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Providing grain to livestock of different ages and/or sizes has its challenges. In a herd situation, it’s always the biggest, strongest, and boldest that are going to get the most food.
For my dam-raised goat kids, this means that they have to compete with their mother and other mature animals during feeding time. While most of my does willingly share or at least tolerate kids eating from the same trough, they eat much faster than the babies do. It’s not unusual for my ravenous Nubians to devour their pound or two ration in minutes, while their offspring may only get a nibble of it.
One way to remedy this situation, and still reap the many benefits of dam-raising, is through utilizing a creep feeder.
What is a Creep Feeder?
A creep feeder simply allows smaller animals access to specific foodstuffs, while simultaneously blocking out larger ones.
There several options, but most commonly creep feeding setups include some sort of gate with feed for the young animals kept inside the confines of an area that the larger animals can’t reach.
There are very nice (and expensive) commercially available creep feeding systems and gates that you can purchase. You can also make one yourself, read on to learn how to make an easy DIY creep feeder for goats or sheep with a modified cattle panel.
Feeders themselves can also be retrofit with smaller openings for grain, but with goats they don’t work as well. Mature animals have narrow muzzles and can get their mouths into very small spaces! This is why I prefer a gate creep system instead.
Materials Needed for Making a DIY Creep Feeder for Goats
- One cattle panel
- One t-post
- Tape measure
- T-post driver
- Hose clamps or wire
- Screw driver or wire cutters
- Angle grinder or Sawzall
- Hang on fence feeder
We make our creep feeder gates out of damaged cattle panels that our bucks have roughed up (you can use a perfectly good cattle panel too). Cattle panels are about 4-feet-high by 16 feet long, but we cut them down to 10 feet and put them in a corner of the pen.
We use a t-post to support the creep feeder gate (in the middle) and hose clamps to secure it to the existing fencing.
An angle grinder or Sawzall can be used to cut the cattle panel down to size and to make the opening for the kids to get into the creep feeding area.
Hang on fence feeders are our preference because they help keep the grain off the ground and deter kids from sticking their dirty feet into them.
Directions for Making a DIY Creep Feeder for Goats
- Using an angle grinder or Sawzall, cut a cattle panel down to 4-feet-high by 10 feet long
- Using the angle grinder or Sawzall, determine where you want the opening of your gate and cut the cross bars of the panel in one area to make an 8-inch-wide by 12-inch-high opening. Now you have a creep feeder gate.
- Put the creep feeder gate in the desired corner of your goat pen
- Pound in a t-post at the midpoint of the creep feeder gate
- Secure the creep feeder gate to the t-post and existing fence using hose clamps and a screw driver or wire and wire cutters
- Put the hang on fence feeder inside the creep gate and make sure that the larger animals can’t reach it
- Fill the feeder with grain
- Put a kid in through the gate and back out a few times so that he knows how to use it
That’s all there is to it! For more information on dam-raising goats, click here to read my related article.
Mother, farmer, author, and teacher by trade… She loves tending to things and watching them grow!