Lets talk about goats!

[cestial225]

I have a fenced in area that was supposed to be my garden I am thinking about putting the goats in. It is about 10feet by 80 feet. The goats will have a sort of run in shed under my 6x12 deck attached to the fenced in area. would that be sufficient for 2-3 goats? I could also tie them out to graze during the day but there will be days I dont tie them out. I wonder how often I would have to scoop the poop. Righ now I have one dog that poops back there and i will be honest I NEVER ever scoop it but since it is only one dog it is not realy a problem and doesnt stink.

next question...How often do goats need to see a vet? Are they like dogs and cats and need yearly shots?

 

[gotpotbellypig]

You can deworm them yourself but besides for that, I don't do anything. Copper is a big thing they need so don't forget to have that available at all times for them. If I'm forgetting something please tell me? Oh, and you can trim their hooves yourself too. I would keep the phone number of a vet that can take goats for emergencies though...I learned from experience...

 

[cestial225]

What do you all feed your goats? I am thinking free choice hay all the time and rationed goat pellets from tsc? Do they need more than that?

 

[harvestmoonGal]

That's fine. I feed mine year round, since they don't have foliage to graze on. In the winter I give them sweet feed. If you let them they will constantly eat!

 

[gotpotbellypig]

I feed my goats alfalfa/grass mix. I stopped feeding my goats grain because I found it made them gain A LOT of weight. Oh and, if you have chickens and scratch is laying around...be careful! I almost lost a goat because he got into a bag of scratch. Luckily he didn't eat the whole thing. The grains got into his stomach and he had to have a urinary tract. It was horrible. My poor boy was just not himself and lost a lot of weight.

 

[cestial225]

There is a guy that sells hay bales in his yard. It is honor system, he just leaves hay bales in a trailer, you take what you want and leave $2.50 per bale in the jar. I have no idea what kind of hay it is. Can I feed that to my goats?

 

[Stacykins]

There is a guy that sells hay bales in his yard. It is honor system, he just leaves hay bales in a trailer, you take what you want and leave $2.50 per bale in the jar. I have no idea what kind of hay it is. Can I feed that to my goats?

As long as it isn't moldy, it should be OK. Maybe pay 2.50 for a bale, then break into it. Use your sniffer and inhale deeply. If it smells moldy, you'll know. If there are patches of white, powdery stuff, it got wet, molded, then dried again.

Also, look for how leafy versus stemmy it is. Goats will eat a lot, but if hay is mostly stem (more like straw), then they'll waste 90% of it trying to get to the softer leafy bits. This past winter, in desperation I had to buy an ultra stemmy hay (middle of winter, my hay supply got wet and molded) and ration it until spring, and feed them hay pellets to make up the difference. They wasted so much of that stemmy hay because it really was like trying to make them eat straw.

 

[cestial225]

Any of you disbud your goats yourself?

 

[Stacykins]

Any of you disbud your goats yourself?

Yes. But it is really something you should learn from another person. And I'll be honest, it sucks. I was actually kind of glad that the family my oops Nigora kids went to wanted the kids to have their horns. Meant two less kids to disbud!

I definitely dose my kids with some banamine at least an hour before doing the deed. Banamine is like a livestock version of ibuprofen, it is an NSAID. It helps with some of the pain and swelling.

 

[bboyd1]

Haven't had to disbudd yet, and probably won't. I have 2 young goats I just bought that live with my full grown Saneen(sp?) She is polled. They use their horns for everything from scratching their backs to tossing hay around. Even the buckling has horns, although I may regret that later, he wasn't disbudded at birth and I bought him at 7 months old, so too late to do anything about it. If he turns aggressive I'll have to replace him, but right now he's as mild mannered as my others. BUT I have fencing that they won't get stuck in, and there are dogs in my area that while they can't get into the fenced area, Im sure there will come a day that they do and Im sure they will need to defend themselves. Im not gonna mess with disbudding babies when they come since we won't be keeping any for a few years, they will most likely be sold to others who want milk goats or in my freezer otherwise. Let me know how it goes, I did discuss disbudding with a man who sells and keeps a large herd when I first looked into goats, and he said we can always make arrangments to bring the 2-4 kids I might have over and be done all at once for pretty cheap. I'd go to him before a vet, due to cost and I can see his own herd and how good he is at it. Experiance is HUGE because you risk everything from a bad job resulting in partially growning and painfull for the goat horns if the iron isn't left on long enough or properly, to brain damage or even death if left on too long. I'd for sure have him teach me and do several with him before I'd do it myself.