Goats pecking order

[Tammy]

We have two goats that are 1/2 sisters.  The dominating one is very aggressive to her sister.  It has become to the point that she will not even offer to fight back.  She takes the head butting and she gets hit often.  I understand the pecking order, but she is sometimes hit so hard that she will make a noise.  Tonight, they are separated, but usually I have them together.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[Tammy]

This goat is still not accepted by the herd. She leaves the group and calls like she is really not happy. It has been several weeks and I am concerned that they will never allow her to be part of the herd. Any advice?

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

I'm sorry, but there is very little you can do. It's good that the other one isn't fighting back. If she were, she'd just get beat up more. The other goat obviously has the dominant personality. The lower-level goat might be doing something to cause her sister to feel that she needs to assert her dominance. If they're fighting over food, I'd feed them in separate places or at least offer two separate hay feeders or piles of hay. If you separate them and then put them back together again, that will just make the fighting worse, because whenever they're put together again, they have to work out who's boss.