Trouble w/Introducing New Baby Goat

[mrszlopez]

We took two female Pygmy goats about 3 weeks ago that were in need of a home. They arent very friendly & have been pretty antisocial with us.
Theyre quite small, but are 3yrs old. We picked up a little Buck this weekend to add to their pen. He's about 3 months old or so & is very friendly.
We tried to introduce them thru the fence & they were butting him. After he started getting "frisky" with them, they calmed down and sniffed him.

The next day we went into their pen with him & they got VERY aggressive and actually caught me with their horns trying to get to him. Each day Ive been
going in with him for a few mins after them sniffing and butting thru the fence and yesterday he actually butted them back, then rand behind me.

What can i do to get them to be okay together ? I was thinking of just waiting it out until he is big enough to defend himself properly.

Any advice is very much appreciated !

 

[Matthew3590]

With my experience of introducing goats (though horns weren't in the equation) was I leave them in there and they will beat up (but I interfere if it is too ruff) on the new one cause the new goat HAS to know who is top boss. Then towards bed time I will put him in a GIANT dog cage for the night and early morning let him/her out. Then after about 3 days they are fine with the new goat.

 

[mrszlopez]

Yeah these guys all have horns. They hit me hard enough to leave two big bruises and a knot on my leg.
He went back at them but he was hiding and they were getting pretty rough with him.

When he went in yesterday, they were sniffing him but still going at him. Im afraid if i put him in there in the dog crate, theyll knock it over trying to get to him

 

[Matthew3590]

If you have a pen with them maybe putting the new guy with the most gentle one you have that is the lowest rank in the herd (if you know) so he might bond with him. Then add the next one, and the next and so on. Sometimes when the originals are with their buddies they will gang up on them also. So you recommended you watch and it might take a week or two till he is fully bonded with them.

 

[Kaitie09]

when we introduced ours, we put a pen inside of the main pen. It was big enough that our two Boer babies(3 months) could run away from the walls of the fence. Our pygmy was very aggressive with them when they first came. She would try to go through the fence too, but after realizing she really couldn't, she calmed down. They were in there for almost a month (until they got bigger than her) and then we let them out. All of ours have horns too. I would say separate the little guy in a pen maybe in their pen area, or next to it until he gets bigger. If you say the 3yr olds are on the small side, he should be bigger than them, or close to it, in a little while.

 

[mrszlopez]

Thank you for the input. I actually had a gut feeling today that he would be okay. Tried puttin ghim in again & theyre actually okay with him now. Im SO relieved. He is defending himself and after that, they backed off. Theyre even sharing hay with him

 

[Matthew3590]

 

[mrszlopez]

Quote:
Im ecstatic ! lol.