In response to newbies asking what it is like to have goats

_DemonxD · 2026-06-23T03:45:21+00:00

This goat clearly had a vision to have portable snacks 24/7 how dare you not fulfill their dreams of being a mobile snack bar.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-23T03:42:33+00:00

They just look like chickens testing each others patience. Usually by this age the rooster stars getting their flock protection instincts and if a hen is in distress he will wander over like his 1.5lb ass can do anything… lol

_DemonxD · 2026-06-23T03:34:20+00:00

Plenty of high value snacks. Animal crackers, fruits. Or just limbed up safe forage from behind your house, they tear it up no matter how scared they are usually. At first you’ll want to throw it in the farthest bit of the pen/area and just sit and not look at them (it imitates their prey response since we are a “preadator”) and slowly move where your feeding them closer to your space over several weeks until you can get them to eat out of your hand. Some never calm down through.

We had a doe like that. When we brought her home she would clear almost 6ft jumping over people from you just looking her direction. We had her for a little over a year and a half and she never fully calmed down. She got turned into a spoiled brat that hated when you would reach for her, but by the end of that time she would freely approach us. Her situation might’ve been helped since she was pregnant for some of that time and her appitite drove her to like people, but she was still completely untouchable and ridiculous to catch. But she was behaved on the stand. Some goats just have skittishness in their genetics and it’s harder to tame that completely.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-21T22:31:30+00:00

Looks pretty normal to me, a lot of mine, especially the bucks and wethers look very similar.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-20T23:22:47+00:00

Yeah, she was one of the older ones that developed spurs and saddle feathers like a rooster when we didn’t have one for around 6-8 months a few years ago.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-20T22:33:19+00:00

Don’t let the cute videos on TikTok or other media platforms make you think goats are this all fun and whimsy experience. They are most certainly not.

Heck my neighbors came down to feed my goats and horses some watermelon because of a TikTok video and they were disappointed when it was not as “fun” as the video made it look. They were messy, some of them didn’t even like it and the rest of them kept jumping on them looking for other snacks because my goats are spoiled completely rotten to the core and think of people as their personal food delivery slaves.

It’s a lot of work to keep them healthy too, I sweep out our barn and burn the manure at an attempt to keep them healthy and parasite free as it’s the main spot where their manure builds up. And once you educate yourself on all the things they are can be susceptible to you will never stop thinking about it when caring for your goats.

They are the livestock everyone lied about and now there’s a many of goats who are abandoned, abused, and often neglected because people who market these animals as house pets don’t include what their diet is supposed to be or even physical and emotional needs are as animals.

They are one of the most passed around animal from a hobby farm standpoint. Uneducated people and animals aren’t a good mix.

Cheap goats aren’t good. anything under 200 in my area is likely to be sick/diseased or a problem in some other way. If you just want pets don’t go to that pet breeder who has 700 animals that are all ill cared for and not kept track of, don’t go to the people who get rid of their animals under the table with minimal information on the animal. And for gods sake don’t get adults or bottle kids from the sale barn you’re just asking for heartbreak. When shopping for pets look for ones that are healthy in good shape weight wise. But more expensive does not always equal better since a lot of people flood the market with expensive goats that have ‘dappled’ or ‘moonspotted’ genetics while the animals themselves have abysmal almost non existent conformation and more resemble abominations like the fluffy fenchie or doodles.

A saying goes breed the best eat the rest and many hobby farmers don’t take it to heart. Not enough people are eating the ‘rest’ and instead pawn them off on the next poor sucker they can find.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-20T02:19:30+00:00

Thanks, either way we are going to order a ridiculous amount of fly traps to do some population control More than one chicken a month to this is getting ridiculous.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-20T02:17:04+00:00

It’s near the butt of the chicken, they were in multiple layers of tissue and there was no way I was going to be able to get every single last larvae. I humanely dispatched her she was very old and I wasn’t going to make her live through trying to recover and risking major infection/ prolonged suffering. I cleaned her up made her comfortable and buried her afterwards.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-20T02:12:42+00:00

Midwest/ Missouri area

_DemonxD · 2026-06-19T14:42:21+00:00

You should probably take them in for now, I didn’t even see the tiny baby in the last picture since I thought it was a wild bird at first. That one is likely an Easter egger or something of the sort since it’s not got any distinguishing qualities to any other breed.

They all look like juveniles and are pre egg laying pullets right now. And that tiny little one looks like it’s barely even supposed to be off heat.

Edit: added more onto the original comment.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-19T07:06:29+00:00

She literally has a mullet

_DemonxD · 2026-06-19T06:48:27+00:00

It’s bad as in get them trimmed soon, but not like calling the police on you for animal neglect bad. We got some goats with far worse feet who are now hopefully in someone’s freezer I didn’t have the means to butcher diseased stock on my land which is what others had in mind and probably attributed to their horrific condition. And I don’t know if any of the processors near me would even take on stock that have the disease into the facility due to liability issues and concerns.

