Predators for goats...

so it looks like they go after the kids. My neighbor seems to love to feed the wildlife out here and even the coyotes because he recently took a picture of two of them eating what they had put out and them looking towards our property. Isn't that neighborly of them. Instead of shooting them with their gun, they shoot them with their camera. They recently have wild turkeys at their property eating the food they set out for them. I think they want to be like snow white.

Although one time they were feeding the squirrels and when they built their garage the squirrels did a number on their insulation, they ended up shooting them.
 
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neighbor just called and said the coyotes were feeding at their place in the evening. This morning I found holes trying to be dug around the goat pen
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I probably won't sleep tonight just to protect my babies.
 
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Llamas!!
We had some of the same issues with the addition of neighbor's dogs getting in the yard and killing birds. I even had a Great Prye but unfortuntly she learned from the neighbor dogs that chickens are food. So I did a little research for guardian animals and found llamas make great guard animals, they graise on everything and do not need much additional food, care is not bad, their poop does not attract flys and unlike goats they only poop in on area. I purchased two (you have to have two because a single llama is a lonely llama and they start acting out). Both of the llamas are males which I will need to get guilded in 6 months. The dogs in the neighborhood are totally scared of them and the raccoons have not come back either.
The cool thing is they love the cats and they do not eat chickens. It is great.
Hope this helps.
 
Hm....llamas....do they have mini-llamas ? You know they just about have a mini for everything. We don't have too much area for them to roam around.
 
I would not consider getting llamas if you are only looking for a guard animal for goats. Llamas are wonderful animals but need training and work to keep them happy and quality animals are expensive. Get a good electric fence!! Mine kept a pack of rogue dogs away. Once the predator gets a whopping shock they loose interest fast.
 
My personal preference for my goats is a LSG, rather than a donkey, or llama. If the donkey or llama doesn't like the goat(s), he/she will not protect it.

One of my friends lost a few goats last year that he put in with two donkeys to protect them. When I asked around prior to getting my LSG, everyone lost "some" with a donkey. I'm quite sure these are exceptions rather than the rule, but that's just my experience when I researched it. So I thought I'd share.

Everyone I know with a LSG hasn't lost them to predators. And mine is worth her weight in gold!
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She's a great pyranese, but other LSG make great guardians too. They'll watch your cows, chickens and guineas too.

If you go with only electric fencing without a LSG, make it real high. I've seen dogs scale 5ft fences without touching it. Also, if the strands are not close enough together, coyotes can get though it.

Also keep in mind, if the goat can get his or her head though the strands, their whole body will soon follow. Part of the challenge of keeping the goats safe is keeping them in. Five strands of electric work real well for me.
 
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I think they do have mini but that really is not much smaller then a regular llama. They say you can have 4 llamas per acre but I would not recommend more then 2 on two acres if you want them to graise and not have to buy a lot of feed.

Our llamas are pets as well. They really do need interaction with humans. There are a lot of people around here that use them for only flock protection but I really think that is a waste since they are really fun, curious and friendly animals when handled and trained right.

The best thing about llamas, especially if you have poultry is they do not eat birds. They will never see another llama eat a chicken and think wow chicken sounds great or learn to eat your birds because the neighbors llamas got into your yard and taught them that chickens were food. Plus they make great walking companions.
 
mine each have a collar and i leash them to take them to the corral and leash them to go back to a shed and little corral at nite . both of the fences are 5 ft. tall, so i don't worry! BEST OF LUCK! my big corral has those annoying sticker bushes , my goats are doing a good job of clearing it . by july the corral will be moved to clear another section of sticker bushes. angel was bottle fed at 1 week old so she was leash trained early , cloudy had a collar on him but had not used a leash much ( one week of going back to the two corrals and no problems . if you use a leash do like i did and walk them around your property it helps get their mind off the leash they will be interested in seeing new things. BEST OF LUCK!
 
Random shooting of coyotes doesn't do much good to keep the population down. The species is wired to have more babies to make up for any losses. Then you have a bunch of young coyotes, who are by and large more dangerous to livestock than the older ones.

I have a good friend who has 2 Alpaca to guard against coyotes. One was injured at one point, but they have been effective. She also has a few outdoor dogs. She spins yarn as well, so the Alpaca do double duty.

If you hotwire a fence I would think that you need to have it hot both high and low (digging). 3 foot fence isn't nearly tall enough.
 

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