[cryptobrian]

My woods are full of them . My goat wants to eat them . If he takes a nibble here and a nibble here is it going to kill him ? How can i stop him from eating every green object while on the trail?

A nibble here or there won't hurt your goat. But if your goat is regularly exposed (as in has daily access) then you do need to be concerned. Bracken Fern would be considerd a chronic toxin, in that reports of death usually are the result of weeks or months of exposure.

Most literature also says that goats usually don't eat it unless there isn't other quality forage available ... but our goats seem to really enjoy it, so when on the trail and going through areas like in the photo below, we have begun to use a muzzle.

[attachment=0:31mgb43n]smallfern.jpg[/attachment:31mgb43n]

 

[cryptobrian]

But I thought one of the benifits of useing pack goats was so
you did not have to pack in a bunch of food for them?

Now I am hearing this is poisenous. And that is poisenous.
so you have to muzzle them. :?

I suspect it's a lot like watching the broadcast news, you get a disproportionate sense of violence when that is all they report. With a few exceptions, when we hike there is usually far more area where we don't worry than where we do. We find meadows where they can graze openly and overgrowth on the trail where they nibble as they go along. But there are a few things we have to avoid, and some are concentrated and seen frequently enough that we've decided to use muzzles in those places ... it's really not a big deal, the goats take to them readily and when not in use they can just hang on their neck. If we see them starting to chomp a little too much, on they go.

When I take Sully out on his walks. He just seems to taste.
And some stuff he just smells and leaves. He only eats dibby dabbs. Most poisenous stuff seems to say they are starved to it. NOthing else to eat basically.

This is largely our experience too, they mostly avoid the stuff they aren't supposed to eat because it often just doesn't taste good ... and nibbling is how they figure it out. Unfortunately, there are a few things that some goats do like ... ours all really like Mountain Laurel.

Oh and about testing the water. what about on the trail.
Are we suppose to pack water from home for the goats? /
Or can they drink from the lake?

Heh, I take the same precautions as I would for myself. I don't pack my own water, but I do filter or treat it most of the time. I haven't been motivated to actually look into it enough to determine if giardia or cryptosporidium is more or less of an issue for goats ... it just seems polite if I'm going to bother to filter my own water that I ought to do the same for them. ;-)