How to raise a goat at home as a pet…?
Question by Huh?: How to raise a goat at home as a pet…?
me and my friends are planning to buy a goat and im wondering if somebody can send me some links or any information about raising goats.
i need to know feeding information, what it drinks, housing, ect. basically EVERYTHING that is baby goat and raising it related.
he will be 2 months old when we buy him. we should get him in a few days, so help…?!
Add your own answer in the comments!
3 Responses to How to raise a goat at home as a pet…?
Leave a Reply
Have you thought this through? After dealing with two goats on a farm growing up, there’s no way I’d want one for a pet. They chew on everything, and are basically a nuisance. Good luck!
em
December 22, 2011 at 4:56 pm
You have your hands full. Your goat needs milk not cows milk. If you can’t get goats milk Kids Replacer is best. Don’t go for the one replacer for any animal. They will eat some grain, medicated feed is recommended for prevention of coccidiosis. Meat goats love grass. The others love leaves, weeds, the favorite if pear leaves, maple or pine needles are good, no green Oak leaves or wild cherry leaves . Hay; meat goats like a little more alfalfa than grass. The others like a little alfalfa as possible. Lambs quarters are good, fresh spinach, chard, some green corn stalks. Get some power punch and at first sign of the poops give it a dose orally w/ a syringe without the needle on it.
ndrew777
December 22, 2011 at 5:15 pm
I’m a small farmer on a permaculture farm. I raise meat goats. I have around 100 goats.
Despite what others have said, goats DO make simply wonderful pets…..IF RAISED PROPERLY.
In my personal opinion, two months old is too young to wean a goat. When I have to bottle raise them, I give them the bottle for at least three months. Does naturally wean their babies at about 4-5 months of age.
You stated “he.” Is this goat already wethered (castrated)? If it is, it was done FAR too young! A goat that is going to be kept as a pet should not be wethered before it is 6 months old, if not older. The hormones from the testicals tell the urinary tract in male goats to develop. If he is already wethered, he will have a small urinary tract for life.
If this is the case, that he has been wethered, NEVER feed this goat grain!!! Not for his entire life! Google the words “urinary calculi goats” and you will learn why.
He will be prone to developing urinary calculi (stones) for his entire life. Grain will make this problem much worse.
Do you have children? Do you have a husband, that plays rough with animals? I cannot stress this enough, but DO NOT play rough with the baby goat. Many, many people think it’s simply adorable to play “push” games with baby goats. They put their hand on the baby goats head, and push. Baby goats of course will butt, and push back. It’s really cute when they are 15 pound animals.
Then one day the goat is 80-300 pounds….and it comes and takes out your knee cap, or hip……it’s not cute anymore. Your goat will FOREVER think it’s ok to butt and push on humans. Worse yet, it may do it to your skull, when you bend over to pick something up. Cracked skulls, broken necks, perminant back pain…not fun, and it happens every year, because people are idiots with how they handle baby goats.
Do not let your baby goat chew on your clothes. When they get older they will pull the fabric back to their back molars and actually chew a hole in a shirt in seconds….or nip all but two buttons off your shirt, while your outside talking to a customer (ask me how I know). Do not let them chew on your hair….they never seem to outgrow wanting to chew on human hair.
Do not allow the baby goat to run and jump on you, and use you to play king of the mountain. It’s adorable while they are babies….if you let them do it now, they will expect to do it when they are adults.
DO pet your baby goat, by wrapping your hand around it’s muzzle and gently massaging it. This is very calming for baby goats. The baby will probably thrust it’s head forward into your hand, grunt a bit, and then close it’s eyes as you continue to pet. This is stimulating the same sence of pleasure, and well being a baby goats gets when it thrusts its muzzle between its mothers leg and udder, searching for the teet. I have adult goats I bottle raised. They still love to have their muzzle pet this way. Their eyes roll back with pleasure, and they lay their head in my lap….very calming for them.
DO pick up, and handle your goats feet, all four of them, on a daily basis until the baby lets you do so with no struggles. You will probably need to trim the hooves at some point. Easy to teach them to accept hoof handling while young.
DO scratch the baby goat at the base of the spine, right above the tail. They will wiggle their tail like crazy, and they love to be scratched there. That does get them excited, and they usually want to romp and play.
DO teach your kid to walk on a leash and collar, while little. Goats usually pick it up in about 5 minutes. Then you can take your goat on hikes and walks with you. Goats ADORE being taken for walks and hikes with their “herd.”
Note…when you go for a walk with a goat, no matter where you go, you should ALWAYS have a very large, very stout walking stick with you. You will not believe the number of pet dogs that come out of nowhere, with the intent of killing your goat. If you spot a dog, looking at, or coming near your goat (especially a dog not on a leash), immediatly go on the aggressive. Yell, “BAD DOG,” take a step toward the dog, stomping your foot loudly, and brandishing the stick. If the dog has not actually made the attack, it will probably back off, and run away. If it has already attacked, you may have to kill the dog, before it will leave off the attack.
If you take your goat in the car, be aware that a goat that is laying down will not soil itself. One that is standing will pee, and poop freely. So if for some reason you have to take one in your car without a pet carrier, drive badly right from the start. Hit your brakes hard a couple of time, and tump the goat off it’s legs. It will then lay down, probably for the rest of the ride, unless it’s a long one. When you arrive at your destination, be very, very fast at getting the goat out of the car…first thing it will do when it stands up is go potty.
Goats have high requirements for copper in their diet. You need to provide salt and mineral licks for the goat. They need iodized salt, cobalt, and copper, along with some other trace minerals. Those three are the biggies. You can get an iodized salt block, which contains cobalt. That block will be a brilliant blue color. My goats are usually recieving copper, via mineral licks. The minerals are put in tubs with molasses, and baked until they are hard. Molasses provides a lot of Vitamin A also, so is good for them in the licks.
If you are still going to be giving your goat bottles (I advise you do so until three months old) you need Land-O-Lakes kid milk replacer, Purina foal and kid milk replacer, or some sort of kid milk replacer. DO NOT use lamb milk replacers. Sheep are very sensative to copper. Just a little bit kills them. Goats have high copper needs in their diets. Goat kids die, or grow up very weak on lamb milk replacer.
Your baby should also have fresh water avaliable at all times. Your baby also needs bright, clean, fresh smelling hay. I feed alfalfa. Find out what the person you are purchasing the kid from feeds, and try to buy a bale from them.
Goats can be bedded in wood shavings. They may eat some. If they eat some, no harm, if they eat a lot, that’s not so good. They can be bedded in straw. It doesn’t matter how much of the straw they eat…no harm.
Housing depends on how big your goat is going to be. If you live in an area with cougars, bears, or lots of stray dogs, I highly reccomend a stout little barn you can lock him into at night. Problem with this is goats are quiet prone to pnuemonia, and need good ventilation. Otherwise goats actually do best in three sided shelters, so they can get out of the prevailing winds, rain, snow, and summer sun, yet have plenty of fresh air.
Be aware of potential theft problems. Pretty much every single ethnic culture, except your average white Americans view goats as a food item. I’ve sold pet goats over the years. Several of them have been stollen, never to be seen again.
I’ve had people trying to steal goats from me before. It was just a few days before Christmas. Two adult men, and a teenage boy were trying to figure out how to get in with the goats (it was about 1AM). Fortuantly I keep Great Pyrenees to guard my herds. They could figure out how to get past the dogs.
If you have questions, feel free to email me.
~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years
Raising meat goats since 1999
Bohemian_Garnet_Permaculturalist
December 22, 2011 at 6:09 pm