Winning over very skittish new kids

Hi all,

Is it normal to have trouble bonding with/gaining the trust of new goats if you have other goats already? Or does it sound like my new babies are just particularly shy and scared? Either way, any advice for winning over super-skittish kids, other than offering tempting treats? They've learned I probably have good treats, but that's ALL they want from me, from as far away as possible.

I'm concerned about being able to do basic care on them if they continue to be so afraid of me. My inclination is NOT to force contact on them, but they need a shot soon, and hooves will need trimming eventually. Should I start catching them and subjecting them to holding/petting so they learn that not all contact with me is ouchy/scary? Or is that just a good way to shoot myself in the foot with them forever?

The backstory: Last summer I got my first Nigerian Dwarf Goats -- two half-brother wethers named Gimlet and Toddy. The first day, Gimlet was snuggling with me (he continues to be a lap goat). Toddy was a bit more stand-offish but fairly quickly came to appreciate good scritches. They both easily accepted halters, hoof trimming, and learning to walk on leash. 

I fell in love with these guys and this year decided to add another wether and a doe (siblings) from the same farm (they are half-siblings of Gimlet) to my little herd. Delilah and Emerson came home two weeks ago (coming home day photo below, hopefully...).

Within a couple of days, they would warily eat raisins and other treats from my hands, and the first week I spent literally hours quietly sitting with them each day when I got home from work. They have been eating their meals twice a day from bowls I'm holding in my hands. They have watched Gimlet and Toddy run to me and get scritches over and over.

However, the new babies want nothing to do with me, aside from getting their food, and it is clear they'd prefer not to have to get near me to eat. They are super skittish and scared of me.

I'm not sure how to proceed with them at this point, knowing that they will need to tolerate some handling eventually, in order for me to take care of them. Thoughts?

thanks,

Kristina

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  • :D

  • That's awesome! I'm so happy for you!

  • SUPER HAPPY NEWS!

    Tonight little Emerson didn't run away from me at all. I reached down to pet him, and he just stood there. I sat down on the bench in the goat shed and he followed me over. He let me pet all down his back and sides, and scratch his head and neck for a good long time. THEN he jumped up on the bench beside me, walked his front legs onto my lap, and leaned into me a bit before jumping down.

    I nearly cried with happiness.

    The big goats don't like him to eat hay with them even though there is plenty of room for everyone at the hay feeder. They headbutt him away. So, when I take more hay out at night, I've been sitting, sometimes for 45 minutes at a time, hand feeding hay to Emerson and gradually he's been letting me pet him more and more while he eats.

    Tonight he wasn't eating anything though---he just was happy getting loved on. It was the first time he reacted to me with NO skittishness or fear at all, and I'm SO HAPPY!!

  • My husband does that. You have to be completely straight behind them to be able to grab it because their peripheral vision is so amazing.

    Katharine Norton said:

    Since I'm learning about goats in Africa, I'm never quite sure if what I'm learning is "the done thing" in the West so forgive me if this suggestion sounds outrageous!  What I have seen here is that to catch goats, people grab a back leg.  There is so little to grab anywhere else - unless they have a collar on and catching the collar is not easy when they are running from you.  Grabbing the leg works - I did it with a runaway this morning! 

  • I don't think it sounds outrageous. Sometimes you just have to grab what's available! :-)

    Katharine Norton said:

    Since I'm learning about goats in Africa, I'm never quite sure if what I'm learning is "the done thing" in the West so forgive me if this suggestion sounds outrageous!  What I have seen here is that to catch goats, people grab a back leg.  There is so little to grab anywhere else - unless they have a collar on and catching the collar is not easy when they are running from you.  Grabbing the leg works - I did it with a runaway this morning! 

  • Since I'm learning about goats in Africa, I'm never quite sure if what I'm learning is "the done thing" in the West so forgive me if this suggestion sounds outrageous!  What I have seen here is that to catch goats, people grab a back leg.  There is so little to grab anywhere else - unless they have a collar on and catching the collar is not easy when they are running from you.  Grabbing the leg works - I did it with a runaway this morning! 

  • Since goats have eyes on the side of their head, they have close to 360 degree vision, so you are correct that it's almost impossible to sneak up on them. Plus the horizontal pupils means they have excellent peripheral vision.

    Congrats on the progress you've made.
  • Ha! Since my initial post, Delilah got an eye infection I had to treat with Terramycin, and Emerson's CD&T booster site abscessed and burst (poor guy... I had to stick him twice and should have changed needles in between, maybe? It was my first goat injection ever. Delilah was fine).

    Anyway, since I was having to catch them and hold them down to do unpleasant things to them, I decided I should also start catching them and just holding them and giving treats, to show them I'm not always just food OR bad news.

    They are still skittish, and run and have to be caught unless I get hold of a collar while one of them is eating. However, now it seems more like they are playing a game rather than literally freaking out for their lives.

    Still a little unclear about how you catch a wary baby goat without chasing it. I mean, I never run after them in a field or anything. I close the (small) shed while they're inside and try to herd them into a corner, and sort of lunge/tackle/catch in the air as they run or jump away. Sometimes we go from one corner to the other a few times before I'm successful, but I'm always moving slowly (except for the final 'catching' attempt) and calmly.

    One thing I have learned is that it is impossible to sneak up on a goat. They seem to know as soon as I even think about trying to move in their direction.

  • A friend of mine used to live in a jungle village in Asia and she said to get animals tame there, they would just carry them for as long as it took!!

  • I agree with everything Julianne said. Everything you're experiencing is totally normal and means nothing in terms of your long-term relationship with the goats. Here is a post I wrote about the psychology of prey animals:

    http://thriftyhomesteader.com/2016/07/farm-animal-psychology.html

    I wouldn't hesitate to pick them up and give them lots of hugs. You have to do it in a very calm manner though. Don't chase them.

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