In 3 weeks I will be bringing home my Nigerian Dwarf does (I'm picking them up after my daughters wedding). I'm concerned about the drive so was hoping for some input. I'm getting them from my friend Anna in Siletz, Oregon (near Newport) and I live near Moscow, Idaho. It's about 500 miles and we will be on I-5 until Portland, then east on I-84 along the Columbia, and finally will turn north going through the Tri-Cities and working our way northeast to home. We will be in 2 different rigs and will have our 4 children with us. The does will most likely be riding in the back of our LR, which is fairly spacious, but our other vehicle is our van which will work, too. One doe is 5 year old and pregnant with triplets (according to the ultrasound) due August 28th and the other is a 2 year old dry doe. Both are used to being handled. Because our youngest is only 9 months (the other 3 are quite a bit older) we tend to stop every 2 hours and the drive ends up being about 11 hours. We will make sure we have leashes for the goats and some things are obvious and just take some common sense. That being said, we've never traveled that far with goats so would love to hear from you. And if there is anyone in that area who knows the route and has advice that would be wonderful! We have made the trip at least once or twice a year, if not more, for a number of years, but this time will be a bit more of an adventure! (I copied and pasted this from a post I made on Totally Natural Goats so if your a member this make look familiar. :) )
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I went out and measured and there will be either 3x4 feet or 4x5 feet of secured space for them depending on which vehicle we put them in. I hope that is enough. We had planned on keeping them together for comfort, so that should help. I don't want to stress either one of them any more than I have to, but I am especially concerned I don't over stress my pregnant mama!
I'm relieved about not having to let them out! I was nervous about that but felt guilty about keeping them confined that long! We have ample space for them and we will lay down a tarp underneath. We do have air conditioning but I hope it won't be hot for when we do have to stop.
Sounds like you have it pretty well covered! Six years ago we brought three kids from Massachusetts to Illinois, which was about a 18 hours drive. We originally had them in the back seat in two different crates, but the one that was alone was very upset, so after about 30 minutes, we stuck her in with the other two, and they were all perfectly happy for the rest of the drive. When we started, we did a lot of long drives to get our goats because there was one pet breeder in Illinois, so all of our goats came from out of state. I never let any of them out when traveling because I had heard of goats getting loose. And when I let someone else transport a buck for me from Texas, she stopped and put them in a pen at a rest area, and he broke his leg when he tried to jump out. We used to have a van, and I'd sometimes set up a dog x-pen in the back with a tarp under it and straw on the tarp. Worked well, and I didn't feel guilty about not letting anyone out on the trip. An x-pen is 4' X 4' but is kind of flexible, so you can make it smaller if needed.