Needed goat help

[Nichole Murphy]

I have a wether and a small Nigerian dwarf. I recently got a new goat and she's about the size of my wether who is a larger Pygmy. My dwarf chased the new goat around the first day and was brutual so we have her in a different fenced area during the day where they can see eachother and she goes into a stall at night near them. Today we let her out to see how it would go and the newer goat fought back bad especially on my dwarf and kept knocking her off of her feet. At that point our wether jumped in and they went at it bad. I'm ready to pull my hair out. When does it end? Any tips? I'm a first time goat owner and this is the first time introducing a new goat to my current herd

 

[waddles99]

Can you introduce the 3 of them into a neutral area?

 

[Nichole Murphy]

I don't have any place that's neutral for them that's fenced in

 

[waddles99]

Do you at least have two fenced in areas?

 

[Nichole Murphy]

Yes I do, the new one stays in there during the day and in her own stall at night

 

[waddles99]

What I would do is pen them next to each other for 2 weeks. Then, I would take the more passive of the two existing ones and put it in with the new one. Let them scrap it out, and then put the more dominant of the two existing ones after a couple hours. Make sure you have two sources of food and water so they don't fight over that. Give it some time, I know being a new goat owner you really cant tell the difference between sorting out dominance, and when you actually have to step in. FYI, you were right to step in if a goat is being knocked off their feet. Normal herd dominance sorting will be rough. They are wild animals. I have had goats knock each other into fences, off structures, etc. They are rough. But sometimes you need to step in.

 

[Nichole Murphy]

So update: our newer goat got out of her pen and hashed it out with our whether and now they all get along and lay in the yard together. I still separate them at night just incase, but food aggression is an issue, but not much to help with that I guess

 

[waddles99]

Put two feeding areas instead of one.