This article is an overview intended to prod each of you towards learning more about caprine rumen function and how it affects the health of your herd. Whatever a goat eats goes directly into its rumen and not through a stomach as in people or dogs. Unlike humans, whose stomachs use acids to digest foodstuffs, goats begin the nutrition manufacturing process in their rumens before their food is thoroughly chewed. For this reason, what the goat eats and how much it eats is very important to its overall health. If the microbes are completely consumed or compromised, undigested food becomes toxic and the goat's body cannot manufacture the necessary vitamins and nutrients which it needs to survive, much less produce and nurse kids.
Goats require a wide variety of different types of plant materials.
And because goats have such fast metabolisms, offending feedstuffs adversely affect a goat much quicker than other species. The rumen is full of beneficial bacteria. Anything which interferes with the bacterial flora in the rumen is likely to cause health problems in the animal. Then add some grain. Mixing as you go, add leaves, grass, and more water.