So me and the wifey picked up a pair of goats, ones almost 2 weeks and the others almost 3 weeks old. So no, nothing about GTO's.

Our house already had 4 horse stables in the back yard, so why not? I need to put a wire fence up for them though, and I can get my hands on a few hundred feet of coated wire fence for free. Is this a no-no with goats? I've heard they'll munch on anything they can reach, which is sort of why I got them. I'm right up against wetlands, so everything grows like wild.

I've never had any animals beyond the dog/cat routine, so I'm sorta green so to speak. Would like to maybe get a few pigs also, see how these work out first.

Thanks!

 

Goats will eat almost anything. As far as plastic on fence, I wouldn't worry about it. Also just for future reference, if you don't have shell or concrete for them to walk on, watch their hooves. You may need a farrier to come out 2 times a year and trim their hooves. They grow like crazy and will curl under making it impossible for them to walk.

Gary

 

Also, watch out for predators. Coyotes killed 2 of my baby goats a couple of years ago but Uncle Henry fixed that problem...

 

Good points, thank you. There's plenty of rock for them to hop around on, as well as some ground stone in front of the stable, should help with that.

With coyotes, there's a cow farm 2 houses down the street, the owner took care of most of the pack 2 years ago. My lab took care of at least 2 last summer too, he's pretty protective of the property! At 130 lbs a mangy coyote or two is no match for him. Wasn't fun to watch though.

Regardless, I know to keep them inside after dusk, the stable is closed up pretty good on a stone footing, so no boroughing under. Thanks for any pointers, even the obvious, because we're learning. Wife seems to have a knack for it though, she's out bottle feeding them right now.

 

Let me know via PM if you have any questions you can't get answered here. Our barn manager for the horses has her own goat herd for m ilk. She does all their hoof trimming, medications, birthing, etc., herself. I can put you two in touch if you want... she LOVES to talk goat!

 

Also be careful of owls. My neighbor was loosing 3 kids per night ( surprising older kids also) to owls. I wouldn't be concerned with the plastic coating on the fence.......give them something to climb on and let them go to town on the vegetation you want kept down.

 

Train them on a lead when they are young. If you need to move them or take them somewhere it makes it much easier. If you plan on grooming, do that when they are young as well. Not sure of the vegetation, but you may want a small salt lick for them. I'm not sure, but you may want a mineral lick too, but that depends on location so ask locally. they may have all they need. They can jump a remarkable distance, so you may want to look into an electric wire, with markers on it, on the goat side of the fence to teach them to keep away from it, placed at nose height or a bit higher they will learn pretty quick that metal looking thing bites and will never mess with fences again. The other cool thing is if you want a temp place for them in the yard, you can put up a single wire with flags and they will stay there for a short time. They are smart and will check the fence occasionally though...

Most importantly - we need pictures... little goats are pretty cute! We had one and he tipped over the grain bin and ate most of a 20 lb bag of grain. By the time we got home, the poor little guy didn't stand a chance

 

Thanks all again for the tips. I'll work on the pictures, battery in my camera isn't compatible anymore, but my wife's phone takes a decent picture. Mine still just makes phone calls....

We got a bunch of knowledge from the woman who sold the kids to us, she lives in a similar area not too far away. Easier then it sounds I hope, there's a lot to consider. We heard the coyotes fairly close just tonight, an owl last night. I don't think we'll go with an electric fence, I know someone (ahem, yours truly) would take a leak on the thing on a Friday night. I think a 4' wire fence will do, a few motion lights on the back of the stable to light it up if anything comes into the yard.

 

Finally got some pictures of them. It was pretty funny introducing the dogs (an old black lab and 2 westies) to the goats, they liked to head-butt the dogs; and each other.

 

They ARE cute at that age... too bad they grow up!

Y'know, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for you to change your user name to 'goat'. There are already 2 letters that you wouldn't even hafta move!

