that is specifically harmful.

We should establish, though, what we mean by a Christmas tree.

The most commonly used are fir, spruce and pine trees.

None of these are harmful to goats in themselves.

In fact, popular wisdom over the years has suggested they are even beneficial in certain ways, as I will get into.

So, as far as wild, living trees go, you can really leave your goats to it.

They might just ignore it entirely.

However, the problem is with commercially grown trees.

They are, more or less without exception, doused in a cocktail of chemicals designed to aid and speed up growth.

Any one of these chemicals alone could be seriously harmful to your goats.

So, the simple answer is only let them eat a Christmas tree if you know exactly where it came from. otherwise, it’s not worth the risk.

 

Are Christmas trees good for goats?

So, as I said, there are indeed some potential benefits to goats eating some varieties of conifers.

There has been a misconception over the years that goes eating pine trees can cause abortions for female goats.

This is not true, and has been one of the big worries people have had regarding conifers.

There are certain compounds in pine trees in particular which have been shown to have some degree of a deworming effect.

This can certainly be beneficial as a regular part of the goat’s diet, although there are other foods they can eat with a deworming effect.

Other than that, though, there isn’t much in the nutrient content of any variety of conifer that your goat couldn’t get in a more palatable form elsewhere.

If you live somewhere where they naturally grown and your goats are drawn to them, there’s no reason to curb this behavior.

However, again, we are talking strictly about wild trees—where Christmas trees become a problem is the commercially grown ones.

 

Are Christmas trees bad for goats?

Inherently, again, no.

For a wild tree, it’s really just plant matter and fiber—though the leaves are very tough.

It will likely be a matter of personal taste.

However, the problem is with the kind of Christmas tree most of us would buy in December outside a store or on a lot somewhere.

The first problem is knowing where the trees came from, how they were grown, and anything used in their growth.

As I said, any number of potentially harmful chemicals could have been used.

So, for the safest results, don’t feed your goat any part of a tree that you aren’t 100% sure of the origin of.

 

Can Christmas trees kill a goat?

It’s unlikely, but not impossible.

Again, it really depends. For a wild tree, I would say it’s not really possible.

There’s nothing harmful in them, and your goat is unlikely to have a great appetite for it.

For a commercially grown Christmas tree, it certainly could be fatal.

A younger goat, for example, without the same learned feeding inhibitions, could gorge itself until it died due to the chemical imbalance.

As unlikely as it is, there’s still no reason to take the risk.

 

What should you do if your goat eats a Christmas tree?

Not to repeat myself, but if your goat eats a small amount of a wild conifer, you’ve really nothing to worry about.

Even a large amount is unlikely to be a problem in itself.

If your goat has eaten a lot of a commercial tree, then the only thing you can really do is call the vet.

Keep an eye on the goat, as it may not actually experience any health effects at all.

If you notice any signs of discomfort, illness or pain, call a vet right away.

That is really all you can do—beyond making sure they don’t get to it in the first place.

So, while it may seem like a quick and easy way to recycle your Christmas tree after the festive period, there is simply too much risk involved if you don’t know where the tree came from or how it was grown.

Conifers themselves are not harmful to goats, and as I said, often even come with some benefits to a goat’s health.

Overall, though, there’s not really enough benefit to justify it, and certainly not with commercially grown trees.

 

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