Goaties, redbuds and dogwoods

My redbuds and dogwoods are long gone. :( If you can teach the goats to restrict themselves to blackberries (and honeysuckle and [size=85](poison)[/size] ivy) I want them! :lol:

Well they do eat grass also but I've been very happy so far with the amount of brush they've eaten. They are very funny critters! I'm always having to run them off the deck. They've also adopted our dogs and will beller like crazy when the dogs leave. What ever you do don't leave the door open! They will follow you right in the house! They do have a bit of a smell to them but I think its well worth having them around. I got these 3 really cheap or I would have been a bit leary of getting them. I think now that I know I like them I'm going to see about getting some bigger meat type goats.

Yes they look like Pygmies to me - we used to have 2 out the back they were very entertaining !!! - the udder could just be a wonky udder, unless the other side is hard and hot I wouldn't worry. ;)

It's the bucks that smell, cause they pee on their chins and sometimes in their mouths! This smell will rub off onto the females, which then of course makes them stanky. :? They look a little bigger than pure Pygmies, but anything small, by textbook definition, is a pygmy!
They love leaves, alive or dead.

They don't look pure pygmy to me, but all goats sure are cute. As to Nanny, yes, does do get mastitis so that could be causing the udder oddity, but it is hard to say without actually doing an exam.

Well I should probably clarify. She doesn't have mastitis now as she isn't nursing. The young nanny is your last yrs kid and she hasn't had one this year as far as I know. I was wondering if a past case could have caused the enlargement.

I thought they were a little big for pure blood pygmys but I wasn't sure.

[quote="admin"]
There is an old Nanny, a young nanny, and a young billy.
I wish I had 20 of them![/quote]
:rofl Oh, [i]believe me[/i], with a young buck and two nannies, you'll have plenty before you know it! :laugh1

The bucks do tend to breed freely and openly as often as the doe will allow, and with as many does as are available - they are total DOGS
:laugh1 :bounce

Your young nanny will be pregnant, and she will probably (hopefully) have just one the first time, although Pygmies are prolific.
If she has a billy and a nanny kid I would be inclined to take the billy off and bottle raise him, but that would be a judgement call at the time, I think.
The Billies do smell, and they can be evil with their horns....much as I dislike it I would advise you to disbud any babies you have...your Vet can do it for you.
Gestation is 5 1/2 months, some goats are seasonal. ie they only ovulate at certain times of year but I think Pygmies are fairly "easy" that way!!!
I would think the old girl is probably pregnant too, and should kid ahead of the young one, as the young one is really only just old enough.
If you have a choice in the matter (ie if you see her in season) I would keep the young one empty this year....they can and do breed at a year, but as with all things they are better for not doing so.
I have had Goats....for me it was akin to having ....erm...OK, I'll go for "Fleas" since it is more polite than what I was actually thinking of!!!!
I actually repeated the performance, too, which is strange as I am not usually a slow learner....NEVER, EVER again!!!
I could not keep them in the field, no how, no way.
Twelve acres of grass to play on and they break out and chow down on the allotments next door!!!!

Thanks Rabbit,

I've seen the billy try to mount both of them but they didn't seem very receptive. ATM neither of them look bred. Any suggestions for worming them?

Goats are short day breeders so they shouldn't be receptive until the fall.

You should pop over to the lifestyle block forum (even tho' it is New Zealand based). Lots of goat people there, who deliberately WANT goats!! :shock: :laugh1

Diane

This is what we use for worming: http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/pro…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And we have this nifty difty syringe to give it to them with: http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/pro…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And we have also had goats breed in the spring, and kid in the winter. But like MP said, they'll most likely be bred in the fall.

[quote="Monsterpony"]Goats are short day breeders so they shouldn't be receptive until the fall.[/quote]
Famous last words, I'm afraid.
I bought a young Nanny...Toggenburg X Anglo Nubian, supposedly open, so supposedly so that I went to all the trouble of finding her a suitable husband in the district, and received the same info from both the people from whom I bought her and the Billy owner....she will be receptive October/November time, bring her over then....Hah!!!
Got down one day to find Joe coming out of the foaling box cleaning off his hands and informing me my goat had just given birth to a nice nanny kid!!
I actually told her she could not have done as she was not in kid!!
To do him credit he did not hit me over the head with a plank, although he quite obviously wanted to......
He just asked me what that was in the straw, then, scotch mist, and suggested I got a coat for it as it was flipping cold!!!
This was in September, BTW!!!!
Velvet was the sweetest thing I have ever seen, obviously sired by Sugars Anglo Nubian father.
I dressed her up in a baby gro that Isabell had grown out of long since and she looked as cute as a button.
Unfortunately, when God made Sugar and Velvet he forgot to fit brains in either of them!!
I eventually sold them both at a huge profit to someone who was starting a Goat Milk Dairy....he was over the moon with them, thought the price I charged was cheap, and had all the facilities to deal with around 100 brainless goats....good luck to him, I said!!
That was my second and last foray into goats.
A friend tried to give me a baby goatling (what are castrated billies called??) the cutest sweetest little thing you have ever seen about the size of a kitten, and I nearly did waver, it did not help that OH at the time was saying we should have it and she would buy another one, a female, and then luckily I had this vision of us breeding the flaming things, and I [i]knew[/i] I would never be able to keep them in a field, ever, so I came to my senses and ran, fast, away form temptation.!!!
So....the point of that ramble is that goats, especially young unmated female goats, can actually come into season in the spring as well as the Autumn........ :lol:

[quote="rabbitsfizz"](what are castrated billies called??)[/quote]
Our castrated male lambs for 4-H were called "wethers", so I wonder if it would be the same for goats?

Yes, castrated goats are called wethers. Females are either does or nannies and intact males are billies or bucks.