Bottle Feed or Not?

[tduerson]

I have a question and it is probably crazy, but I have 2 Pygmy Twin Doe's. They are 8 months old now. I bought them from a Lady that never handled them and they where not tame at all. I thought I would be able to fool with them and get them friendly by now. I have done this before. They act like they want to be friendly, but are still scared. I was wondering if any one has tried to give goats like this a Bottle of milk or other favorite drink and get them to become more friendly. I have heard and read tons of stories about bottle fed kids and how friendly they are and thought this might just work on my Pygmy's. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have tried everything.
Thanks
Tina

[Dee]

Bottle feeding is started when they are born and within a few days. It is hard to get even a week old baby to start using a bottle after nursing. Your goats are already weaned. If they didn't have each other, they would also come around easier. I kept three doelings. The single kid accepted me easily when she was being weaned, the other two were sisters and they had each other for comfort.

I suggest tempting them with cereal. Mine liked Honey Comb the best but any one would do. Start out giving it to them in with their food. Not too much. Once they start liking it, they will look forward to it and come closer and closer. Don't try to chase them, let them come to you. And try to stay low so you don't tower over them. As time goes on, you can caress their cheek or back. Then scratch under their chins. I've had this work a number of times. I'm telling you, once they hear the cereal bag crinkle, they come running and will follow you on a lead for it.

[Sondra Peterson]

If you can find out if they were ever started on a bottle then they will probably take it for you, other wise you can forget the bottle at 8mo old. What I have found works, but does take time and patience. Get a good book, cup of coffee or your preference of drink, blanket to sit on and a bag of corn chips. Go out everyday for 30 min and put some corn chips out abt 2 ft from you, sit and read your book, sing to them , talk to them but don't try to pet them. If they come up and eat the chips good for you, next time put the chips out many a ft from you and do the same thing. When they start coming up right away and eating the chips. then just put them beside you and read your book, ingore the goats. After a few days of this put the chips between your legs and ignore the goats. Pretty soon you'll find that the goats are curious and you can start feeding them out of your hand. Most likely by this time they will start climbing all over you. This works in a lot of cases, however I aquired one 2 yr old doe who loves her previous owner and still runs right up to her for petting and loving but after a year with me is still stand offish. She will eat out of my hand but sure doesn't want me petting her. All this will take a few weeks usually goats are very curious and don't know why your ignoring them instead of chasing them so come up to find out. Good luck

[tduerson]

These are all great ideals that I have already tried. They will come up and eat out of my hand but will not let me touch them. If I even move an inch they take off like a bat out of - well you know what i mean. We have never chanced them except 2 times for shots and trimming hooves, so chasing them is not the problem. I just want to be able to love on them and pet them like I do my Boer Doe. I have these 3 goats jsut for pets and I can't even touch the 2 pygmy's. Something has to change.
Tina

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

But do they want or need you to pet them? No. So to alter their behavior you have to alter their motavation. Which means they have each other, they get feed no matter if they are nice and friendly to you or not, so what is the motivation for them to be nice to you? None.

Move them into seperate pens where they can't interact. No grain, only hay and water unless they take the grain out of your hand. And honestly unless you are the most patient person in the world, they are never going to be the crawl in your lap kind of doe. Think about the times you did manage to catch them, you wormed them, trimmed their feet, moved them away from their herd, yep, you aren't really high on thier list of fun people

If you can't stand this for life, than breed them for babies of your own to raise correctly, or sell them and purchase two infants this spring to bottle and raise tame. Vicki

[dale anne]

Howdy. I raise pygmy goats and just had 2 sets of twins this week!...I try to make sure that all my kids are handled so that when and IF! I sell them people can pet,trim,milk,help birth...so on....I bought a wild goat about a year ago now for milk she is a nubian and would charge at me...at first I would just stand in the shed while she ate and would reach out into the food bowl and after a few days she would come eat out ofmy hand but still would not allow me to touch her. I decided to deperate her from the rest of my goats and feed her by hand. I would hold out the feed and she would come over and eat with a watchful eye on me.....I started to reach out and she would run but really really wanted to eat...so she would come back. I done this fer about an hour every day till she allowed me to touch her not allowing her to have any feed unless she allowed me to touch her[for the hour] then I would pour the feed into the bowl and leave her be...well she caught onto it and i had to extend the hand feeding a little longer at times.it took me about 2 months before i could really give her a good scratch but she came around....one poster said to get down so your not towering over the goats....just be careful in doing this if they still have horns...youcan get hurt!.....I done this at one point to check a doe i was going to buy and was horned. I still have a scar!!!....this goat was only 7 months old at the time and she hit my so hard on the shin that she chipped my shin bone and left one heck off a hole in my leg!....I hope this helps you...dale anne