Breeding goats

[aubreynoramarie]

awesome! i was reading in my book that some poeple diaper their kids and let them run around the house supervised when the owners are home!

talk about bonding!

 

[Haviris2]

The moms being skitish can make it more challanging, but they can still be tamed. When I was breeding I would keep my does and kids in a stall, and spend lots of time sitting w/ them, kids are naturally currious and will be all over you, once you find that sweet itchy spot they're all yours! All my nigi kids were super friendly. If you want to bottle feed that's fine, I always liked to raise my keepers that way, but you have to be 100% commited, and most people start to get board with it around week 6. My kids weren't weaned until atleast 3 months, and up til then would get 4 bottles aday.

Personally I don't even bother with unfriendly adults, to much work to tame them, if they were mine I'd breed them for replacements and send them to new homes.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
Yeah that's what I am learning and that's the new plan. Bottle-feeding does sound really hard but fortunately my boyfriend works mornings and I work evenings so I think that will help to ensure someone is always home to feed

 

[lishah2000]

I don't know a lot - have only had my three since April. They are Nigerians - one wether, who was over a year and two does that were just babies. At first the babies were very friendly and the wether wouldn't get anywhere near me. Now he asks for pets and attention. The girls don't like pets as much. A brief scratch is about all they want. They are friendly enough to come up to me or get in my way. Will eat out of my hands, just don't really like pets. It did take some time for the wether to warm up though.

None were bottle raised. They came from a good sized herd. Some of the does were very friendly, but not all and not the moms to the two I got. My wether is actually the dad of one of my girls.

They may still come around for you. I remember it took quite awhile for my boy to trust me (I was told he was friendly with the first owner). Then one day he just decided I was ok. The girls I do consider to be very friendly, just don't like a lot of pets. They will follow me everywhere and enjoy learning tricks.

 

[Skyesrocket]

I have your answer! One of my Nigerian nannies had a doeling and a buckling last night! She had them clean, dried off and nursing when I found them this morning. So cute!
This was one of the standoffish nannies I told you about. I cleared the two yearlings and the other nanny out of the stall to give momma and babies alone time.
While I was holding the babies momma came right up to me and stood there to be pet. She wasn't too concerned about me holding the babies. She stood there eating hay. It is in the 30's here and the babies were a little fussy. I made them goat coats out of fleece with a layer of wool stitched inside. I showed momma the coats and let her smell them then I put them on the babies. The babies settled down and went to sleep.
Each time I went into the stall today momma came right up to me and let me pet her. Someone mentioned that once your nanny freshened that she might get more friendly. Mine did.
I really didn't want December babies but they sure are cute! I'm going to leave them with momma as long as the babies let me pet and hold them. I'm going to encourage momma with a few grapes when I go into the pen to help keep her friendly. I sit down and the babies climb all over my lap.
Pictures coming.....

 

[aubreynoramarie]

thanks you guys

wowie! how exciting to get babies!! im so jealous!! so so so jealous!!! must see pictures for sure!

 

[zzGypsy]

we've found the does sometimes get more tolerant of people right after they kid, but it doesn't always persist... it may wear off. one thing you can do, though, is while she's in this friendly mood, figure out where she's itchy and teach her you scratch itchy spots. goats are permanently itchy creatures, and generally once they learn you'll scratch, they'll seek you out.

we don't full-time bottle feed the kids - this year I got a couple of kids that were bottle babies as part of a package deal and those were SUPER people oriented. and LOUD about it. and obNOXious about it. and climbed up you with their muddy hooves. and ate your clothing / fingers / hair / zipper pulls EVERY time they got near you. and NEVER got out from underfoot. not really a good solution in my mind.

we milk share with the kids - we milk in the morning, so the kids are with the doe all day, then at evening feed, they go in a separate kid pen next to the moms. we milk in the morning and get the milk produced overnight, the kids get all the milk produced during the day. if we've got a kid that's skittish, we bottle feed some of the milk back to the kid before turning them in with the moms, and take that time to handle them so they learn we're an alternate source of milk and scratching. the result has been easy to handle kids that are not human-fixated, but are sociable.