Can anyone tell me what breed of goat this is?

[Twistfaria]

We live out in the Texas hill country, and have a single gelding quarter horse on 11 fenced acres. Last week this goat showed up at the gate by the barn. We have no idea where it came from and have found no owners through the signs we put up around the neighborhood. My father thinks it is a girl goat but I don't think he has really looked to find out for certain. It is very friendly and any time you go out there it will follow you around kind of like a dog would. It stays about 10 feet back and then will catch up to you in spurts. When you first go out there it will baa at you in a friendly/excited way for a while before coming over and looking for love in the form of petting or rubbing its head against your knee. It has smallish horns and long ears as you can see from the picture.

What I would like to know is what kind of goat it is; what it needs to be happy and healthy; if it will be fine out in the paddock with our horse; if it needs anything more to eat than hay and a single large bowl per day of "goat pellets" my father got at the tractor supply; and maybe what age you think it might be?

It has fleas but we got some food grade DE and spread it around out there and sprinkled some on it too.
Also I was wondering if you guys knew of another way to find its owners? Do goats have chips or something? Would a vet be able to find out somehow? Flyers in the neighborhood haven't turned anything up which is really making us wonder where this cute friendly little one came from. It has also started to follow the horse around as well. It's quite cute really.

Any advice y'all could give would be welcomed. Thanks

 

[Silver Silkie]

Hi there. We also live in the Texas Hill Country.

From a person who is getting ready to get goats and has read every book she can find on goats, I think that this goat looks very much like a Nubian. Nubians have a 'Roman' nose like that and long ears.
Goats generally need food, water, some sort of shelter, and lots of love from an owner. Goats often get into mischieve to entertain themselves when they do not have a companion. If you plan on keeping her, you should put some sort of obstacles in her pen to play on or get a goat friend for her. (Those large wire spools work great!)
She should be fine in a paddock with a horse, as long as the horse is not too territorial and not aggressive.
Feeding is probably the most important part in goat care. I would suggest alfalfa hay, but since we are currently in a drought and alfalfa is up to around $12 a square bale, coastal would work too. One serving of grain (goat pellets) should be enough for one day, unless she is under conditioned, then try giving her two a day.
If you post a picture of her teeth and perhaps her udder, I may be able to tell you her age.
Quick way to check if the goat is a buck or a doe: Does your goat have an udder? Or does it have a 'sheath'?
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. c:
~Silver Silkie

 

[theoldchick]

Nubian for sure. Glad you took her in and helped her out. I wonder if someone dumped her/him? Silver Silkie gave you good advice and the only thing I can add is don't let her get too fat.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

My vote is for a Boer cross, and young - less than a year probably. I don't think it has nearly enough ear to be a straight Nubian. The goat market is at record highs, so it is very unlikely the animal was just dumped. The more likely scenario, especially since we are talking about a creature of the caprine persuasion, is that it crawled out of its pen/pasture for a whirlwind adventure and then couldn't find its way home.

Here is the link to the Texas Estrays Code. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/AG/htm/AG.142.htm
Not to be a kill-joy here, but legally you should report the goat as found to the Sheriff. The Sheriff should put out an estray notice at the county courthouse, and maybe in the paper. Who knows... Someone may have already called in a missing goat report for the little fugitive.

 

[H Diamond]

Judging by the size of horn growth, it's under 6 months. If it's a buck kid, I would say around 3 months at most. If it's a doe kid.. maybe around 4-5... how tall and how much does it weigh?
I'm going to assume you know how to check if it's a buck or doe kid? If you have a horse... follow the same procedure for checking, lol.
If you plan to keep it, you need to get another goat around the same age. If it's a doe kid, you need to get either another doe or a wether (castrated buck). If it's a buck (and still in tact) you will want to look at getting him wethered, and fine him either a wether friend or a doe if you castrate him. Goats need another goat for a companion, and no... another type of animal won't do.
Definitely call the Sheriff's office and see if they have any reports of a missing goat.
I would guess it's a Nubian, Boer or a cross of the two. There is no swiss dairy goat breeds in it, if their were, it's horns would be much bigger compared to it's size and it would have airplane ears instead of pendulous (for the most part!)
As for feed.. you said "hay". What kind of hay are we talking about?

 

[Twistfaria]

We were able to look at her teeth today and here is a picture. I have looked at some of the websites about aging goats by their teeth and it sure looks like those are all baby teeth to my eyes which means she is under a year. Am I right? She is really adorable by the way. My sister and her husband came out today and she was being very playful and friendly. She did this cute thing where she stood on her hind legs and then kinda danced. lol She slung her head around and torqued her little body. And we definitely know now that she is a SHE. She has become like a shadow to our horse. She follows him around and then will lay down really close until he moves on to the next patch of grass then up she gets and trots along with him. When he hears the grain drop at the barn he makes his way there and she's right there with him. We keep a stall closed that she can get into but the horse can't. In it we have put some of that wood chip beading liberally dusted with DE and a large shallow bowl of grain. When Red (the horse) goes to eat she will head into her stall and nibble as well. I put some more pictures to give y'all a better view of her color, size and shape. In the one with the horse you can see she is heading through the metal rungs into the next stall, which she can also access from the front or the other side.

 

[Twistfaria]

OH somehow I missed your post diamond. That is young! It is so odd as we don't know of anyone around here who has goats. And we live close to a rather busy road and a more traditional neighborhood is just two streets over. We figured we would be able to find her owners easily by putting up flyers in our neighborhood and the other one as well. But apparently either she came farther than we thought, she hasn't been missed yet, or she isn't wanted. I shudder to think of her walking across that busy road. I really thought she must be someones 4H animal and that they would come looking for her. I mean if I lost her I would go door to door and be asking if anyone had seen a goat! Very strange!

 

[H Diamond]

Boer or boer cross imo, probably in the 4 month range give or take. Depends on how it was raised and how growthy of lines it's from.