NDs with bigger goats

houndlover · #1 01/02/13, 10:57 PM

I have a small herd of Lamanchas and oberhaslis. None of my goats are huge, and they're all pretty gentle, but one or two will occasionally butt each other. The does and the younger kids are kept together and so far nobody's ever been hurt (no horns). I want to buy a pair of NDs in the spring for my young grand daughters to show. Will they need separate housing and pasture or will they be able to stand their ground with bigger girls? Thanks in advance.

dbarjacres · #2 01/02/13, 11:01 PM

Should be just fine. Have fun!

houndlover · #3 01/02/13, 11:10 PM

What about feeders? I usually grain on the milkstand but they have a wall feeder for hay, just a boxed in area with hog panel on the front. My 3-4 month old weaned kids can reach it so I assume full grown ND's will be able to also.

harvestmoonfarm · #4 01/02/13, 11:32 PM

As long as you don't have any large bucks that can breed the NDs, you should be just fine.

mrs whodunit · #5 01/03/13, 12:17 AM

We have a dn with our full sized goats. Works out very well. One of of full sized is a cranky goat but the dn has no problems.

beccachow · #6 01/03/13, 12:23 AM

I have my two pygmies in with a full sized wether (boer/angora cross) and a sheep. Size really doesn't matter in their world. Just be careful that your water source is low enough to allow the ND's to drink. Brilliant me got a trough and realized the pygmies couldn't access the water, lol. I had to half bury it.

I also spread hay out in at least one more pile than I have goats so everyone will always have a pile to go to if anyone gets pushy.
Enjoy!

Backfourty,MI. · #7 01/03/13, 06:09 AM

Before we switched to just the mini nubian breed we had Nigerian dwarfs & a couple standard size nubians & they all got along great.
Actually the herd queen was a Nigerian & her best buddy was my biggest Nubian.

"SPIKE" · #8 01/03/13, 06:22 AM

I have a ND wether to keep my Nubian buck company. They get along great and are fun to watch when they play butt. Pepe (the ND wether) takes no mess from Butthead (the Nubian buck).
The only problem is feed tray mounting height. To keep it low for Pepe, Butthead can poo in it. I just have to keep a check on that.

SPIKE

houndlover · #9 01/03/13, 08:33 PM

Thank you all. I've heard that ND's don't really know they're small, ha ha.

GoatJunkie · #10 01/03/13, 09:19 PM

"Actually the herd queen was a Nigerian & her best buddy was my biggest Nubian."

Ah yes..... the walk softly and carry a big goat approach. No wonder she was the boss!