Everybody who has owned goats for any length of time knows that they love to eat. But, contrary to what most uneducated folks think, goats won’t eat just anything happily and be glad to get it. Oh no, these critters are surprisingly picky!
And that’s because they are browsers. Browsers don’t eat just anything in sight; they eat only the choicest bits from various plants, grasses, and other tasty things.
Between that and filling out the rest of their diet with hay, they can get bored and, worse than that, miss out on some essential nutrients they have to have in their diet.
A great solution to bust boredom and make your herd happy while also giving them well-rounded nutrition are flaxseed treats. They are super easy to make, affordable, highly nutritious, and a great source of energy for them. I’ll give you three easy recipes in this article…
What You’ll Need
You’ll need some basic kitchen utensils and tools for all of these recipes. Make sure you’ve got the following handy:
- Measuring Cups: Measuring cups are a requirement for accurately portioning the ingredients in each recipe.
- Spoon: A large spoon, of any kind, for mixing.
- Mixing Bowls: A couple of large mixing bowls will make any of these recipes a cinch. Note that for a couple of these recipes, you’ll have to mix certain ingredients together before you combine all of them or while you process others, so have two handy.
- Food Processor: You won’t need this for every recipe, but we will be grinding ingredients into a coarse meal for some. A standard chopping blade will work fine in your processor or blender.
- Food Dehydrator: All of these recipes need to be dried out or baked to make them hold together and to preserve them. Make sure you have the appropriate trays for your dehydrator and understand how it works.
- Oven: If you don’t have a food dehydrator, you can bake the treats at a low temperature to dry them out and one of our recipes calls for actual baking.
- Baking Sheet: For any of the recipes you’ll prepare with the oven, you’ll need a baking sheet. Any kind you have will work fine.
That’s all you’ll need for tools and utensils. Ingredients for the following recipes will be in their respective sections.
Classic Flax Seed Goat Treats
The simplest and, in many ways, the best recipe on our list. Flax seeds provide goats with protein and tons of nutrients that they need, including selenium.
I use a mixture of golden flax seeds and brown flax seeds since they have slightly different but complementary nutritional profiles.
Blackstrap molasses helps to hold the whole thing together and increase the calorie content to give goats a little pep while still being easy for them to digest.
Ingredients
- Golden Flax Seeds, ½ Cup
- Brown Flax Seeds, ½ Cup
- Water, 1 Cup
- Blackstrap Molasses, ¼ Cup
Instructions
Step 1: Stir flax seeds and water together. In your mixing bowl, combine the water and both kinds of flax seeds. Give everything a good stir and then let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 2: Check consistency. After time has elapsed, you want the flax seeds to be slightly wet and watery, but not mushy. If there isn’t much water left in the bowl, add just a little bit extra and stir them again.
Step 3: Add molasses. Stir in the molasses. You want that little bit of extra water to help thin it out so that you can evenly coat all of the seeds. Stir everything until the water, molasses, and seeds are fully incorporated.
Step 4: Press out mixture on dehydrator or baking sheet; score. Dump out the mixture onto one or more dehydrator sheets or a baking sheet and flatten it out until you have a thin layer.
They should be about 3/16 to a quarter inch thick but no thicker to ensure even drying. Score the seed layer into roughly equal 3” squares using a butter knife.
Step 5. Cut mixture into crackers. Do this before the baking to ensure you can easily flip each individual cracker easily, as wella as be able to remove it from the sheets at the end of the process.
Step 5: Dry/Bake. Dehydrate or bake mixture. Pop the trays in the dehydrator, set it for 105° F / 40°C, then set your timer for 5 to 6 hours.
If using an oven, set the temp as low as you can. 200°F / 90° C is ideal. Bake for 1 hour, and check them before then to make sure they aren’t burning. If your oven won’t go that low, shorten the time and check more often.
Step 6: Flip. After your timer goes off, pull the racks out and carefully flip your flaxseed crackers over on the trays.
Step 7: Dry/bake cookies on other side. If dehydrating, make sure your temperature is still at 105° F and then set your timer for another 5 to 6 hours in the dehydrator. If baking, give them at least another hour.
Step 8: Done! After this next round of dehydration, your flaxseed crackers should be dry and ready. Test them by breaking off a piece; if they snap off, they’re good to serve to your goats.
Flax and Pumpkin Sweet Treats
Goats will eat all kinds of seeds, not just flaxseed. One of the most nutritious kinds of seeds around are pumpkin seeds, and this combination is a healthy and energizing combo that goats will love in conjunction with a little bit of rolled oats, honey, and kelp powder for added nutrition.