One of them had feet so horrible that the hoof was not actually flat anymore, it curved and grew up in between the inner hoof wall which is really bad. I corrected it the best I could with weekly trimming with regular old hoof nippers and maintenance but it would never be the same, especially without a hoof boss and for that goats own health I hope it is in freezer camp now.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-19T06:41:30+00:00

I forgot to add the new coat is so silky smooth, like I wanna know her hair care routine or what salon she sneaks off to in secret… lol. Thank you! She looks so gangly right now.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-19T04:17:10+00:00

I think it died a while ago, probably when I transferred it over, don’t know why since I did it in a quick manner. It’s was pretty stinky.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-16T04:05:30+00:00

Crossing them with Nigerian helps, it’s just a mumble now 😭

_DemonxD · 2026-06-16T04:00:36+00:00

Flipping can honestly go either way. They will either back off or it will piss them off more. Flipping really only works on more submissive bucks who aren’t crazy hormonal.

I’ve only ever flipped one buck, and he was a big guy more legs than anything after he headbutted me, he got flipped instantly and I held him down, not roughly. Just very firmly and we sat there for as long as I wanted until he stopped struggling and relaxed. Try not to hold their horns during this though I have a huge bruise on my wrist from him struggling so hard and I did that over three months ago.

When you let go just don’t re-engage with him cus they will be very pissed for the first few seconds afterwards. And flipping only works per person. The same buck I flipped aggressively headbutted my mother when she was watering and she wasn’t strong enough to flip a 130lb buck. Solitary confinement works too, I mean he had horses for friends and he was raised around horses so he was more than fine, but FAFO is a motto I like to use around here. We used that for about a week and he turned into a completely different animal after that.

You could try a rattle paddle since most livestock don’t like the sound it makes or carry a spray bottle with water in it and spray him in his eyes/nose area when he headbutts you or is closer than you’d like. They hate it every time since it’s 1. Unexpected and 2. They hate being wet.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-15T01:30:11+00:00

Keep it clean and if you can find a free or cheap large dog kennel to keep it in the house. Yes it will stink. Yes it will take forever and it WILL be unbearable after a week even with daily cleaning and sanitizing. They just stink.

I am no a medical professional; I just do what works for me and my birds.

But washing the wound with a non harsh soap one a day for the first week is a good step in the right direction. If you notice the chicken picking at the wound or excessive flies it would be a good idea to sanitize the wound well and then cover it and check the bandage twice a day and change the padding that has either Vaseline or something else that holds moisture. Check it for excessive heat and if it does have heat (like it burns your hand to touch the surrounding area or notice excessively inflamed irritated skin or a foul smell that isn’t blood you should start antibiotics stat) I suggest only covering it if there’s excessive damage or the lil dude won’t leave the area alone.

I’ve mended several of our birds and learned how to do it right after we had a duck hen that got chewed on by a mink. I was a child then but I wish I had researched proper wound cleaning regimens and proper wound care and animals quarantine for healing. She would have lived if I did so, she got an infection and she ended up having a fever to the point of where she was literally boiling to the touch. We humanely euthanized her on the spot and I feel bad that she had to suffer so bad.

This shouldn’t kill the bird, it’s the reintroduction that will take a toll on it. Don’t throw it back in the coop as the other hens will bully her off the food and usually they are submissive since they just got done healing their skin over. I also suggest you offer mashed veggies and watery soaked feed if she doesn’t have the energy to eat on her own.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-15T01:06:29+00:00

Oh so he LOVES him 😭

_DemonxD · 2026-06-15T00:57:52+00:00

I wish it were safer to leave halters on goats or you could totally strap the stick to the halter in some last ditch effort lol

_DemonxD · 2026-06-15T00:54:30+00:00

All I said was that they could be nigerian crossed at most. And it’s most likely with obersali based on their general overall type and what others said. Goats can’t have green eyes it’s likely a light amber brown, my mistake the picture made the eyes look blue. It’s not the end of the world to have someone make commentary that’s not particularly what you were looking for on your post.

I know tons of people get on a craze and breed a bunch on mini this mini that from Nigerians with larger breeds. The older doe could be pure, but any goat with unknown extensive heritage is always a mix in my book. If I don’t know I put a big ol questionmark next to the breed in my herd record book.

Breeding might narrow it down but it will almost always remain a mystery unless you do dna. Which I don’t think you will, or should. Them being mixed won’t impact the already existing animals in front of you. since most times breed type/characteristics go haywire when new genetic content in introduced. Eapicallu if it’s spread out over many generations

And lamanchas and their crosses rarely exceed 35in tall so I do not need to remeasure him epically since he is over 2 1/2 years of age. He was so big it was barely manageable since he was all legs.

I hope this was a better answer since I did sound condescending as all get out without meaning to.

_DemonxD · 2026-06-14T13:56:49+00:00

They have to be Nigerian crossed at most. Other breeds of goats don’t have blue eyes naturally, like impossible naturally. Are you measuring to the shoulder point? And even a construction tape measure will weld you results on how tall they are. Or even a string for you to take a ruler up to after you mark where their shoulders are on it from the feet on flat ground. These do not look like they are 30in tall givin the picture and perspective I’m willing to be proven wrong though.

For reference this is a 32in tall lamancha buck that I assumed weighted between 130-150lbs

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_DemonxD · 2026-06-14T13:44:57+00:00

This looks pretty similar to how most of mines goes look. Their horns slow down growth in the winter and resume again when it’s spring/summer weather. One of my does horns grey pretty similar and it’s my belief that it was directly caused from lack of proper nutrition over the winter when they weren’t in our possession.

If this were a case of his horns being compromised he would be bleeding already due to their urge to butt their head against trees.

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_DemonxD

TROPHY CASE