Bolus Goats. Check!

I’m such a bad goat-keeper.  In the four years we’ve kept goats, I’ve never given them a copper bolus.  They have free choice mineral, but the loose or block minerals I’m able to get around here lack copper because it’s an all-purpose mineral.  Copper is apparently toxic to sheep so I guess it’s left out of the mixture so there aren’t sheep just keeling over all around the county. 

I finally went and bought some boluses from a local lady and got myself a small balling gun.  Then I started reading on Homesteading Today that just about everyone eventually has a problem with getting the bolus down their goats using the balling gun.  So I’ve had the boluses & balling gun sitting on my desk for several weeks. 

After going back to the forum, others had written in that they use marshmallows or something sweet & sticky to put the bolus in & the goats just ate it up with no problem.  Now that was something I could definitely get my goats to do. 

Went out to the barn with a bag full of Dried Plums.  Not sure why it didn’t just say “Prunes” on the bag.  Maybe they sell more by calling them Dried Plums; eating Prunes must be un-cool.   Hmmm.  But I regress……

As soon as the troop got a whiff of the “Dried Plums” they went bonkers.  So we had a taste testing session.  I don’t think they even chewed them twice.  Which was exactly what I was hoping for.  The boluses don’t have powdered copper in them, but actual little copper rods, and I was afraid that the goats would be grinding their teeth on them.  But since the “Dried Plums” were basically inhaled by the goats, I didn’t think it would be a problem.

Everyone enjoyed their treats of copper-laced “Dried Plums” and I got the boluses down them without a hitch. 

I wonder if they would have eaten them if the bag had said “Prunes”.