Hi guys,
My two adult bucks are getting pretty feisty wanting to breed the girls. Lots of sparring ect. Question, though- one of them has rammed my daughter pretty hard (she's 17 so not helpless) when she was in there to feed them. He was aiming for the other buck but took her out in the process with no remorse. he came very near to doing the same to me the other day. The other buck has never come close to hurting us.
How often do bucks act like this? Is the nice one the exception or the nasty one?
Thanks
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By the way...I found out later that she had not told me the whole story. Apparently she got rammed while she was leading them both on lead lines. Somehow they got their leads tangled up, got mad about it, and Bliss rammed Miyagi and got my daughter instead.
So, there was more to that story than I originally knew. I have continued to go in and feed them loose and haven't had any real problems. When I lead them I tend to do at least Bliss by the collar and then he can't do any foolishness. Will have my daughter do the same.
I would suggest that you arrange to feed them through fencing! That is the safest thing to do.
I have been very fortunate that mine are still very sweet so far! But then I also haven't had mine together in a long time. I have set up my pens where I have a buck in every other pen and they can't even fight between pens. They did that at one time and did butt so hard that they were bending up the cattle panels and that would take some pretty hard hitting as you all know!
I've had this problem too. Like you said, Juliana, they're at it all the time. I've been bruised a few times because of this behavior. They actually seem to fight over me, or over what I have (ie. the hay), so since they're both trying to be close to me, I end up in the middle of it. Frustrating and occasionally painful. :/ A squirt bottle that can squirt a nice stream of water at their faces helps. :)
No big surprise this happened when one of the does was in heat...the whole herd is basically wanting to be bred now but it is too soon for them. So the boys are watching the girls cycle and beating each other to a pulp in frustration.
I don't THINK the other buck was hiding behind us. If anything he will take a hit to protect us (yes it's my beloved MIYAGI who was the target of the ram) I think I just convinced myself that attempting to feed them while they are both loose and does want to get bred is just not a good idea. The offender will have to get tethered from now on to eat.
Thank heavens I chose Nigerians. I can't imagine trying to deal with bucks who were acting like this but weighed 300 lbs. Guess that's why I've heard of people taking a cattle prod into the buck pasture for protection.
I wonder if the other buck is hiding behind you? :) I have does that will do that, usually ones that were bottle-fed. There is no denying that when two goats are going at each other, they really don't care who gets in the way. It doesn't distract them in the least if they happen to hit another goat or person in the process of trying to smack down the other one.
He is obviously aiming for the other buck, he just does not care who he takes out in the process. They are kind of at it all the time so there's no waiting for it to be over before going in. Guess we will just have to tie him up while we are in there.
I've never had a ND buck try to butt one of us, although I got between two fighting does once and got whacked, so when two goats are fighting, you need to make sure you do not get between them.