Are my goats hurting eachother?

Hi all! In June I got two dwarf wethers and I absolutely love them.  They are as sweet as can be!

Yesterday the lady who I got them from said that she had two more  (brothers to mine) that were never picked up by the other woman who had wanted them and that I could have them. I got my original boys very young and they had only had mom's milk for a couple months. Well, I went to get their brothers and they have been drinking milk for months. They are huge compared to my current boys. They stand taller, have longer legs, and just generally are not as scrawny as the others. 

They look like fat milk fed babies!

When I put them together there was some headbutting and a bit of aggression. One of the bigger boys has a large scur on his head and I'm worried he's going to hurt my other boys. This morning I came out and Sonny, who had two small scurs, had had one broken off between last night and this morning.

My questions are, how long will this dance of dominance last and is there serious harm being done to my littler guys? The scur on the one newer goat is very large. I have a mind to hack it off. Can this be done? Can  I remove the dangling scur from my other baby or will it fall off on its own?

I feel like my littler guys think I'm torturing them. I really love them and just want everyone to get along.

Thanks!

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Replies

  • Goats can be really hard on each other, but like Julia said, they usually get it worked out. Yes, they could hurt each other, but that's really rare.

  • Ok, I hate to watch them duke it out. There's enough seeds to go around!!!

  • I wouldn't worry and let them work out their pecking order. I would probably try to "band" the big scur which you can do with a banding tool you use for castrating them. You'll have to cut notches in the scur at the base so the bands will stay on. It takes about 5 or 6 weeks for it to fall off but that way you don't have serious bleeding like you will if you cut it off. The other one will fall off (or you can pull it the rest of the way). 

    My bucks duke it out all the time and one or the other is often bloody from a loose scur. Half the time they're loving on each other like lovers and then they duke it out again LOL. 

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