Horned goats, no-horns goats, same pen?

Buckhuntr · #1 10/24/12, 12:47 PM

My three goats are all horned. DW noticed an ad for two 5-month ND/Pygmy X goats for sale that we're interested in, but both have been disbudded. Since we only have one goat pen, could they be kept together?

**mygoat** · #2 10/24/12, 12:50 PM

I have horned pygmy crosses, disbudded pygmy crosses, disbudded dairy goats, horned boer goats, and disbudded boer goats. All live together happily.

Buckhuntr · #3 10/24/12, 01:16 PM

Cool!

Backfourty,MI. · #4 10/24/12, 02:02 PM

We have always had some with horns & some disbudded or naturally polled that all lived together without any problems too. Now we've switched breeds & all of our new goats are disbudded except for a wether we had before & he's a sweetie, never uses his horns on anyone, human or goat.

BoerMomma · #5 10/24/12, 02:15 PM

We have 2 boers, and one pygmy/nigerian with horns and one dairy doe who is polled....so far there has not been a problem. We did however have 2 disbudded boer wethers at one point and tried adding a pygmy/nigerian doe....and once she realized (about 3 days) that she had horns and they did not she ran them all over the place and out of the food...she was however ridiculous and found a new home. She was on some type of power trip and used her horns on everyone and everything and I couldn't have that around my kids. So I guess it depends on the goat? My horned goats are sweeties

mary,tx · #6 10/24/12, 02:17 PM

When I had both, they did fine out in the field. But I would not pen and feed them in the same small area. A horned goat will beat the snot out of an unhorned animal, and if they are together at eating time, the unhorned animal is NOT going to get feed.

BoerMomma · #7 10/24/12, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mary,tx

When I had both, they did fine out in the field. But I would not pen and feed them in the same small area. A horned goat will beat the snot out of an unhorned animal, and if they are together at eating time, the unhorned animal is NOT going to get feed.

This is true.

We only have a small penned in area however....they get along great. We went out and bought 3 feed pans from Tractor Supply and put food in all of them, the wether and buckling usually share, and the two does usually get their own....they switch around a few times until the food is gone but there is no fighting between them thank god!

Ford Zoo · #8 10/24/12, 02:25 PM

In our experience, a polled ND and a disbudded Nubain are the top dogs. They will both head butt horned goats until their hornless head bleeds and the others back down. I have never had a problem with bullying away from food, everyone knows their place in the pecking order and they get along fine.

It really depends on the goats themselves. We did have a horned wether that thought he could push anything smaller than him around, until we put the polled ND doe in and she gave him a quick attitude adjustment.

I would be more worried about them being so young and small if your other goats are larger. All you can do is try, but make sure you have a place set up to separate them if you have to.

CaliannG · #9 10/24/12, 04:02 PM

I have horned and disbudded goats. They are together out in the pasture. They are together penned in the corral at night next to the barn. They are together in the stalls when it rains. Actually, they are just together 24/7.

My herd queen is disbudded. I haven't had any issues with them, although my DH is terrified that the horned girls are going to do something nasty and is always attempting to do some sort of "de-weaponizer". He also always asks for my help in doing these things.

Last time I put my foot down and told him that if HE wanted balls glued on the ends of Lulu's horns, then HE can figure out how to do it and do it himself. I see no need to go through the trouble when, in the year and a half that she has been here, she hasn't put a scratch on anyone. He countered that she uses them in dominance and play, and I told him to talk to me as soon as there is blood.

Hasn't been any blood yet. The mesquite trees do more damage to my goats.

airotciv · #10 10/24/12, 04:17 PM

I have both, goats with horns and some that don't. I have never had a problem. Yes they do ram heads, but no horned goat has ever hurt an unhorned goat. As my Vet said "The horned goats know how to use them and us humans need to beware." My goats run on 4 acers and come into the barn to feed, yes there can be a little pushing but nothing that would go to hurting each other.

crazy4equines · #11 10/24/12, 06:35 PM

Same here I have a mixture of horned and disbudded and I have no problem, they all eat out of the same hay feeder and there feed bowls are a couple feet from one another. The only thing you have to worry about with horned goats is your fencing. If you have field fencing they will stick there heads thru the little squares and get stuck, to prevent this from happening run a strand of electric fencing 2-4 ft up from the ground (depending how big your goats are) and make sure you keep it hot and they will learn real quick to respect the fence.

BoerMomma · #12 10/24/12, 09:42 PM

We had one nasty doe here, she was sold, but she was disbudded and around 3yrs old....she wouldn't let ANYBODY eat except for the little pygmy/nigerian whether...our boer buckling lost so much weight because of her, and our polled dairy doe gave up on eating grain and would just stand and wait for me to put hay out.....this doe ruled the roost and she SLAMMED all the other goats, and bit them! She was such an ill tempered brat.

hiddensprings · #13 10/25/12, 08:43 AM

I've had both horned and polled together in the past. I only had one issue in my buck pen. My young nubian buck had a collar on and when I feed, one of the boer bucks was being pushy and tossed his head just right and ended up getting his horn stuck through the nubian's collar. Luckily I was outside and heard the screaming so I was able to get the collar off before my poor Nubian was choked to death. I learned a valuable lesson and now, none of my bucks have collars on. (and, I ended up getting rid of all of the boers)

vpierce · #14 10/26/12, 08:22 PM

My Sandy is not horned and the others are. Sandy is the Queen of the herd.