to think you shouldn't feed paper-bags to goats?

[HourOrTwo]

Went to a local farm park with DD, friend and her DC (the type of place where they sell you animal feed in paper-bags and you go around feeding goats, sheep, donkeys etc.)
I was surprised when my friend told DD she could feed her empty paper-bag to the goats! I stopped her as I'm sure this can't be good for goats, but friend let her DC feed their paper-bags to goats. Goats chewed them up and swallowed them. Am I missing something, are these bags edible?? Friend thinks they are but it doesn't seem right to feed animals paper!

Goats will eat anything, doesn't mean that it's good for them.

I probably wouldn't actively push a paper bag on a goat, but they do snatch them without being asked sometimes, and it doesn't seem to do them any harm. I'm almost sure I might have heard something once about cows being fed newspaper in wartime too. It doesn't sound very healthy, but presumably if all the cows had dropped dead as a result they would have stopped doing it pretty soon.

As kids we used to let the goats eat the paper feed-bags (usually didn't have much choice as goats would stand on hind legs and snatch them from us!) I guess the farm owners know the animals might eat the bags so provide special non-toxic digestible ones!

Goats have a special chamber in their stomachs which filter out the non edible parts of their diet, Paper and the assortment of other rubbish that a goat eats, settle there and get expelled out. It's quite clever and very necessary as goats will eat pretty much anything that's not nailed down including the bark from trees and my mum's weekly supply of polo mints.

Well if you ever go to Cotswold Farm Park and try not to let the goats get the paper bag they sell their feed in I wish you the best of luck!! Goats are famous for their iron constitution and thanks to Queen now i know why!

A goat ate my leather handbag once

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I wonder what else one shouldn't feed goats.

Gibbon's Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire? Spare espadrilles? Mel Gibson?

Of course they shouldn't eat paper bags!!
Copied from a goat- keeping website:
'I have heard outrageous things people feed to goats. Just because a goat will eat something does not mean you should feed it to them.

Paper: Goats like to browse and eat trees and bark, because of this, paper is naturally something they are interested in (it is made out of wood). But, paper has no nutritional value and it also contains a lot of things that aren't really good to consume. Do not feed your goat paper of any sort.'

The pellets are served in paper bags so that in the event that a goat accidentally eats one they will not come to any material harm. But if a goat had a dozen or so paper bags during the course of a day it could get an obstruction. YANBU but your friend is being reckless and a bit dumb.

A goat once ate my mums hair. Not a nibble but a massive chunk off one side about 6inches in length!

It's not going to kill them, but it's better if they don't. I imagine when nature designed their stomachs to filter indigestible food it wasn't really meant to account for several paper bags a day!

A goat ate my pony tail once. I was feeding the buggers and one decided to swallow my ponytail.

I was eventually aided when villagers passing the pub garden came over to see why I was trying to strangle the pub nanny goat (that's what it looked like from a distance apprently)

I've seen it all now. It's one thing to think it may be dangerous but only on MN would someone actually post a Google fact about the nutritional qualities of paper for goats!

It's not as if the ops friend gave them baked beans or squash

A toddler will chew and swallow non food items, and they'll get pooed out, but it doesn't mean you would encourage it would you?

Same with goats.

They are also very fussy eaters - my parents had goats for years, and a number of them would sift through the food mix in their bucket and leave the elements that they didn't like. And would refuse to eat an apple you had bitten into.

What are you on about alrayyan? Op asked whether goats can be fed paper- I copied and pasted a bit from a goat keeping website answering the question. Wtf?

Your friend is a bit odd.

Yes I am the weird one here

How the fuck am I weird, pointing out that an animal shouldn't be eating paper? Have I entered a parallel universe? Paper isn't edible.

You can feed Mel Gibson to a goat?

inspace, I think we all knew paper isn't edible. The thing we wanted to know was, is it doing the goat harm. It looks as if the answer is, no. But, it's not doing it any good, either.

No, actually, my post said that paper contains things that aren't good to consume, so of course numerous paper bags could cause harm.

I thought what you posted was interesting InSpace, and not at all wierd.

Aw thanks honey