Breeding goats

[aubreynoramarie]

So my nigerian dwarves are now one year old and are still very skittish and shy of us. We really wanted them as pets and even through the best of our efforts we cannot get them to trust us. We watch them through the back window. they play and leap of the deck and have so much fun. they are terribly cute and lovable. Unfortunately they were not bottle fed and we just cant seem to get them to want to be scratched behind the ears. They will eat from our hands but once the food is gone they bolt. They love our dog and play with him, just not us.

so we are toying with the idea of breeding and bottlefeeding the babies. Are they old enough to kid? is now the right time to find a stud if we wanted a baby by spring? is there any pertinent info we should know? I just went out and bought a book on the subject but also wanted to hear from my BYCers whom i trust more than anyone else when it somes to these things. thanks!

 

[CheerioLounge]

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Have you checked out BYC's sister site; Backyard Herds? There are a lot of very knowledgeable goat folks over there. I think you would really enjoy the forum there.

 

[goofy98]

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yes they are old enough and I gess it depends on if your gots are in heat I not 100% sher but I do know that they are old enough

 

[shadowpaints]

try this to get them friendly.
when you give them hay, get a chair and sit practicly on top of it. sit as long as you can dont pet them for a few days of doing this until they redily come up next to you when its time to eat. then start offering the hay by the hand fulls, then offer grain by hand, it can be time consuming but it does work! we had to do this with 4 goats last year, and they are in your face friendly now lol

but yes they are old enough to breed, they come into heat every 21-22 days

 

[Haviris2]

If they are good sized they should be fine to breed now. However I wanted to mention you don't have to bottle feed to make them friendly, clearly their breeder didn't do their part to make them friendly. Personally I liked to bottle raise my keepers, just because I really enjoyed it, but you don't 'have' to. All my kids bottle or dam raised were very friendly.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Thanks guys

weve had em for six months now and have been following a ton of advice on getting them to like us. we work with em almost every day but in the end they are so stubborn! lol. our wether is okay, he will suck on your fingers then run away. if youre slow enough he will let you give him a good chin scratch but thats about all. we will continue to work with them and will probably keep thm but id like to have a special friend we can take for walks and let the children in the neighborhood pet.

 

[Skyesrocket]

I have Nigerians and they are all standoffish unless I have food in my hand. It's strange, they aren't afraid of me I can walk with them and walk all around them when they are penned. They just don't want to be pet. If I sit down with food I get mobbed they climb all over me. But, no food no petting the little snots!

They come running when I call them. They aren't really afraid, just don't want to be pet.

I have two nannies and they each have 6 month old doelings and a buck. When they freshen this spring I will leave the babies on them the first couple of days to get colestrum then bottle feed them.
I hope it works out for both of us!

 

[aubreynoramarie]

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do you think letting them be raised by the skittish mom will teach them to be afraid of me?

 

[aubreynoramarie]

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me too! i hope its not a breed thing! i really wanted minis and chose the nigerians because i was told that they were so friendly and fun. so far they are extra fun, but not so friendly, lol

 

[aubreynoramarie]

oh and one more thing. i only have a doe and whether.... whats the best way to go about studding??? craigslist?