Goat Thread!

[HipMystic]

I have a question for people who are more experienced with goats. We have two 1-year-old Saanen-Alpine does with massive horns, who weigh at least 100 pounds each. We also recently got a tiny doeling, Violet, who is mostly Nigerian Dwarf, but one of her great-grandparents was a Nubian. She's six weeks old now. Her mother apparently weighed about 75 pounds, and her father weighed only 30 pounds. She was also the runt of triplets (Though she's in good health) and her siblings were at least twice her size. She does have horns, but they're small, of course, and she's just a little bigger than our cat. Also, our setup is a bit odd- we have a small pen and a few stalls in our barn that our goats usually get to roam in, but they also have a huge pasture with an electric fence when we are able to supervise them. (One of them likes to crawl through the electric fence and getting zapped only makes her hurry even more) So, we're wondering when we should introduce Violet to her big sisters, and how to do so. She is currently sleeping in the the stall adjacent to one of the other goat stalls, and we take her walks around the property, but we'd like her to spend most of her time with the other girls. We'd also like to minimize bullying, because we don't want her to get injured. Thanks.

I agree with @muddy75 on the “see no touch” method, since she’s so much smaller they’ll probably still bully her, but if they’re adjacent for a while they should at least get used to her

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Google is giving me mixed answers, but if you’re not using it until fall I think you should be ok

That dewormer is so-so in my experience; my herd is entirely resistant to it so I don’t use it, but it’s going to depend on your area. If I remember correctly it only treat roundworms? I’ve used Dumor Pelleted Dewormer (fed to goats individually) with good results, the only problem is that kids that young may not eat it.

Goats are a bit different from other livestock in that they don’t need wormed on a set schedule, as that will cause them to become immune to dewormers very quickly. If your goats aren’t showing any symptoms I would hold off on deworming them unless you’re having issues, I like to keep an eye on FAMACHA scores and body weight to determine when to worm them

Thank you so much!!!

They appear to be healthy goats!!!
I am still learning ...
Please explain FAMACHA to me....
It deals with gum color correct??

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Yall, I've been working on clicker training the trio and holy moly...they are responding to it...

 

[HipMystic]

Thank you so much!!!

They appear to be healthy goats!!!
I am still learning ...
Please explain FAMACHA to me....
It deals with gum color correct??

You’re welcome
So it’s a scorecard that you check against the color of their inner eyelid, and it tells you whether they’re good, or if they need deworming. Here’s an article that tells how to use it, and it has a picture of the chart:

https://u.osu.edu/sheep/2012/06/23/use-famacha-correctly-for-best-results/

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yall, I've been working on clicker training the trio and holy moly...they are responding to it...

Adorable!!!

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Adorable!!!

Thank you!! I just love them!!!

 

[muddy75]

I posted this on my fb goat groups but they were very unhelpful

Does anyone have any ideas for National Dairy Goat Awareness Week? It’s tomorrow through next Saturday, I wanted to do something fun on my farm page to celebrate, but I have no idea what to do Unfortunately I work all week, so in person activities aren’t an option
I thought about maybe doing a goat spotlight each day of the week? And maybe temporarily changing my profile pic and cover photo to something that says Dairy Goat Awareness Week? That’s seriously all I can think of

I think a daily spotlight is a wonderful idea! There are so many facts about goats that most people don’t know and even with the technology can be hard to find. We’ve been running into that a lot trying to find purebred stock and newer breeds (like kalahari reds)

 

[TJAnonymous]

In line breeding, father/daughter and mother/son breeding is acceptable.... it's sibling breeding that leads to issues from what minute experience and research I have looked at

Well that's good to know! I wethered the little boy so if there is any inter-breeding that could possibly happen in the future, it'd be between father/daughter. I have my buck penned up at the moment to keep him from breeding. Poor fella is miserable...

 

[The Chick Addict]

I believe Willow miscarried. She got thin all of a sudden and for sure no baby. Her udders stopped growing. But Bonnie is still going strong, her udders are giant already!

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]