What is he and what should I do with him?

you can tell the age of a goat by its teeth, baby goats have baby teeth, one year old and up they get one pair of teeth per year up to i think 5 years, they hold at 5 pairs for a few years then they start looseing teeth. i would guess that he has one pair of adult teeth and maybe some baby teeth left,

Gotta give a big public THANK YOU to Cheryl (and Carol & her daughter whose name I'd mis-spell if I tried to spell it). They put up with us newbies and did most of the work so we could see how it was done. Very much appreciate all of it and looking forward to being more help and less impedance to y'all for future work days!

-Sonja

y'all were not an impedance! We had fun! Great meeting your family!

I'm gonna go with Cheryl over her friend. I think he's still young too. KSAL says he's never seen an F1 with those ears. I had an F1 Alpine/Nubian who had HUGE ears - but they were rounded all the way to the end (just a bit more flare than a regular Alpine-style ear). Looked like the length of a Nubian ear but in more of a swiss style. So who knows! My guess (although who knows on the percentage...) is for Nubian and either Oberhasli or Alpine. His coloring is the red on the sides with the black edging like an Ober, but Obers aren't too common among backyard mutt-breeders, so I'm more leaning toward Alpine.

He sure is a cute little fellow though... What did you have against giving him to the guy who called? That would get him out of your hair and you wouldn't be feeding him through the rut until butcher time.

well~ I actually don't feel like it's right to give him away or eat him (despite the threat to do so) until ample time has gone by for the owner to find him if they actually are looking. I've not gone to the trouble to run ads~ but I did let all my neighbors, my vet and animal control know I had him. If he's still here Nov 1st I will have had him a month and I'll probably consider him mine by then and will give him away, sell him, or butcher him~ but meanwhile I really think I should give the owners a chance to find him if they are looking. I may run another ad soon threatening to eat him so if an owner is looking for him they may see it.

if someone hasnt noticed they are missing two pigs and a goat by now i dont think they are going to lol,

*lol* I agree. If they haven't posted ads and called authorities wanting them back, it's safe to assume the critters are probably yours.

I ended up with a black potbelly pig in my yard once... Saw him running down the highway and thought "Oh, that's weird." Nobody in the neighborhood keeps pigs except for eatin'. So I went out and herded him off the highway and right into my pasture and locked him in... The crazy neighbor had seen me chasing him and came out. "Is that your pig?" "No, I just didn't want to see him get hit on the highway. Is he yours?" "No... I was thinking I could use some bacon though. I can shoot him and we can go in halves if you don't say anything..." Uhhhh... Okay, crazy man! Told him I'd hold onto it and try to find its owners, and then maybe we could talk. Didn't tell him I'm a vegetarian. Thought I'd stay on good terms with the nutjob by letting him think he had a chance of bacon! Seriously, how much meat can you get off a 25-lb fat pig??

Later that afternoon, a neighbor I had never met before knocked on my door. She'd recently adopted Buddy from a friend who lived in the city. He was an apartment pig. She didn't realize the old neighbor's pig pen wouldn't hold in a little dude. (Duh).

When we went down the pasture to fetch her pig, he came right to the fence, snorted his hello, and let me pick him up and load him in a wagon to send him back across the highway... Once he was settled down from his running-away-fun he was quite content to stand there for scratches, and would nudge you for more. I'm guessing if these little pigs that were dumped in your driveway aren't approaching you as the bearer of good things (scratches or food) then whoever had them before you doesn't care in the slightest that they're gone.

Dear lord, I need to shut up. Look at the time. I think my babbling gets worse the later it gets... As if that's possible!

I'm sure y'all are right about nobody looking for them~ but I'm still going to wait the 30 days just to be sure. Oh~ and how much meat can you get off a 25lb potbelly pig? I don't think much but boy you can sure get a lot of meat, bacon and several quarts of fluffy lard off a 100lb potbelly! Trust me~ I know. But I wouldn't eat a freindly one either~ someone convinced them they were pets and I don't have the heart to tell them different. Now~ those wild as a march hare pigs left in a pen till they were huge and the owner got bored and sent them to auction.....those I can score for $5 each and eat for a month on them.

Well is that little buck growing on you yet? Is he a nice buck? You may decide you want to keep him.
I wonder if your vet could determine what mix of 2 breeds he is?

I understand you wanting to wait, Cheryl. I would do the same thing. That way, if anyone should ask, I can say, "I posted an ad, twice. I waited a month or more for anyone to claim the livestock, I did all I could. I have NO need whatsoever to feel the slightest bit guilty in enjoying this bacon and goat chop, since I took the moral high road."

~sighs heavily~ I wish I knew someone traveling from Alabama to Texas next month, because once the time was up, I'd surely compensate you for the feed and time put into him to take him for myself. He's pretty!

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

a nice fat 25lb pot belly would make a nice little smoker for a small gathering lol,

if i was set up better for goats again i would deffinatly make the drive up and tote him back lol, lots of stuff for a goat to clean up down here,

Lady drove down my driveway today staring at that goat.....I asked "That your goat?" She's pretty sure it is~ she bought him and the two pigs two days before I found them....She promises to pen them better from now on and is coming back with a trailer to collect the goat later this morning...a trailer because being so close to my girls put him into full stanky rutt! I don't think she expected to find that nasty creature that looks sort of like her cute goat she bought a few weeks ago! LOL! I did go ahead and let him breed a doe too~ figured I might as well get something out of feeding him ~ so maybe a couple cute Saanen, Nubian, cute mongrel crosses next March!

wow....can't believe you found the owner....boy, she's gonna hate the stink if she thought she was just gonna have a cute pet, lol!

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...'o shame on the mothers of mortals, who have not stopped to teach; of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes; the sorrow that has no speech... from -'Voice of the Voicless', Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Yeah~ her husband definitely looked less than amused when he came to get him!

lol wow. they bought a Male Goat for a pet and didnt have a pen ready and didnt realize a male goat will go into rutt? i wonder what else they dont know about what they have,

Don't be surprised if she comes back and asks if you'd like to buy her stinky goat.

Glad they retrieved him. One less thing for you to worry about, huh?

What I wanna know is, did they brave the bull pasture to get their pigs?! :1pig:

Apparently~ the pigs were already retrieved before she came to my place looking for the goat. She was upset because I had told the neighbor the same thing I told everyone else...."This is NOT a good home, I'm going to eat that goat" and the neighbor told her the goat USED to be at my place but I had eaten it. I can't imagine what she was planning to say to me after she drove down my driveway if her goat wasn't here, or worse if she came down when your goat was on the tractor boom being skinned!

LMAO! Well maybe this will teach her to keep her animals secured better. But yeah, if she'd seen us skinning a goat when she pulled up... LOL

Ok, after all that, did you ever find out for sure what kind of goat he was? I can not imagine people keeping a buck to have as a pet. Is he the only goat they had?

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Raising Beautiful Cashmere goats, to produce the best quality cashmere.
www.freewebs.com/sweetgoats
Lori