Ingredients
- Flax Seeds, ½ Cup
- Pumpkin Seeds, ½ Cup
- Rolled Oats, 1 Cup
- Honey, ½ Cup
- Kelp Powder, 2 Tbsp
Instructions
Step 1: Grind oats and pumpking seeds in food processor. Take a half cup of your oats and coarsely grind them in your food processor.
Doing this will allow them to work as a binder for sticking all of the ingredients together. Pulse the grinder; When finished, your oats should be in little bits roughly 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch in size.
Step 2: Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Add the ground oats, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and kelp powder in a bowl. Stir everything together for a bit…
Step 3: Add honey to bowl. Drizzle the honey over all of the dried ingredients, stirring as you go. Everything should be evenly coated and clumping up, sticking together easily.
If the mixture seems like it’s falling apart or you still have some dry ingredients in there, add a little more honey and keep stirring.
Step 4: Scoop mixture onto dehydrator sheet. Using a tablespoon, scoop out evenly sized dollops onto the dehydrator sheet making sure that none of them are touching. Flatten out the treats so they’re no more than a quarter inch thick.
Step 5: Dry/bake. Dehydrate mixture at 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Pop the trays into your food dehydrator, set it for 105° F (40º C) and set a timer for 5 or 6 hours. If using an oven, set the temp to 200°F if you can.
Bake for 1 hour, and check them before then to make sure they aren’t burning. If you oven won’t go that low, set it as low as possible shorten the time, and check more often.
Step 6: Flip. Once your timer goes off, carefully remove the trays and flip over the individual treats.
Step 7: Dry/bake for an additional five or six hours. Double-check and make sure your heat is still on 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40º Celsius) and that the dehydrator is on. Set your timer for another five or six hours. If baking, give them at least another hour.
Step 8: Done! Pull your trays out of the dehydrator or oven and check the treats for doneness; if they break or snap off cleanly, they are good to go.
Apple Carrot Oatmeal Goat Cookies
Out of all the treats I have ever made and given to my goats, I can tell you that they go absolutely crazy for these more than anything else.
They’re wholesome and reasonably healthy, as they have oatmeal, flaxseed, carrots, and wheat germ, but they have more calories and grains than the others, so these are definitely a treat to be given out sparingly.
But if you want to reward good behavior or just give your goats something to make them happy, it doesn’t get any better than this!
Ingredients
- Oatmeal, ½ Cup
- Flax Seeds, ½ Cup
- Plain Wheat Bran Cereal, 2 Cups
- Carrots, shredded, 4 Cups
- Raw Wheat Germ, 1 Cup
- Blackstrap Molasses, ½ Cup
- Applesauce, unsweetened, ½ Cup
- Butter or Cooking Spray
Instructions
Step 1: Combine wet ingredients. Stir together the molasses and applesauce in a bowl. They tend to separate, so stir them thoroughly until they attain an even color and consistency:
Step 2: Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. In your other mixing bowl, and using a clean spoon, stir together the oatmeal, flax seeds, cereal, shredded carrots, and wheat germ. Roughly crush the cereal and stir together until it is evenly mixed.
Step 3: Slowly add wet ingredients to dry. Start drizzling in your molasses and applesauce to your bowl of dry ingredients, stirring as you go. You are aiming for a consistency that is like a thick, crumbly dough.
If you overdo it with the wet ingredients, add just a little more cereal and wheat germ, stirring to level things back out.
Step 4: Form balls, place on baking sheet. Grease your cookie sheet using the butter or nonstick cooking spray. Using your hands or a scooper, form balls that are about the size of a ping pong ball or golf ball,then place them on the cookie sheet.
Step 5: Set oven for 300°F, bake. Set your oven for 300° F (150° C) and pop the cooking sheet inside.
Step 6: Set timer. Set your timer for about 15 minutes. These cookies should take longer, but they are prone to burning so we want to hedge our bets.
Step 7: Check cookies. Keep a close eye on your cookies, checking them regularly. When they start to look golden or a nice toasty brown around the edges, they are done. For larger cookie balls, they will probably take about 30 minutes or a little bit less.
Step 8: Done! Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and leave the cookies to cool before you pop them off.
Keeping Goat Treats Fresher, Longer
All the treats above will last at least a week at room temperature if you keep them inside a sealed container. However, because of the seeds and other ingredients that contain fats, they have a tendency to go rancid in time, especially when exposed to moisture.
You can get them to last longer at room temperature storage by keeping them in an airtight container in a cool, dark spot. A couple of oxygen absorbers will also help.
If you really want to extend the shelf life, don’t hesitate to keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They last for weeks that way, and you can still pull them out for your goats whenever you need them. They won’t mind them if they are a little cool. Or at least, mine don’t!
Tom has lived and worked on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and beyond. He is passionate about helping people prepare for tough times by embracing lifestyles of self-sufficiency.