Can Goats Eat Lilacs?

Can Goats Eat Lilacs? (Answered!)

by

Yes, lilacs are perfectly safe for goats. They are totally harmless and considered non-toxic to most livestock. Lilacs make great forage for your goat’s pasture, and they’re good for added variety, but they aren’t hugely nutritious. Wild lilacs are just good enrichment, more than anything.

 

You have nothing to fear with your goats getting into lilacs, then.

There’s nothing dangerous for them in there, and they won’t suffer any ill effects from eating it.

That said, lilacs are attractive and will probably get your goat’s attention, but they might not necessarily be that keen on actually eating them.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Lilacs?

Are lilacs good for goats?

Lilacs are certainly good for goats in some ways, but I should start out by saying they aren’t really anything amazing.

Flowers in general are really good to have available for goats on their pasture to make foraging a bit more varied and interesting, but the real nutrition will mostly come elsewhere in their diet.

That said, lilacs in particular are great flowers to have for foraging.

Their bright color very often attracts goats—although it can also have the opposite effect.

Goats do have very individual tastes, so it may be that your goats aren’t interested in lilacs after trying them once.

Forage is a really essential part of your goat’s diet—not just for the nutrition but for the enrichment.

Lilacs are a good source of fiber, their stems, and leaves contain plenty of plant matter.

Fiber is the backbone of a goat’s diet, so it can never really have enough.

Beyond that, though, there isn’t a lot of specific health benefits to speak of.

Although, again, don’t underestimate the health impact of having good, diverse forage to choose from.

Are there any caveats, then?

 

Are lilacs bad for goats?

No, lilacs are not inherently bad for goats in any way.

They aren’t toxic, or dangerous, and pose no real chance of harm.

That said, you can’t rely too heavily on them for food.

As I said, they’re not extremely nutritious, and there’s really no scenario in which you could rely even on regrowing lilacs as a primary food source.

There’s just not enough nutrition there.

Furthermore, as I said, not all goats will go for lilacs.

They produce a strong odor, and this is often off-putting to goats.

So, they’re a great treat, but they shouldn’t make up any substantial part of their diet. make sure your goat is getting plenty of hay, fruit and veg.

 

Can goats eat lilac flowers?

Yes, the flowers are perfectly safe for your goats.

In fact, this is what will likely attract your goat to the plant in the first place.

We tend to think of goats as having poor color vision at best, but they are actually far from totally colorblind.

This color vision does help them find and identify food in the wild and when foraging, and so this is why they are often attracted to flowers.

At the same time, they then use the aroma of the flower to decide finally if they want to eat it.

So, yes, goats can eat lilac flowers, and this may well be the only part they eat.

 

Can goats eat lilac leaves?

The leaves are perfectly safe too, though, again, fairly void nutritionally speaking.

Lilacs do tend to grow into fairly large bushes, though, and if your goat takes to and enjoys lavender, they will get a good meal out of eating a lot of leaves from a big bush.

In any case, the leaves are perfectly safe, and often your goat will simply eat the flowers without even realizing it has eaten the leaves.

 

Can goats eat lilac branches?

Yes, they can eat the branches too.

This is where the notion that goats can eat anything comes into the light.

Goats very often enjoy eating tree bark, branches, chewing on bits of wood—as tough as that might seem, they are able to do it.

So, again, if the lilac bush is a particularly large one, then your goat may enjoy eating the branches.

Several goats could probably completely destroy a bush over the course of an afternoon.

The branches, again, are not exactly massively nutritious, but they aren’t void either.

If what you’re worried about is not that your goats will become sick from eating the lilac, but that your goats will destroy your lilac whenever you try to plant it, then, unfortunately, they most likely will.

While they might ignore it, the only reliable way to keep goats off your flowers is to fence the flowers off.  

 

So, lilacs pose no threat to your goat and are in some ways quite beneficial to have as part of a balanced diet.

They’re good for foraging and make your goat’s pasture just that little bit more diverse and interesting.

The actual nutrient content, as I said, is fairly negligible unless they eat a lot—which they may well do.

In any case, lilacs are a great addition to your goat’s diet, but they can’t be the main part of it.

 

More in Plants

Was this helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

Leave a Comment