Can Goats Eat Garlic?

Can Goats Eat Garlic? (Answered!)

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Yes, goats can eat garlic. It’s perfectly safe and will do them no harm. Garlic produces a strong odor, and goats are known to not always be that keen on garlic anyway. In any case, you need to be careful of strict moderation if your goats are eating garlic.

 

So, the simple fact is that goats do not universally love garlic, even though they have a reputation for being able to eat anything.

They will most likely be interested at first, but may lose interest thereafter.

Even if your goat does love garlic, it should still only represent a treat, and never a replacement for any other part of their diet.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Garlic?

 

Is garlic good for goats?

Yes, in lots of ways!

For one thing, for goats who do enjoy garlic, they seem to really love it. it is strongly aromatic and flavorful, and to some goats this makes it irresistible.

Finding good treats like this for your goat’s diet is important, as they need a fair amount of diversity to get all their nutrients.

Beyond that, garlic also embodies a number of very helpful characteristics.

For one thing, garlic is reasonably high in fiber—being plant matter.

Fiber is most of what goats should eat, and it helps their digestive system to function well overall, allowing things to pass easily.

More specifically, garlic is actually very high in a compound called selenium.

Selenium serves a wide variety of functions in your goat, but overall helps keep your goat healthy in the long term.

Reliable sources of selenium can be hard to find, so if your goats do like garlic, make it a regular treat.

Garlic also contains many healthy vitamins and minerals which promote a healthy immune system, strengthen muscles and bones and even keep their skin and hair happy and healthy.

But there are some drawbacks, so let’s look at that.

 

Is garlic bad for goats?

Garlic is not inherently bad for goats.

There’s nothing toxic or dangerous in it, so you don’t need to worry on that front.

Feeding garlic to your goats, in small amounts, will not be a problem.

However, the name of the game is moderation.

A goat’s diet should be around 75% hay and forage.

This gives you an idea of how much room there is for other things, let alone specifically garlic.

Garlic should be a treat, that they eat once or twice every few days at most.

Swap it out with other treats in the mean time to get them the best range of benefits.

This will also stop your goats from getting bored of garlic.

The only other thing, as I said, is that your goats may simply not be interested in garlic.

For many, the strong aroma can put them off.

Moderation is key, and don’t force them to eat it if they don’t want to.

 

Can goats eat uncooked garlic?

Yes, and more or less without exception uncooked is better than cooked for goats.

Think about the diet you give them as being the best approximation of what they might eat in the wild.

Even if hay is a replacement for grass.

Obviously, they would only get raw garlic in the wild—if they could find any at all.

Stick to uncooked garlic.

 

Can goats eat cooked garlic?

They can, and it’s unlikely to cause them any major problems.

But as I said, there’s really no reason to cook it. they won’t prefer it this way and it will most likely lose a lot of benefits in the cooking process.

Furthermore, it may well have been cooked in something that is not so good for your goat.

Just stick to uncooked garlic—they will thank you.

 

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