What kinds of goats do I have here???

[Granolamom]

Our family has been searching for 2 Nigerian pet kids for a while now, and 2 weeks ago, out of curiosity, I went to look at some "Common goats" a man in our area had advertised on CL.
My kids immediately fell in love with a friendly, fuzzy, 4-month old wether and his sister. When I saw them nursing on their mom, and then found out she'd be sold "as meat", I decided on the spot to take her, too. Yes, you can call me a sucker, it's okay...

.
Anyway, yesterday afte

rnoon the man delivered the threesome to our house, and now we are proud owners of three mistery goats.
They are in an enclosed area in our backyard (4 foot galvanized 2x4 fencing), I've purchased Dumor goat feed, a mineral lick (with copper), and Alfalfa pellets (which they have not touched.
Any help/advise from the wonderful, knowledgable goat people on BYC will be greatly appreciated, especially information about what kinds of goats we have aquired (they're definitely dwarf size).

 

[RickiHupp]

The little lighter one looks like a pygmy
The other 2 could be nubian pygmy crosses.
I am not a professional, just my opinion

Very nice looking goats!!


After actually reading your whole post LOL I bet they are pygmy crosses or nigi crosses. Did the bigger one just kid? I noticed that she has a large milk bag.

 

[cutiepieacres]

The look like possible pygmy crosses with their markings, they are cute. Congrats and they look like they will have a great home!

 

[helmstead]

Pygmy x ?? For some reason, Alpine or Spanish comes to mind and I think the Pygmy was several, several generations back. They're called common or brush goats because no one has any idea how they're bred...

They are cute. I love the fawn color. How tall are they? Mom looks well over 20"

 

[college town chick]

They look like a Nigerian x Pygmy with maybe some Alpine thrown in the mix somewhere along the way?

Whatever they are, they're cute -- I love the dorsal stripe on the one! I wish I owned a buckskin goat (mine are white, black and brown and that's kind of boring compared to buckskin:/).

 

[Granolamom]

Quote:
How do I measure her (from where to where)? She's definitely taller than any of the Pygmees I've seen. Her udder is still huge, even though the babies aren't nursing all that much any more. Could I milk her, you think?
The guy I bought them from said they don't eat hay at all. I bought a huge bag of Alfalfa cubes, and tried to give them some, but they turned their noses up at it. Don't they need hay? Their previous owner gave them lots of crushed corn, which I heard is junk. I don't want to continue to give it to them, but that's all they seem to want. Hmmmmm. This will be interesting. I offered them some apple slices, some cantalope peel, and some carrots this morning, but they looked at me like "what the heck is all that roughage supposed to be? Give us some McDonald's, NOW!!!".
Looks like it'll be a long road to "healthy eating habits"

 

[BoJo]

In my opinion (take that for what it is worth...) You have "Family goats"

BoJo

 

[Biddieacres]

Granolamom I would have done the same exact thing. How awful to learn she was sold for meat as the baby is nursing. No way, she would be mine in a heartbeat as well. How beautiful they are.

I

Goats!

 

[Granolamom]

Quote:
Thanks for the kind remarks, guys!
That guy had no way of knowing that I'm a "brestfeeding Nazi", and when I saw the nursing, it was all over for me...

I'm really glad that we got all 3 of our "family goats"

, and I just hope that I will manage to convince them to eat better food than what they're used to, in the future. Wish us luck!

 

[MissCluck]

Congratulations! Hooray! If you have little wethers you may want to read up on urinary stones.

They are more likely to get these if they are fed grain or goat feed. I feed my wethers a tiny handful of grain as a treat but their main diet is good quality hay and forage.

I have my three wethers because they were going to be dinner for someone too. The husband was planning on eating the boys and the wife didn't want him to so she snuck them out to me when he wasn't looking.