Ohhh my goats....

[Mom2Munchkins]

Alright, here's my mini dilemma... We have pygmy goats, some have horns some don't... It's not an issue for us. Every now and then my buck and one of the does will bang horns. I figure, whatever, they're goats. But I just got 4 new goats, three are pygmy does, and 1 nubian wether. My pygmy doe (with horns) and the wether (without horns) were really butting heads earlier, so I seperated them just because I couldn't be over there to supervise all day. I am just nervous about the wether getting hurt. I REALLY don't want this to turn into a horn debate. I will not be banding any of my horned babies, but I just don't know what to think about this wether. He had to go with the does when I took them, so I just feel bad. Any advice on this?? Will they just get used to each other?

 

[helmstead]

I have a mixed horns/no horns herd, too. They'll quit eventually. He might cut his head up a little, FYI...but they won't do any real damage. He'll give up when he gets a headache,

 

[lilhill]

I agree with Kate. I had the same situation here, and the disbudded ones learned not to mess with the horned ones.

 

[Laney]

I have my pygmies and to be honest I'm not sure I would buy any that were disbudded. I hate the idea of it...and they make such great handles.

I've not had any problems with any of them doing damage to the others even with the two Nanny's who don't quite get along. One is very dominant. She just gently uses her horns to let the other know to move along.

They do butt heads but it's never hard, you never even hear much more than a clicking sound. Even when they were first put together the head butting wasn't much harder than I would imagine would give them a good headache.

The wether will get the message and learn to fit in pretty quickly I would imagine.

Laney

 

[pipermark]

I have 2 goats that were disbuddied but the horns grew back, ugly looking , they bang heads and because of the weird horn thing sometimes one gets bloodied, but it really dose not seem to bother them. I would just let nature take its course.