I'm Hannah and we moved out to a more rural area in 2009 and somewhere along the way decided goats would make awesome pets. Last September (the day after my birthday actually) we bought 3 3 month old goats. Two wethers and a doe; Nibbles, Kara, and Peanut.
They turned 7 months old this month and they're all about 30lbs right now.
This past weekend since Kara wasn't big enough to breed, but we wanted to breed some goats, we went and bought a pregnant doe, Marble. She's due in March. We still need to ask about her exact age and suspected due date though.
Poor Marble was so sad when we first brought her here. she was looking for all her friends. Our goats didn't really mind her, but then they started heading for the hills every time she so much as moved after she bit Kara and Nibbles. Even Peanut backed down when she went to headbutt him and he was our dominant one.
They're much better now though. She's stopped biting them and they're not scared out of their minds anymore. the mostly ignore each other, but stay sorta close together. Marble will follow you over them given the option though.
We built a temporary roof and put some straw outside their house because at first our goats were too scared to be in the same house as Marble and it was really cold out. but now I think they think it's a house extension, so we'll have to get ri of it so they actually start sleeping inside again.
I'm excited for March though. It'll be our first time raising kids. We're planning to partially bottle feed them once, hopefully twice a day, but she'll probably end up feeding them once or twice too. We're just not around during the day.
But yeah, that's all about me and our goats right now.
Expect lots more newbie questions from me soon!
Replies
Welcome to the group!! My family and I moved to the country nearly two years ago. (it will be 2 years in feb.) Just a little over a year ago, I started talking about getting goats. I had started checking out groups like this one, and mentioned on one of them that I had tried store bought goat's milk and cheese, and that I didn't like it... (was doubting that I wanted them after all...) but Deb and others insisted that fresh Nigerian goat's milk was a totally different experience. They all said I needed to try it... I happen to have a friend that breeds Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats and milks them. So I got a hold of her, and tried some of her goat's milk. It was love at first sip, and in the summer of 2010 I got my first goat.
Now I have three does, and will be keeping their offspring in order to build my milking herd. My goal is to have 5-6 does and now I'm planning to keep bucks (which I hadn't before) I'll have 8 goats in my breeding herd, plus any kids that my does have.
Thanks for the intro. It's nice to "meet" you!
Welcome to the group. It's an ongoing learning experience with goats. But you already know how loveable they are. I sold a goat to a woman one time and she called to complain that she wanted to bring Daisy back because she was biting the other goats. I managed to put her off long enough for the biting to stop (a week or so) and then they managed to work it out, with Daisy higher up in the hierarchy than some of the other goats. They are extremely hierarchical!
Welcome to the group!! Glad they worked out their differences.