Got three goats...now what?

Backfourty,MI. · #21 06/10/12, 05:36 AM

If you get 1 of those 2 sided dishes put the baking soda in 1 side(not a whole bunch) maybe 1/2 cup at a time & the mineral in the other side. If you just have a container with 1 compartment put the baking soda along side of the mineral. It will get mixed in while they are eating both & that's OK too.

Alice In TX/MO · #22 06/10/12, 07:23 AM

I highly recommend this book for people with pygmies or Nigerian Dwarf goats. The author knows her stuff.

Amazon.com: Raising Goats For Dummies (9780470568996): Cheryl K. Smith: Books

PaulNKS · #23 06/10/12, 08:10 AM

Our goats are primarily for meat production. Right now we're at 40 goats and planning to expand.

Our goats get no special treatment. They are on pasture year round. We supplement with hay in winter. They get free choice (means leave it out all the time) loose cattle mineral with at least a 1:1 ratio. They get no baking soda or feed.

The only time any of the goats get feed is when I'm milking one of the 5 Alpines. (The rest are meat goats). Also, when I'm weaning kids, they get Purina Goat Grower that is medicated to help prevent coccidiosis.

Also get a good pair of hoof trimmers and a hoof plane. You'll need them.

It never hurts to have a well stocked first aid kit or cabinet when you have livestock. I keep sutures, iodine, needles, syringe (I have one of those automatic syringes I use with goats and cattle)... just for a start.

The only time I deworm is when they need it. At that time I use Cydectin Pour-On. I normally pour, but if I have one animal that has a severe case, I will drench since I have a drench gun.

The newer recommendations are to NOT deworm unless you do a fecal test and know that you have a problem. The main reason is that our overuse and under dosage is causing the parasites to become resistant and dewormer does not just kill worms. A good dewormer takes care of many other parasites as well such as mites and other stuff.

Good luck. You'll enjoy them.

Minelson · #24 06/10/12, 08:38 AM

Ravenlost I am SO HAPPY for you! And your 3 goats have found a wonderful, loving home with you and your hubby. I am also excited to have you here on the goat forum with us now! Yay for us!

Ravenlost · #25 06/10/12, 11:32 AM

I'm happy and excited too Minelson! I'll be haunting this forum a lot as I know I'll have a gazillion questions!

thaiblue12 · #26 06/10/12, 12:24 PM

Congrats! We need pictures!! lol

All of mine hate raisins, I swear they think I am trying to feed them poop. They will however run you over for an animal cracker or cheese puffs

Since they are weed eating pets and I know you have no plans to eat them...
Hay, water, minerals and baking soda, that is it.
Treats within reason or they will get fat, no grain ever unless the girls are pregnant. With Pygmies do not grain the last month of pregnancy since you do not want huge kids possibly getting stuck in the canal.

All my boys wethers or bucks have eaten alfalfa pellets just fine, I feed grass hay and they have no issues.

Goats are far more curious then cats, so have some treats and sit in the pen, toss a few on the ground and that boy will come closer and closer to you. Stick your fingers out and he will sniff or nibble on them, let him come to you and eventually you will be able to give him a good shoulder scratching.

They may not have front top teeth but they have them in the back and are pretty sharp or never stick your fingers too far into their mouths.

You can make them a cinder block mountain which they will love and it will also help keep their hooves down a bit. They do love wooden spools and if you get one make sure it is nowhere near the fence because it may help them go right over.

I know you have or had chickens, keep them away from chicken feed, it can be deadly to goats.

Ravenlost · #27 06/10/12, 12:37 PM

Chickens are in a separate pen, so no worries!

Oat Bucket Farm · #28 06/10/12, 12:50 PM

Well, you've already been given great advice, so I will just congratulations! You will need to post pics though because in the goat forum, it didn't happen if there aren't any pics to prove it.

Pony · #29 06/10/12, 01:39 PM

Heehee... You think you're going to only lurk about here on the goat forum?

Pics. It's like a membership fee. Gotta have 'em.

Completely off-topic: Why is it that we don't have a GOAT emoticon? Has anyone else caught this glaring omissionn??

Oat Bucket Farm · #30 06/10/12, 03:59 PM

I'm not sure. There are several goat emoticons out there on other forums, wish we had them here.

Ravenlost · #31 06/10/12, 06:33 PM

I'll be looking at the Goodwill Outlet tomorrow for things I can use as hay racks and feeding buckets...stuff to enlarge their house with (I've been looking at pictures online and getting jealous...even tried to convince hubby to let the goats have my 8x10 potting shed) and things for them to climb on.

I hope I'm not getting carried away...

Zilli · #32 06/10/12, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravenlost

i hope i'm not getting carried away...

he he

Wonlovefarm · #33 10/16/12, 12:35 AM

Hi wanted to join in on the foray, I am new to the Goat world as well. Some great advice on here, glad I caught the thing about Chicken feed our wether will kill for that stuff and i have to watch him or he seeks out the can and tries to turn it over. I have given him some to chum him into the Goat house for the evening, but not much. From now on he gets Nada!

I have been giving them a taste of Sea kelp and Sea salt every other day or so, and Baking Soda as well they usually nibble a bit and then take off in search or weeds... I am wondering if the Kelp is enough or if they need a mineral supplement? i am of the mind that they should get as close to what they would get in the wild.

I am trying hard to stay as natural as possible and not give them anything processed or man made IE mineral blocks etc. but it is coming on winter and the weeds and Cheatgrass are drying out and I am concerned that the nutritional value will deplete as we begin to get rain. (Something we get little of here, less than 11 inches a yr...)

