Can Goats Eat Parsley?

Can Goats Eat Parsley? (Answered!)

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Yes, goats can eat parsley and will enjoy it quite a lot. It’s fairly nutritionally rich, and so it makes a great treat for your goats—but treat is the keyword. They shouldn’t eat too much of it, and it should never be a replacement for any of the regular part of their diet.

 

So, parsley is not only completely safe for your goats, but also a tasty and nutritious treat that they will love having on their menu.

As long as you keep moderation in mind and don’t go crazy feeding them parsley, you’ll have no problem.

Let’s look further into this.

Can Goats Eat Parsley?

 

Is parsley good for goats?

Yes, is the simple answer—in lots of ways!

First and foremost, your goats will almost certainly love it, and they will enjoy eating it.

This is the most important thing, of course—that the goats are happy!

Beyond that, though, there are many nutritional benefits to giving your goat parsley.

For one thing, they are a great source of fiber, being mostly fibrous plant matter.

Fiber is the backbone of your goat’s diet, and though it will get most of what it needs from its hay, it can never have too much fiber!

Parsley is also a great source of a number of vitamins, like vitamin K.

Vitamin K serves a variety of functions, but mostly relates to blood health.

Vitamin K isn’t always an easy one to get into your goat’s diet, so parsley is a great choice for this reason.

There are some amount of minerals in there, too, like magnesium—though in quite small amounts.

Again, though, every little helps!

There are caveats, though, of course.

 

Is parsley bad for goats?

Parsley is not bad for goats in and of itself.

It isn’t toxic, poisonous, or inherently harmful to your goats.

That said, there are things to consider when introducing parsley into your goat’s diet.

Moderation is a really important thing.

Parsley is a fairly complex plant compared to what goats would mostly eat—as I said, their basic hay and forage.

They have simple diets, and so things like parsley should only represent an occasional treat.

If you overfeed them on parsley, they will become oversaturated with high concentrations of nutrients.

Once or twice a week, as a treat, in perhaps a handful, is more than enough parsley for your goats.

Swap this out for other treats for the rest of the week.

This will both provide the greatest range of nutritional benefits, while also keeping your goat from getting bored.

So, no, parsley is not bad for goats, but you need to be careful of how much they get.

There’s more than one variety, though, so let’s look into that.

 

Can goats eat flat-leaf parsley?

Yes, flat-leaf parsley—or the most common and popular—is perfectly safe for goats.

It does not contain anything dangerous, and as long as you keep in mind the importance of moderation, you’ll have no problem with flat-leaf parsley.

Flat-leaf is probably the safer option, in reality, as curly parsley is actually quite a different plant with different characteristics.

Let’s consider why.

 

Can goats eat curly parsley?

I would actually advise against feeding your goats curly parsley.

While I may be erring on the side of extreme caution, the thing about curly parsley is that it is much higher in oxalates than flat-leaf parsley.

As you may know, leafy greens like kale are actually poisonous to goats because of the presence of oxalic acid and oxalates.

In the right quantities, these can be deadly harmful to goats.

While it would take a lot of curly parsley (probably more than they would eat) to do any serious harm, I still think you’re better off just sticking to flat leaf.

Does it need to be prepared, then?

 

Can goats eat cooked parsley?

Yes, goats can eat cooked parsley—but there’s no need to specifically prepare it for them in this way.

They will be much better off eating it raw.

The diet you provide them should be the best approximation you can find of the diet they would have in the wild.

Naturally, that would not include cooked parsley.

Not to mention anything like oil or other spices that it may have been cooked in that are potentially inherently harmful.

Just stick to uncooked.

 

So, any variety of parsley is perfectly fine and nutritionally very advantageous in the right quantities.

You’ve got to be very careful of moderation, though; I cannot stress this enough.

Your goat needs a good variety of foods in its diet, and so it shouldn’t eat large amounts of any one thing—except its basic hay or forage.

Parsley, even as small and unassuming as this plant might be, should still only be fed sparingly to your goat.

 

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