Can Goats Eat Plastic? (Is Plastic Safe For Goats?)

I was out surveying my pasture the other day, and almost as soon as I was out there, I realized something was off from the smell.

My fence borders a quiet road, which typically is not busy at all.

Unfortunately, though, it has been a bit busy recently due to an event nearby—to my horror, I found that someone had thrown their trash over my wall.

It was a few plastic bags of general waste, but what worried me was my goats getting to it and trying to eat the plastic.

So, can goats eat plastic?

No, goats cannot eat plastic. It is potentially fatally dangerous for them, even in small amounts. Goats might be known for eating anything, but this just isn’t true. Plastic will block their digestion, and breaking it down can cause deadly toxins to be released.

Plastic is, as you might expect, not an edible substance.

It’s chemically and artificially manufactured for use in a wide variety of areas, and is not something your goats should be eating.

They will, for the most part, avoid it of their own accord, but you should not take any chances.

Let’s look further into this.

 

Why do goats eat plastic?

The simplest answer is they don’t.

They have no natural impulse to eat plastic, or even attempt to.

Again, though they’re known to eat anything, this is really quite a flimsy myth.

They have really a very particular diet.

The only time goats would eat plastic would be in the event that they were not getting the nutrition they needed in the rest of their diet.

If they were not getting all the food they needed in their actual diet, they may feel compelled to eat a plastic bag or something that came onto their property.

Factors such as environmental contamination and fodder scarcity have led to higher instances of goats ingesting plastic, but these are obviously very isolated and context-bound scenarios.

For small-scale goat keeping, keep them well-fed and they will feel no impulse to eat plastic.

 

Can goats digest plastic?

No, they cannot digest plastic.

Indeed, the search for an animal that can digest plastic has been something of a Holy Grail in climate science.

This goes to show how difficult it is for a biological entity to consume plastic.

Plastic is made of a number of harsh chemicals, and so there is really no reason they should be able to eat it.

The impulse to chew on plastic is not uncommon in a number of animals, but all this shows is some animals desire to chew on things.

They don’t attempt to swallow it—or they shouldn’t.

So, neither your goat nor any other complex macrobiological creature can digest plastic.

 

Is plastic toxic to goats?

Yes, it is.

Plastic is, realistically, toxic to pretty much any large animal.

It may take a somewhat large amount to do serious harm, but not that much.

Certainly, enough that it is a cause for concern.

As I said, plastic is made through a chemical process, and none of the chemicals are friendly to your goat’s insides.

Even if they did not break down, harsh plastics stand a chance of perforating your goat’s innards.

When they do break down, though, which they will to an extent, the process of digestion releases even more harmful chemicals into your goat’s system.

Certain kinds of plastic, such as plastic bags, can even completely block your goat’s digestive system if they don’t choke on it in the first place.

So, yes, plastic is extremely toxic to goats and you should not take any chances with it whatsoever.

Remove any debris that winds up on your goat’s pasture, and make sure they are well fed.

 

Can plastic kill a goat?

Yes, it certainly can.

Whether in the short term or the long term, it stands a serious chance of killing your goat.

As I said, the biggest immediate concern is that it should eat something like a plastic bag, and choke or block a digestive passageway.

In the long term, if your goat for whatever reason keeps eating small bits of plastic, then the overarching health problems could cause debilitating health problems that lead to death.

As I also said, a sharp enough piece of plastic could also perforate any part of the goat’s internal organs that it passes through.

Internal bleeding of this kind can lead to death very quickly.

So, don’t take any chances—make sure your goats are well fed enough that they just ignore it.

 

What to do if my goat eats plastic

The simplest thing is to call a vet.

Depending on the amount it ate, you might not have anything to worry about as long as you make sure it doesn’t do it again.

That said, it’s best to speak to a vet in any case as soon as you can.

If your goat eats something especially dangerous, like something that stands a chance of blocking its ingestion system, then you need to speak to a vet immediately.

There isn’t much you can do without a vet, unfortunately, beyond comforting the goat and giving it something nicer to eat if it seems up to it.

 

Eating plastic is really no joke, then.

Like I said, whatever you have heard about goats being able to eat anything, it is not true.

They are animals just like us and they can’t break down harsh, chemical products and certainly cannot derive nutrition from them. eating plastic has the potential to be fatal for your goats, so it needs to be avoided at all costs.

If you suspect your goat has eaten plastic, call a vet immediately.