Their shelter is very good and there is plenty of things for them to climb on, right now I am staking them out until I can get some better fences up, they go inside a locked enclosure at night which is pretty well predator proof and we have dogs so I have no concerns for their welfare in that regard. The Lady we got Diamond and Duncan from...Diamond is an Alpine Doe, Duncan a Saanen wether, said their hair should be fairly soft and not harsh and wiry and that if it is wiry it is a sign they are wormy or nutritionally depleted, which makes sense to me, our hair and nails etc reflect poor nutrition and illness. I read something a night or two ago about giving goats Comfrey to treat stomach ailments, are there any Natural advocates in the house? What are the Holistic approaches to goating as opposed to antibiotics etc.? I saw someone posted that they feed them Kefir and Probios...is the kefir from goat milk? Teach me! I am ignorant!

CaliannG · #34 10/16/12, 01:21 AM

~smiles~ We are happy to teach. The first thing I thing you need to learn:

Wild goats do not produce over a gallon of milk per day to feed their offspring. They make, perhaps, 2 quarts, at a cup at a time. Wild goats also do not have 10 month lactation cycles. They have 5 month lactation cycles, and then they dry up. Wild goats were not selectively bred for thousands of years to produce far above and beyond the needs of their offspring. Wild goats have not developed a will to milk.

In other words, please take the idea of treating your lovely dairy goats, who have thousands of years of domestication and selective breeding behind them to do their job and do it well, like "wild goats". You will hurt your goats at best, and kill them at worst, and they do not deserve that.

There are naturalists here, and they will be very happy to share their knowledge with you. Just, pretty please, keep in mind that what you have is not ANYTHING like a wild goat. What you have are the race cars of the goat world. A wild goat can do what it does with no special input from humans.... kind of like my old farm truck can go with just plain diesel and a regular oil change. But my old farm truck starts complaining if I ask it to go 70 mph. A race car is designed and built to hit 200mph.... but it isn't going to do that on diesel and the occasional oil change. It requires specific fuels, specific management, and specific care.

You have race goats (well, not the wether. NO wether can be truly considered a "race goat", but your doe counts). Dairy goats produce four times their weight in food solids every year, out of their own bodies, in their milk. They need to be treated like the high performance treasures that they are.

You live in Idaho. Check the soil minerals in your area, then read up on the mineral needs of goats. You see, you have taken the, away from the "natural" habitat where they evolved (North Africa and the Alpines), which had specific soil compositions that had specific minerals. If the soil minerals on your property are not EXACTLY in the parameters of what goats were evolved to thrive best in, then you will need to supplement them with man-made minerals. NOT a block, for the love of all that is goaty!

A pregnant goat needs protein for her growing kids. In the wild, a pregnant goat would roam, with her herd, over hundreds of miles, only eating the plants that met her nutritional requirement. Can you give your goats hundreds of miles to browse upon? If not, then if your goat is pregnant, you will need to supplement her with concentrated grain mixes.

When lactating to feed her kids, a doe in the wild will browse through thousands of species of plant, choosing those high in fat and protein to support her and her milk production while she was raising her offspring. Do you have thousands of species of plants to offer her for her needs? If not, then if your doe is milking, you will need to provide her with food that is concentrated in fats and proteins.

In the wild, goats wandered over those previously mentioned miles upon miles, upon miles. The place they grazed and browsed over today might not have been visited for 6 months or a year...and they might not see it again for another 6 months or a year. In this way, wild goats keep from consuming parasite eggs and larvae, and do not have parasite loads that threaten their health. Do you have enough land so that she can graze her fill and not need to graze the same place again for several months? If not, then you are going to have to control parasite loads through man-made wormers.

In the wild, when seasons turn bad, wet, cold, or otherwise uncomfortable, the goats move hundreds, or thousands, of miles away to more hospitable locals, and thus avoided things like pneumonia, upper respiratory infections, and other ailments cause by changes in season and weather. They kept on the move so that they didn't have to worry about a build up of bacteria in their sleeping areas. Can you provide this kind of enviroment for them? If not, then you need to accept the fact that to save a goat's life, you may have to resort to antibiotics and coccidiastats.

What I am saying is that unless you can provide a wild environment for wild goats, then you cannot hope to maintain their health. What you have are *man-made* goats, selected and bred for millinia to do what they do, and you are keep[ing them in a *man-made* environment. As such, if you want your goats to be healthy, productive, and happy, you are going to have to resort to some *man-made* additives.

First, learn about minerals. You can avoid a LOT of *man-made* chemicals, antibiotics, etc., if your goats have the proper minerals in their diet.

Please come at this with the correct mindset. We really are HAPPY to answer any questions, but you have to be willing to bend your philosophy as well if it means the health of your animals.

gabbyraja · #35 10/16/12, 05:48 AM

iirc that fiasco farm link someone posted up thread has a lot of natural goat rearing info. Herbs to use, how you can use RealSalt as your mineral, etc. If it wasn't there then I learned it on GoatBeat's forum. But Fiasco lists "Herbal and holistic health care" as one of the subjects on their site. So, check it out!

Dreamgoat Annie · #36 10/16/12, 10:55 AM

Wow, Caliann, that's an awesome post!

Sue

giraffe_baby · #37 10/16/12, 06:26 PM

We are "newer" to goats as well.. Its a learning curve.. alot of good advice given ( and we are still learning too!!) Our goats (pygmy faints!!) ABSOLUTLY will knock you down for animal crackers, graham crackers, and Ritz crackers!!! All they have to hear is the rattle of the bag!!!
Also, i have YET to see mine EVER eat/taste the baking soda/minerals.. Ive even tried to shove a snip in their mouth and they sneeze it out... lol We did get a mineral block for "billy" goats the other day for the male... and he went nuts over it ... So our goats are as feniky as they come!! LOL