New to nubians!

[happyfoodfarm]

I recently bought a nigerian dwarf buck. He is beautiful and has an amazing personality. He was my first goat. He was a bit of a mamas boy so its taken him a while to warm up to me. I thought about breeding mini nubians so i got a nubian. Its awful!!!! She won't stop bawling. Its been a month now since i had her and shes driving me and the rest of the barn crazy. She follows me around like she doesn't know she's a goat and jumps on me. Like literally tries to jump up into my arms!
How do i make her stop jumping on people?
And will she always be this vocal?

[marusempai]

Does she have a goat friend that lives with her? I'm assuming the buck is separate, and even then, a buck friend is not the same as a doe friend from what I hear. When we got Sundae, she had to be an only goat for two or three hours because I couldn't go get her friend on the same goat taxi run. She *screamed* the whole time. Got Music (dry yearling) in there with her and it's been much better.

The once or twice I've had one try to use me as a step stool, I shove them hard in the chest or to the side and say NO. They don't try it more than two or three times, although I'm sure there are more effective methods.

[happyfoodfarm]

I have her with the buck and a horse. I will be separating them in Aug due to her coming into heat. She is not standing for him and he doesn't try her often. She's just so annoying. I talked to a couple ppl local and they say its a nubian thing???As far as the jumping i push her away and i upped the firmness but she doesn't care. lol.

[mzgarden]

We are also new to goats and we have two nubian doelings. They are vocal but as long as they are together, it's only occasional. However, if we have to separate them - holy earplugs Batman. They need to be together - never alone.

[FarmFamily]

We raise Nubians. You may want to invest in some ear plugs. Ha! Nubians are very vocal. Some more than others. We have a few cry babies and they do drive us crazy at times. But you will learn to tune them out. lol. As for the jumping.... I have a few that think they are lap dogs. Nothing much to do about that but just keep pushing them off. Welcome to the crazy world of goats! You'll either really love them or really hate them.

[marusempai]

I have two Nubians and two Saanens, and I don't find the "Nubians are yellers" thing to be a quantitative thing, but a qualitative thing - Sundae doesn't yell much more than Emerald does, but when Sundae yells, EVERYBODY KNOWS IT. I do still wonder if your doe is feeling lonely - that would explain her following you around too, she thinks you're her herd. I'm new at this too, but that's what my experience leads me to suspect.

[happyfoodfarm]

I absolutely love my Nigerian dwarf baby. He has long hair and the cutest ears. Lol. He makes me laugh every time I see him. I enjoy watching him. I called him Finnegan.

[happyfoodfarm]

He thinks he's a horse. Hahaha

[yarrow]

no not ALL nubians are LOUD... it depends on several things.. HOW you raise them and the bloodlines seem to be the two biggies in having a quiet herd.. (I have 40 or so nubians.. most of the time you would never know we even own goats.. it's very rare for any of them to have much to say).. bottle babies will yell at dinner time.. but any other time of the day we can wander around in the kidding barn -where they are housed- and never hear a peep.. I **NEVER** give out treats.. of ANY KIND to ANYONE.. food comes ONLY at chore time.. while we give them lots of attention.. it's only in the form of love.. hugs.. kisses etc. I have on occasion bought a doe that turned out to be loud.. I know that having a big mouth is sometimes, hereditary.. so I don't keep kids from those does and rarely have I ended up keeping the loud doe.. unless she gave up her loud ways (which more times then not is what happens when she figures out she no longer lives with human VENDING machines LOL).. we also never REWARD unnecessary noise. I look out the window when I do hear someone yell.. unless they are in need of help.. I don't go out there.. (I do cut all the does a break and EXPECT some yelling the first 2 to 3 days after kidding.. but after that.. I expect them to go back to their usual quiet selves).. we've had nubians for over a decade.. I honestly think the loud mouth problem is as much -if not more- a HUMAN made one, than a breed one..also.. got to remember a nubian doesn't have that little baaa/bleety sound like the other breeds.. they naturally say MAAMMM! or a variant .. which I think catches a human's attention quicker..

susie

[Wendy]

I agree with the above. Mine aren't noisy at all. Only at feeding time.

[mygoat]

Sounds like you got a bad egg. The previous owners probably thought it was cute when she was little and jumped up on them. Now, mine do that too (alpines) but thus far they grow out of wanting to jump up on you. It may be partially the way we raise the bottle kids - we feed bottles through the fence so they cannot jump all over us, and we do most of our petting outside of the panel as well. If I had to retrain I'd knee the chest and/or pop them on the nose when they jump up. She's probably a bottle baby and those are the ones people let get away with all the bad behavior because they're cute, not thinking about how not-cute it is when a 150lb doe jumps up on you.

ditto on the treats. When I had boers I would grain the does pre-kidding and through lactation - they were noisy a lot more during this time, than when they were not expecting grain. I think they thought they could trick me into graining them again.