 

You don't say if their nanny,s or billy.
If one is a billy I would have him cut,
Billy,s smell like pure ammonia when
they urinate, first thing they urinate
on is their beard,s.

 

Buy shin guards, the ones we had liked to ram ya.

 

goats will find it! I would say, also, make sure the fencing doesn't have openings big enough to stick their heads thru. Even though, as youngsters, they could get their heads in and out of a 4x4 or 4x6 opening easy enough... as adults they won't; you'd hate for those little fellers to hang themselves.

Our goats will follow us anywhere as long as we have a bucket or can of goat pellets; this way when (not if) they get loose, we just get some pellets and we don't have to chase them around...they come to us. Oh, they also LOVE animal cookies (as do our horses and llamas). We get one of those giant containers of animal cookies from SAM's and keep it in the barn.

 

- When goats go to "Eating Everything", it's usually that they're trying to make up for a shortage in nutrition.
- Giving goats a mineral supplement is a good thing that can be taken too far if you don't do your homework. Don't combine a mineral salt-block with a mineral supplemented feed. Excessive copper can kill them in short order for example. One or the other. I give mine a standard salt-lick with a mineral supplemented sweet goat feed. In addition to free-ranging, I give them a bail of some sweet leafy greens a month. (Alfalfa, etc),
- Get into the habit of giving a signature holler when it comes to feeding time. I always give a loud "Who-Ahhh!" (Al Pacino, Scent Of A Woman). They'll soon do the math and will come running.

- You can trim their hooves, it's easy. A set of left & right tin-snips works well. If you start doing it now while they're young, they will learn to tolerate your doing it . . . . for treats of course.
On the subject of treats, go easy on the sugar. A single treat or two a day is fine, but don't be giving them the bag of stale cookies for example. Excessive sugar is thought to lead to acute issues such as Polioencephalomalacia. You'd be doing all a favor by researching proper goat diet.
- With doing your homework, you can do most of the veterinary stuff yourself (de-worming, etc). They do require rabies shots (twice a year). Most of the vet stuff can be had at your local tack-shop.

- DO NOT play the head-butting game with them. When they do try to play it with you, just walk away. If you let them play it with you, they'll play it all the time, like it or not. You can get hurt, if not a little child.
- I've always had best luck with electric fences (wire). DON'T waste your time with a dog fence-charger. Get a real cattle caliber charger. Something that draws at least a quarter inch HOT blue arc. Even that seems to just annoy them at times.
- Get a stiff bristle push-broom head, and nail it to a tree. They'll love being able to rub against it.
- You'd do well to provide a feed trough that has dividers so that each goat has their own spot. A simple open trough will only lead to fights among themselves with the weaker going hungry. When you serve the feed-stuff, ration it in a given order. They notice change as such and can get ornery.
- As mentioned above, they love to climb. I built mine a set of 4'x4' platforms, 1.5', 6', and 12' off the ground. All connected by 6" ladder steps. They love it and spend hours up high gazing at stuff. . . . .





Here's Billy. Going on 18 years old, he's well at 200lbs (+/-).




And his Momma, Nanny. Sadly, after almost 19 years, we recently had to put her down due to the Polioencephalomalacia.



Have fun.

 

You may want to rethink the electric fence. You don't have to leave it on all the time. It's good for keeping other critters out as well as the goats in. Watch out for your vehicles too. They WILL climb on top. It's genetically programmed into them. It's a herd protective instinct to look for danger. You might even think of hooking the electric fence to your vehicles although I don't know if that's a good idea on computer controlled vehicles. 6 volt point ignitions, it doesn't bother.

Like everybody else is saying though, get the little stinkers used to being groomed and trimmed as babies. My ex-girlfriend used to wash her cat in the kitchen sink and it would purr. She started washing it as a kitten with a warm wash cloth to simulate the mothers cleaning. Try washing most undeclawed cats in the sink and see what happens.