Can Goats Eat Clover?

Can Goats Eat Clover? (Answered!)

by

Yes, clover is perfectly safe for goats. It’s not necessarily their first or natural choice, but often they will end up grazing on it as they graze on grass. Clover is completely safe for them and eating it will not cause them any harm in most cases.

 

So, you have nothing to fear from your goats eating clover.

If it’s on their pasture, they will most likely avoid it most of the time—that said, if they do choose to have a go, they won’t do themselves any harm.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Clover?

Are clovers safe for goats?

The simple answer is yes, they are.

“Clover” does encompass a great many species, but the ones that grow commonly in the U.S. are all perfectly safe for your goat to eat.

Firstly, there’s nothing to worry about the clover itself.

They don’t contain anything toxic or poisonous that could pose a specific danger to your goat.

Most of the time, goats aren’t really that attracted by the prospect of eating clover.

To them, it would be difficult to distinguish from the grass, and so most of the time they wouldn’t even notice they were eating it.

They would just be chewing on grass.

So, yes, clover is perfectly safe for goats.

It contains nothing harmful, and although, as I’ll get into, there may be some cases where they can eat too much, in the majority of cases they will simply know to avoid it.

 

Is clover good for goats?

It may well be beneficial in a few ways.

For one thing, the good thing about clover is that it grows so easily on grass land.

Your goat’s diet should consist of a great deal of foraging for food, roaming around a large pasture to find things naturally occurring.

While not all goats seem to be very excited by clover, many will enjoy the variety that it brings to their daily foraging.

Ultimately, though, nutritionally speaking, the clover is not very easily distinguished from the grass around it.

It does not contain much that isn’t already in the grass.

So, while grass is certainly a good thing for your goat to have access too, it’s not tremendously beneficial nutritionally.

 

Can goats eat too much clover?

While the safe answer is yes, and you should always exercise caution in letting your goat eat lots of any one thing, eating too much clover to the point that it is a serious problem is not very likely and certainly not common.

Again, nutritionally, clover really isn’t much different from grass, and goats and many such animals can happily spend the whole day eating grass with no problem.

If you are going out of your way to provide clovers or some form of clover feed, though, this is where you want to be careful of moderation.

A goat’s diet should consist primarily of hay, forage, and fruits and vegetables.

In this case, if you give them too much clover, it may well become a problem.

The best way to approach clover is to just let your goats find it on their own.

They will eat only a little or non at all and letting them regulate themselves is the best way to approach it.

There have been some fears of bloating, though, so let’s look at that.

 

Can goats bloat on clover?

Again, while there is a safe answer—and it’s that yes, it’s possible—it’s very, very unlikely.

This idea has arisen out of the fact that some other similar animals, such as cows and horses, have been known to bloat on occasion from eating clover.

Again, though, this is typically from a very large amount—much more than the average goat would choose to eat.

While we generally don’t give these animals enough credit for knowing their own limits, there are also the outliers.

In any case, though, you don’t need to worry about your goats bloating on clover.

It is far less common in goats than other animals, to the point that the chances are essentially negligible.

It’s nothing to worry about.

 

Can goats eat clover hay?

They certainly can, although this has not been the favorite choice of hay type for goats.

They typically need something with higher protein content, and clover hay is not the most advantageous in this area.

Clover hay also lacks in other areas, such as basic convenience and availability.

There are plenty of much easier to access, more nutritionally rich options that you can go for before choosing clover hay.

 

 

So, you have nothing really to worry about from your goats eating clover.

It does not pose them any real danger except in perhaps very large quantities—more so than they would ever eat of their own accord.

Clover can even be somewhat beneficial in small amounts, and your goats will always appreciate a greater range of things to forage on.

So, however you look at it, you have nothing to worry about from your goats eating clover.

 

More in Plants

Was this helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

Leave a Comment