So, there may be no immediate or specific danger to giving your goats marshmallows.
Indeed, they may even love them, and enjoy eating them a great deal.
As a very, very occasional treat, it may even be beneficial.
However, you really should avoid feeding your goats processed foods like this. as I said, you can find something they will love just as much that contributes to a balanced diet.
Let’s look further into this.
Are marshmallows good for goats?
No, is the simple answer.
That said, I don’t wish to understate the value of a tasty, enriching treat that your goat loves.
And the consensus does indeed seem to be that goats love eating marshmallows.
This is the one sense in which we might say they are ‘good’ for goats.
They’re a fun treat.
Beyond that, though, there is really no advantage to feeding them marshmallows.
Really all marshmallows are is sugar dissolved in water, whipped up to the point that it can expand as marshmallow does.
While goats do need sugar in their diet, they don’t need it in these concentrations and can get it in much healthier packages, like fruit.
Fruit is the best way to get sugar into your goat’s diet.
We often do not realize the extent of sugar content in fruit.
Unlike marshmallows, fruit is not just empty calories.
It provides many other vitamins and nutrients, too.
So, while an occasional marshmallow is fine, I think you just should avoid getting into the habit.
There are a lot of negatives that can come with feeding them in excess.
Are marshmallows bad for goats?
Yes, I would say that they are bad for goats.
Again, they’re at best just empty calories, with nothing whatsoever in them that your goat will benefit from.
Again, while sugar is an important part of your goat’s diet, not in these concentrations.
Beyond that, your goat is likely to have a lot of trouble breaking down the marshmallow properly.
It may not even be able to extract much of the sugar.
The thing about even occasionally eating something like marshmallows is that, while not necessarily inherently terrible, is that your goat will end up nutrient deficient.
Filled up on marshmallows, it won’t want to eat its regular food.
Thus, it will lose out on essential nutrients.
So, again, there are simply much better treats you can feed to your goats.
If you want to share a tret with them, eat some fruit with them.
I understand the temptation and the urge to share human food with them, but I think they would, in the long term, appreciate something more nutritious.
Can goats eat giant marshmallows?
Giant marshmallows, while my favorite camping snack to stick on a skewer and melt over a fire, are no good for goats.
As you can imagine, adding size doesn’t change the make up of the marshmallows.
They aren’t made in a different way—just with more of the same.
So, if anything, giant ones are worse.
Don’t give your goats giant marshmallows.
Again, if you really want to, then I would suggest feeding them only small ones, very, very occasionally.
Can goats eat vegetarian marshmallows?
Vegetarian marshmallows contain no gelatin, which is the product made from animal fat that makes ordinary marshmallows not vegetarian.
However, this isn’t going to make a huge amount of difference to your goat.
While you might think that your goat, being an herbivore, would have an easier time with vegetarian marshmallows, the fact is there really isn’t much difference.
While there may be a slight nutritional and digestive benefit to the lack of gelatin, it isn’t going to make enough difference that you can regularly feed them marshmallows.
Can goats eat melted marshmallows?
So, what about my beloved smores, then—or melted marshmallows?
Actual smores usually include highly calorific cookies, too, so do not feed these—far too much sugar.
Even without the cookies, though, melted marshmallows are probably not going to be very good for your goat.
They will be chewy and will get stuck in their mouth, making them uncomfortable.
Again, of course, there’s no nutritional difference between a melted and unmelted marshmallow.
The only safe way to feed a goat marshmallows is not to!
So, while I don’t want to sound like a strict parent, the simple fact is that marshmallows may be a fun treat, but they are nutritionally void.
They don’t contain anything beneficial to your goat’s diet, except perhaps the joy of eating it in the first place.
There are many much healthier and indeed tastier treats to share with them, that will contribute to their diet. lots of marshmallows are, of course, a terrible idea.
Don’t feed your goats candy, if you can avoid it.
More in Processed Foods
- Can Goats Eat Chocolate?
- Can Goats Eat Cookies?
- Can Goats Eat Donuts?
- Can Goats Eat Honey?
- Can Goats Eat Jelly Beans?
- Can Goats Eat Licorice?
- Can Goats Eat Marshmallows?