pygmy goat castration

[jmoran]

 

[chooks4life]

What do you mean by the title? Are you showing a pic of a castrated kid?

Very cute little thing, shame about the disbudding though... Just my opinion... Not like it was ever likely to be a huge threat lol.

Best wishes.

 

[cassie]

What do you mean by the title? Are you showing a pic of a castrated kid?

Very cute little thing, shame about the disbudding though... Just my opinion... Not like it was ever likely to be a huge threat lol.

Best wishes.

Why do you think disbudding was a shame? I found horns to be a big fat nuisance. Never had a goat try to attack me. Had them catch horns in my clothes and rip them. Had one throw its head back and almost get me in the eye. I have had several get their heads caught in a woven wire fence. If this happens in the summer and they are not found in time they will die of heat exhaustion.

 

[theoldchick]

Yeah, those horse can be dangerous even if the goat is small. While wild goats need horns to help in their survival-the domesticated goat who is protected by a predator proof fence has no need for horns. Those horns can be dangerous!

Cute fella! Is it for sale or what?

 

[chooks4life]

Why do you think disbudding was a shame? I found horns to be a big fat nuisance. Never had a goat try to attack me. Had them catch horns in my clothes and rip them. Had one throw its head back and almost get me in the eye. I have had several get their heads caught in a woven wire fence. If this happens in the summer and they are not found in time they will die of heat exhaustion.

We never disbudded our goats and never had any problems. My sheep's ripped my shirts because of the angle of her horns but the goats never did.

As for the wire fencing, I've seen animals without horns get their heads stuck in fences, including emus, donkeys, and polled animals... It's a bit like the eye-threat issue in my opinion, some animals are accident prone or insensible and you just have to take extra care of/around them, whereas others are very sensible and aware and never get into strife or have accidents.

Definitely worth taking precautions if you have small children around your goats though, that's one case where I see the value in disbudding animals 'just in case'. Perhaps also in the case of a line known for aggression but why keep that sort is my stance on it.

Might have something to do with horn type too, some horn shapes are particularly dangerous when it comes to other animals, fences, or people, while others are quite unlikely to ever be an issue.

Personally I prefer animals with horns left on if they naturally carry horns; I prefer non-poll, but if I were definitely going to eat an animal I'd accept polled or disbudded. A good animal is a good animal with or without horns but disbudded is preferable to polled, but all the same the horns, just like the hooves, show genetic traits and I like to be able to see what they're carrying, not guess or have nasty surprises if a disbudded baby I get has offspring whose horns like to grow into their eyesockets. Dealt with a neighbor's flock of cull sheep because they wouldn't, the majority had maggot filled faces because nobody knew what sort of horn genetics they carried until a few months later when all the boys had sprung their horns and they were embedded into their jaws, eyes, skulls, etc. Grotesque.

As for the dog proof fence idea, well, plenty of people put their faith in fences and have it shattered. I prefer horns on them, but it's just my stance on it, I know some don't... Like, for example, the two of you and I guess the OP as well.

Eh, each to their own. Best wishes.

 

[cassie]

If you like horns and you have a set up that can accommodate them that's fine. I didn't and a lot of people don't. You are right about the horn angle. Boer goats have horns on an angle closer to their heads and they don't seem to get into as much trouble with them as the dairy breeds I raised. At least my Boers didn't. The horns on my dairy goats were more upright and they were a menace to me, themselves, and each other. Horns do have their uses. They help with heat exchange in hot climates and they make dandy handles. Some of them are beautiful. I once knew huge Alpine buck that had enormous horns and he was magnificent. Their use as protection is questionable. I once saw a herd of goats cut to ribbons by dogs, and most of those goats had horns.

 

[chooks4life]

If you like horns and you have a set up that can accommodate them that's fine. I didn't and a lot of people don't. You are right about the horn angle. Boer goats have horns on an angle closer to their heads and they don't seem to get into as much trouble with them as the dairy breeds I raised. At least my Boers didn't. The horns on my dairy goats were more upright and they were a menace to me, themselves, and each other.

Very interesting, the Boers and dairy breeds I've seen or kept in past were the exact opposite, but that's not to dismiss your experience at all, I've seen massive ranges of variance among any one breeds' horns.

Horns do have their uses. They help with heat exchange in hot climates and they make dandy handles. Some of them are beautiful. I once knew huge Alpine buck that had enormous horns and he was magnificent. Their use as protection is questionable. I once saw a herd of goats cut to ribbons by dogs, and most of those goats had horns.

I've seen a few goats who knew how to use them, mainly ferals, but domestics unless they're experienced with and inclined to fight dogs aren't too handy with them, for sure. We used to live beside a massive paddock that housed a flock of hundreds of feral mix breed goats and they didn't have dog issues.

But I've also heard a farmer say he keeps feral Boer mix goats with his prize Merino herd because 'they make more noise so the wild dogs go for them first'. I wouldn't expect the average goat to defend itself well though, their natural defense is pretty much dependent on flight and scaling cliff faces or rock heaps or even trees.

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Yeah, those horse can be dangerous even if the goat is small. While wild goats need horns to help in their survival-the domesticated goat who is protected by a predator proof fence has no need for horns. Those horns can be dangerous!

Cute fella! Is it for sale or what?

I believe this is a duplicate thread, and the goat is for sale, if I recall correctly the OP also started another thread showing the same photos but with text, asking how to wean them and mentioning something about them being for sale --- but I may be mixing ads there, that day I was looking at many ads for a companion for my sheep.