Cutting your goats hooves?

[SheriM]

Quote:
Goats aren't quite the same as horses. It would be very hard to "cripple" the goat by incorrect trimming. A LACK of trimming, now that's another story. If you want to see what a normal foot should look like, look at a kid who's a couple of months old. Their feet haven't had a chance to grow out yet, so they are naturally well balanced and properly shaped.

 

[karen71]

It's easy all you do is take snips and snip down the outside edge so it's even

I'm not even sure that you can hurt them - mine just don't like me to hold their feet up but they get used to it.

 

[username taken]

Quote:
Goats aren't quite the same as horses. It would be very hard to "cripple" the goat by incorrect trimming. A LACK of trimming, now that's another story. If you want to see what a normal foot should look like, look at a kid who's a couple of months old. Their feet haven't had a chance to grow out yet, so they are naturally well balanced and properly shaped.

actually, you can, if you trim them into an incorrect shape, then that prevents the hoof from wearing naturally, the animal from standing correctly and distributing the weight naturally, which leads to joint and bone problems ...

I've had a few goats come to me, from one person in particular, who trimmed her animal's feet into an incorrect shape, those goats never had sound feet and legs again

 

[chels23]

There are couple videos on YouTube that helped me out. You could always find someone local that has goats and ask them if you could watch them trim their goats hooves.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

expertvillage.com has a great video on how to do it. It's pretty easy, just take your time, practice will make purrrfect!

 

[bUg_Farm]

We use nippers. As already posted, take your time, do a little at a time and you'll be fine. If you're not sure, hire a farrier and have them teach you. Believe me, they'd rather teach you to do it yourself than work on goats all of the time.

Good luck.

 

[farrier!]

Yep.....I have a number of clients with goats. I usually charge from 0 to 5 dollars for a trim. Most could do it themselves but I can do all 4 in less time then they could do 1.
Not all farriers will do goats, some will not do donkeys or drafts either...
Not hard to do if you keep them up.

 

[Chirpy]

If you have a good way to hold them (I use my milk stanchion) it's really easy to do their feet. Here's the clippers I use - I love these: http://hoeggergoatsupply.com/xcart/home.php?cat=48 - I use the orange handled ones at the bottom of that page.

Here's FiascoFarms info: http://fiascofarm.com/goats/hoof-trim-rf.htm

 

[dixygirl]

It is really not hard at all!
Not like cutting a horse's hooves
It is just a finger nail that goes around the hoof in a V
Watch this vidoe to see how easy it is.
If you can trim your fingernails you can trim your goat's
Just dont cut them too short and hurt the animal

 

[BlackBart]

We used Electrical sidecutter snips, worked great. The cutter/snipper part is on a angle.
My Husband held them, which is no easy feat! Pygmy Goats are very strong, and I trimmed their hooves.
We put large rocks in their pen so they could climb on them and this helped to wear down their hooves and we only had to cut them, maybe, six times a year?