Caring for Goats

We bought goats for $250 in 2009, and we have learned about these animals in our care. Our prior experience has been caring for horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks - we'll post seperate care notes for them.

Rather than tell a story, I will list some pointers and make it easy for someone else to learn from our experience.
Water and Feed and Pasture
Fresh water and clean hay is a minimum. We change water buckets regularly and put large troughs in corrals - free access to water on pasture. Hay is always dust free - and ours is made here - so our animals enjoy great first and second cuttings along with varied grasses and legumes from different fields. Goats get 1.5 lbs of hay each per day.

Grains
Grains are kept to a minimum - like a treat - unless the animal is working ie. milking or breeding. We use the same feed as for our horses - a mix of corn, oats, molasses, and minerals.

Feet
Goats, like every hoofed creature, need to have their hooves trimmed. A farrier can do this, or you can buy the equipment to do it yourself.

Creature safety
Every hoofed creature is like a "bull in a china closet" - that means keep glass windows etc. barricaded with steel bars or install them at least 9 feet off the ground. Pointed objects must be eliminated. Anything not attached to a wall or ground will be knocked over - secure everything.

Lodging
We have a large dairy barn - and sectioned off an area with floor to ceiling kennel frames. It is large enough for these animals to walk around alot - lined the floor with hay, and built a door to get in and out. We replace the bedding every two months. The frequency of this will increase when we get more goats since it will soil faster.

Personality
Goats are very demanding - they want to be around people. They are extremely entertaining - jumping on rocks, and whatever else catches their fancy. Ours climb up the stacks of hay, leap upon the backyard stone table, and dance sideways during our goat walks. They will also butt our dogs, and some dogs will respond aggressively while others will brush them off. They are comical!

Activity
All of our animals receive lots of activity with large areas to graze and varying terrains to explore. Our goats walk/hike with me on our large pasture since it is not fenced in yet. I feel that their fenced in pasture does not provide enough stimulation or varied diet until they are moved to greener pastures. So I'll keep walking for now.

Grazing Habits
Goats can eat thorny bushes - like rose bushes, pine trees, berry bushes, and wildflowers. They also eat grass, twigs, and bark. They follow the scent of honey and left to their own devices they will raid the honey bees. I love when their breath smells like pine needles!

Free choice Baking Soda
We were told this should be available to them. While we put it out - but the goats do not seem to rush to it like they did at their former home. Maybe they ate a lesser quality hay which required baking soda. Our goats are lucky and we are lucky to have top quality hay produced by Gene on our farm.

Horns
The de budding done by the previous owner took on one side only - yes we have single horned goats - unicorns! And they are all white like a unicorn - the Sannen breed. I would leave horns on offspring even though I read that they could be a danger to each other when fighting for food etc. We believe that animals left most naturally is the best option in the long run. Studies in Europe appear to suggest that horns kept on them may have health benefits.