Feeding goats properly is essential for maintaining their health, productivity, and longevity. A balanced goat diet typically includes high-quality hay, pasture or browse, fresh water, goat-specific minerals, and limited amounts of grain and treats. Despite the common myth that goats will eat anything, providing the right nutrition—and avoiding harmful foods—is critical for keeping your herd healthy. Here’s what to feed goats, what to avoid, and common feeding mistakes to watch for.

Key Takeaways

• Feeding goats primarily consists of high-quality grass hay, browse, fresh water, and goat-specific minerals.
• Grain should make up no more than about 10% of a goat’s diet unless additional supplementation is needed.
• Goats are browsers and thrive on diverse pastures with grasses, weeds, shrubs, and safe tree leaves.
• Healthy treats such as herbs, carrots, and celery can supplement a goat’s diet in moderation.
• Avoid feeding goats moldy feed, junk food, chocolate, onions, garlic, and feed formulated for cattle or sheep.
• Proper nutrition supports strong immune systems, healthy digestion, reproduction, and long-term productivity.

Feeding Goats Starts with Understanding Their Diet

Despite the common myth that goats can eat anything, our caprines need a strict, healthy diet. To better understand how a healthy diet can help improve a goat’s overall health, let’s take a look at a goat’s digestive system.

Goats are ruminants, meaning they have four stomachs to digest the long fibrous parts of their diet (think hay, long grass, and weeds). After eating its fill, a goat will regurgitate some of the fibrous material, called the cud. The goat then chews the cud properly before swallowing again. The feed is then broken down by living microorganisms in the rumen (the largest of the four stomachs). The bacteria found in the living organisms help the goat to digest its food properly.

Feeding goats an improper diet, filled with grain, bread, and treats, can have a harmful impact on the bacteria found in a goat’s gut, leading to digestive upsets and health problems.

Now that you understand how an improper diet can negatively impact your herd’s digestive system, here are a few healthy options to treat your herd.

The Best Hay for Feeding Goats

Feeding goats good-quality hay is the best way to help your herd stay healthy through their diet. Goats should eat first or second cuttings of timothy hay, Bermuda grass, and orchard grass. The first cutting tends to be more stemmy than the second cutting and is also reported to be less nutritious. Therefore, many goat experts suggest feeding goats the second cutting of hay to reduce waste and boost nutrition.

Should You Feed Grain to Goats?

Feeding goats a species-specific grain is a good way to ensure your herd is receiving enough vitamins and minerals in their diet. For best results, choose a goat feed with sixteen to eighteen percent protein, with added copper and selenium to promote good health.

While grain is beneficial to goats, it is important not to overfeed. To prevent digestive upsets and other potential health risks, keep grain intakes to ten percent or less of your herd’s diet.

Why Minerals Matter When Feeding Goats

Even when feeding goats good-quality hay, adding a mineral block to their living area is a good way to ensure everyone is getting the necessary vitamins and minerals. Choose a mineral block, formulated for goats (not sheep or cows), with essential copper, selenium, and zinc.

Pasture Management for Feeding Goats

Goats thrive in a variety of environments, but if given the choice, your herd will be happiest if their home includes access to an adequate pasture. The ideal pasture includes a variety of grasses and weeds for goats to browse through with access to mulberry, maple, and willow trees, which provide more roughage for their diet.

As browsers, goats can be notoriously fussy, so they may require frequent mowing of the pasture to keep edibles trimmed back. To help prevent intestinal parasites, rotate goats into a new pasture every thirty days.

When allowing goats outside in the spring, keep the first pasture visit to an hour or less to prevent goats from overeating and becoming bloated (a potentially fatal condition caused by a large buildup of gas in the rumen caused by an overwhelming fermentation process).

Herbs for Feeding Goats

Herbs are an excellent treat choice for feeding goats. These delicious plants are full of nutrients and, when fed in moderation (no more than ten percent of the daily diet), are a wonderful addition to your goat’s diet.

Goats love a variety of herbs, but a few of their favorites include dill, lavender, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and thyme.

When selecting herbs to feed to goats, stick with culinary herbs to prevent them from consuming potentially harmful plants.

Healthy Treats for Feeding Goats

Goats love crunchy treats, so why not offer them a healthy snack of carrots and celery sticks? Nutritious and high-energy treats, carrots are packed full of vitamins A, C, E, and K and minerals calcium and potassium.

Carrots help improve eyesight and also have a positive impact on a goat’s digestive system. This nutritious snack is popular year-round, but it is especially beneficial in late fall and winter when grazing is down.

High in water content, celery is an excellent treat choice for feeding goats in the summer months. Like carrots, celery is packed full of vitamins and minerals, aids in digestive health, and also contains high amounts of fiber.

Like all treats, carrots and celery should not exceed ten percent of your herd’s daily diet. When feeding goats crunchy vegetables, cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces to avoid choking.

Foods to Avoid When Feeding Goats

While there are many things goats can eat, there are a lot of plants, bushes, trees, and human foods they can not eat. A few things to avoid feeding goats include:

Alfalfa (unless lactating or recommended by a veterinarian)
Bread
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale (in large amounts only)
Chocolate
Citrus fruit
Dairy products
Garlic
Human junk food
Meat
Moldy feed or plants of any kind
Nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant)
Onion
Weeds (bracken fern, horse nettle, and ragwort)

For a complete listing of harmful plants for goats, contact your county extension office.

Why Goat-Specific Feed Matters

One of the biggest mistakes goat owners can make is feeding goats grains and mineral blocks formulated for sheep or cattle. These products lack the high numbers of copper and selenium that goats need to thrive.

Goats lacking these minerals in their diets are more prone to have weakened immune systems and reproductive failures. In extreme cases, lack of these essential minerals can even lead to death.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I feed my goats?

Feeding goats a high-quality grass hay, a free-choice mineral block, and fresh, clean water is the recommended diet. During the winter months or when feeding pregnant or lactating females (called does), adding some grain is a good idea.

What are common feeding mistakes?

Feeding cattle or sheep feed to goats.

Allowing them to eat off the ground (this behavior increases the risk of internal parasites).

Failing to provide loose, proper minerals in the form of a free-choice mineral block.

How often should I feed goats?

Feed goats twice daily. Once in the morning and then again in the evening. Goats thrive on routine, so be sure to choose feeding times that will work consistently for you.

Can goats eat alfalfa hay?

Alfalfa hay is generally best reserved for pregnant does, lactating does, growing kids, or goats with increased nutritional needs. Because alfalfa is high in protein and calcium, it should not be fed free-choice to all goats unless recommended by a veterinarian or livestock nutritionist.

Do goats need a mineral block?

Yes. Feeding goats a goat-specific mineral supplement helps provide essential nutrients such as copper, selenium, and zinc that may be lacking in hay and pasture. Always choose minerals formulated specifically for goats.

Final Thoughts

A healthy feeding program is one of the most important investments you can make in your herd. By providing quality hay, access to browse and pasture, goat-specific minerals, and nutritious treats in moderation, you can support strong digestion, better productivity, and long-term health. Understanding what goats should and should not eat helps prevent common nutritional problems and keeps your animals thriving year-round.