I would move the buck out asap and get her a wether or girl buddy. (get the buck a wether buddy, too) Not knowing when she is due can lead to disaster and very few goats follow the 'heat' rules. I'd pen breed ONLY when she is in heat so you have an exact duedate. Alternately, get a marking harness so she gets marked up when multiple mounts are seen - I really do not suggest just letting him breed her whenever, as there is a darned good chance you'll miss the breeding and not know when she is due. Outside of a herd of does, bucks generally make poor companions for single does, from what I've seen and heard. Too much constant attention to one doe - and no, not being in heat doesn't matter. Of course it depends on the doe and buck. My boer buck was obnoxious and when I ran a doe in with him for a few months, he ran her ragged and she lost condition. I ran an alpine doe in with my alpine buck, and he's sweet and laid back and they actually became buddies.

[mzgarden]

Oh, one other thing we've tried that seems to be successful so far. I have a little spray bottle in the barn with plain water. At first, our doelings were a little, um, headstrong, shall we say? I'd open the feed stall and they'd barge in and try to push me around - not that they could get to anything edible anyway. Regardless, I placed a little spray bottle of water near the door. When they start in - squirt squirt and guess what -- goats have reverse! It's not very graceful, but it can be pretty quick. They know now -- when they see that spray bottle come up in my hand -- ding, ding, ding , they are backing up.... (btw, it's on fan spray, not a direct stream, so no chance of damaging the eye and really, not much water).

[Cyngbaeld]

I think you just need to get a second doe asap and give them time to adjust. She is crying for her herd and a buck is not helpful to get a doe to settle in a new home.

I take something like a hard plastic bottle of water (lid on) when I have kids that haven't learned not to jump up and bang them hard on the horn buds every time they jump. Rarely takes more than two or three bangs before they quit. It does really make their head ring but it seems to get their attn better than anything else I've tried.

If the whole herd is crowding the gate, I pick up a small rock and toss at them and they all back off in a hurry.

[lovinglife]

She needs time, and a good buddy wouldn't hurt. If you don't like her, find someone who will appreciate her and get a different goat. I love my Nubians and wouldn't trade them for anything.

[hiddensprings]

My nubian girls are only loud at certain times: if I'm late feeding. When I am weaning kids, if I don't bring enough cookies out for everyone and if I am milking the last goat and her friends head off into the woods and leave her behind. Other then that, with my large group, they are pretty quiet. My bottle babies love to jump on people. But that's my fault. I should have never let them do it in the first place.

[happyfoodfarm]

Thanks for all your replies. She was actually really good today. Go figure. Lol. It was the first sunny day in a while.
As for the buck. I've had a lot of replies about him and feel I need to defend him. He's a really quiet buck. He rarely tries to mount her and when he does she runs and he stops. And that's it. They are buddies he even comes to her when she's bawling. Almost like he's trying to console her. He's quite a pet. I hope he keeps his quite disposition. He's only 10 months old and Chloe is prob 4-5 months old now. How old are Nubians when start mature? 6 months? That's when I was going to separate them. At that time I will prob need another goat friend. She will not be happy without him. He'll be fine thou cause his bestest bud is the horse anyway.

[wintrrwolf]

Careful I had a 5 month old mini doeling get bred accidently.
She slipped through both hot wire fences into the buck area and for a good ten minutes she was running around with 3 bucks on her tail, (and me right behind them) trying to breed her every time she stopped moving, I caught her that time thought I reinforced the fences but somehow she managed to do it again while I was at work, and no one told me.
We were lucky she kidded out 5 months later with no major complications. It is not an age your doeling should get bred, a buckling can breed as young 3 months ask me how I know that...
Your best laid plans ...goats mess with that all the time since they ate that memo instead of reading it...

[happyfoodfarm]

Wow. Ok. So maybe I better separate ASAP.
Thanks! It's so great we can learn from one another.

[mygoat]

A very good friend of mine had a doe kid at like 8 months old. She, too, thought that does (and bucks) matured at 6 months and kept her new buckling in with the doe herd, not knowing he was breeding everything in that pen. That means bred at 3 MONTHS old. 12 weeks. I've HEARD and seen pictures of a 7 month old kidding. that's bred at 8 weeks. Itty bitty baby. Usually they are bred by an older buckling still in the pen, but a nubian doeling could easily be bred by a nigie buck/buckling.

I would separate asap and in 30 days send off blood for a CHEAP AND EASY pregnancy test. 6.50 for the blood test and you'll know for sure. IF she were mine and tested preg, I'd stop the pregnancy.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Twelve weeks. She needs out of there.