goat is butting everyone

FarmerCheri · #1 06/11/06, 08:35 PM

Hi. We've had our nigerian wether for a few months now. He is about 1. Until very recently he was very gentle and sweet. We had a wait of about a month till we got our second goat. A doe. 8 weeks old now. He was a bit grumpy at first with her but seemed to settle down, but now he acts like he's trying to mate with her. (he's a wether) and is head butting all of us. I'm wondering is there some way he wasn't wethered properly? He's becoming very agressive with everyone except our youngest children who are smaller than him. We're new to goats, so maybe it's normal to be butted, but I still don't like it =) and it's very startling to have such a big creature ramming you. I also don't want him giving our little doe bad habits. She's very sweet and doesn't show any agression towards us. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

delphinium · #2 06/11/06, 08:43 PM

Sounds as though he may be trying to establish dominance - create a pecking order, and since he was the lone goat for a while, he probably considered his humans as part of his herd. Now he is trying to figure out the doeling's place in the herd.
As far as the wethering not being done properly - do you see any testicular development?
Have you tried spraying water from a squirt gun in his face and a loud "no" to discourage the aggressive behavior?

littledoe · #3 06/11/06, 11:37 PM

You may not want to hear this, friend, but that is behavior that you do not have to put up with. There are many well behaved goats. I would be concerned about those small children. Animal behavior can be unpredictable.
I'm sure you already know that. My pygmy wethers still act like raging bulls when the girls are in estrus. That's why they make good heat detectors in a herd. You may want to consider replacing that wether. I put up with some bad goats before I decided I didn't have to.

Best of luck,

Malissa

famer_manda · #4 06/12/06, 08:12 AM

I have a pygmy male goat that is turning more aggressive. I am just keeping him long enough to breed my goat and then he is going to find a new home. I have little kids too and the risk of him butting them is not worth keeping him. He normally is fine unless they run near him. Then he gets up on his hind legs like he might come down and butt them on the head. In the mean time the kids can't go near him and as soon as I think he impregnanted my doe, he is gone!! and I will look into just finding a farm for impregnantation purposes next time. I dont think I will be keeping a buck around anymore. They stink and they have attitude :P

lgslgs · #5 06/12/06, 08:19 AM

Time for the squirt gun!

Your guy might be trouble, or he might just be going through a phase of testing to see how much trouble he's allowed to cause. Ours are generally very well behaved, but every once in a while, when they have rank issues to sort out, the wether brothers get a bit more pushy, clingy, needy, and often vocal. It is most likely to occur on nice cool spring-like days with temps in the 60's - like this morning, in fact!

We just get the squirt guns out and have a zero tollerance policy for crowding and pushing for a few days. That sorts things out and it's usually another 6 months before they gradually they start sneaking in a bit of crowding, then leaning, pushing, etc.

Right now two of the wether brothers are sorting out who's dominant so one of them started nudging in when the other is getting attention. The nudging has been getting more frequent and is now getting a bit pushy, so Buster has got a date with the squirt gun coming up.

Most of the time now we don't even need to squirt them with water. All we need to do is show them we're carrying the squirt guns again.

Lynda

FarmerCheri · #6 06/14/06, 12:05 PM

thanks for the advice. We really want to give the poor boy a chance, since he was exceptionally sweet before getting our little girl. I don't want to get rid of a goat who is just working out issues. I'll try to squirt gun. Lately I've been carrying a stick/staff and if he seems funny around me I just put the stick firmly in front of me. So far he hasn't even attempted to butt the stick. Could our doe who is 8 weeks be putting of 'heat' smells? Seems so early. Also, he seems completely unbothered by our kids. Does he think of adults or larger kids as more of a challenge?
Will this behavior work itself out or will this continue? I had read that wethers were great company for does.

susieM · #7 06/14/06, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by famer_manda

I have a pygmy male goat that is turning more aggressive. I am just keeping him long enough to breed my goat and then he is going to find a new home. I have little kids too and the risk of him butting them is not worth keeping him. He normally is fine unless they run near him. Then he gets up on his hind legs like he might come down and butt them on the head. In the mean time the kids can't go near him and as soon as I think he impregnanted my doe, he is gone!! and I will look into just finding a farm for impregnantation purposes next time. I dont think I will be keeping a buck around anymore. They stink and they have attitude :P

And they pee into their own mouths, and think that they're sexy!

GoldenWood Farm · #8 06/14/06, 12:56 PM

FarmerCherri I personally wouldn't be putting a 8 week old kid with a yearling wether

. The baby can't really defend her self and right now the yearling is taking advantage over that. Wethers sometimes will act bucky if a doe is in heat (ask me how I know

) but mine have never ever become aggresive. Neither have my bucks.

I would be getting after him bigtime for what he is doing. If he was a big goat you would have sold him already. Headbutting is not accepted around here neither is aggresive behavior. I would use a squirt gun or something like that and get after him. Also don't be afraid of him. I mean don't be ignorant but don't show him what he is doing is working. I hope some of this is making sense.

Side note for Farmer_Manda
I am curious at why you would want to use a aggresive buck for breeding. Are there no other pygmy bucks you could use in your area? If I was in your shoes I would look for a buck with better temperment as I personally wouldn't want to be breeding that temperment. Not trying to sound mean or anything because I know how hard it is sometimes to find bucks of any breed.

MotherClucker