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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Goat Problems
  • Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:21:06 -0800

----- Original Message -----
From: Melody O. <melody AT crecon.com>
>
> So is this behavior (play rearing & butting) limited to just billies, so
> wethers don't exhibit this behavior? Or is it goats in general? Or is a
> personality thing?

***No, it isn't limited to bucks but it is more agressive in bucks. Wethers
can be just as bad if they haven't been castrated before they discover they
are boys. Goats like to play, any gender but bucks play rough. It could
also be a personality thing if, as you state, he is rather dumb.

Does are less inclined to use rough-housing play with their humans. Wethers
need to be cut before they know they are bucks. You can usually make a
decent pet out of them but they need the same discipline you'd use with a
dog. Buck do not make good pets.

> If you don't allow that behavior in your goats, what do you do to deter
> them? I read in Carla Emery's book to smack a goat on the nose if he/she
> jumps up on people (putting hooves on people much like a dog would put his
> paws up on people). We tried that but he was too dumb to understand the
> cause & effect.
>
***Use your knee like you would on a big dog. Don't let him put the hooves
on you, use your knee to knock him off and over as he goes to jump up on
you. Or use a small buggy whip and smack his hind legs when he goes up. If
he is really that stubborn or that dumb, he probably belongs in a pen
without up close and personal human contact.

> No. We don't play back with him when he exhibits the behavior. The kids
> do show that they are scared (running away) which is something I have been
> teaching them not to do. Billy seems to think that then they want to run
> and play with him then, which makes him even more excitable.
>
***Running from any animal brings on an automatic chase reflex.

> The problem is he sees us as one of the goats. He doesn't seem to see us
> as people. He has another goat friend. He treats us the same way he does
> her.
>
***Sound like he is due for a buck pen. A buck is quite a dirty critter and
STINKS when it is breeding season. Not that they are too pleasant smelling
the rest of the year once they discover what they were put on earth to do.
If you have them around a freshened doe the milk will taste like the buck
smells.

> And I feel the same way, and do the same thing with the roosters and any
> aggressive animal who bullies or is so scared of people that they act
> aggressively. But Billy doesn't seem to be a bully nor aggressive. He
> seems like a stupid animal who wants to play. I could be reading him all
> wrong, but that is what I see.
>
***It isn't really play with a buck. It is practice to be top "stud" when
it is breeding season. It will become more agressive when you have does in
season. He really needs a buck pen is you are going to keep him a buck.

> I really like some of his attributes so I would like to have him breed our
> nanny goat so as to pass those qualities on to the babies, and I do want
to
> have a billy in our herd, so I hate to kill him if I don't need to.
>
***What characteristics does he have that you feel are important? Are you
planning on keeping the kids or selling them or eating them? You don't
really want a buck in your herd. You want them by themselves so the whole
herd doesn't become a smelly mess unless you don't plan on milking any of
your does.

> With dogs I realize that there is an alpha dog that needs to be submissive
> to his masters so that he and all the other dogs will be obedient and not
> reek havoc with the farm. I just wondered if goats have some quirk like
> that.... I just haven't raised goats before, so I don't understand their
> ways yet.
>
***Buck goats simply aren't pet oriented nor are they terribly good at
following orders. They have a one track mind. Pen him up if you plan to
keep him.

Lynda





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