Considering getting goats? They can be super fun, but if you don’t know what to expect, they can quickly become a big regret. I went back and forth on how I felt about mine, but now that they are settled in, they are fun and relatively easy to keep. You’ll either love them or hate them, so here’s a guide on what to expect
Keeping Them Contained
Baby goats are liquid. If water can get through a gap, so can a goat. Don’t believe me? Just wait. I watched my three month old Nigerian Dwarf goat squeeze through a three inch gap between a sheet of metal and a piece of wood. I would hardly believe myself if I hadn’t seen it. They can, and will push anything aside if there’s a way to escape. My two, would chew through zip ties, push the edges up on the wire goat fencing, and crawl out underneath, so I had to put plywood up. They proceeded to find a corner that they could push up a little bit, and wriggle through. One of them could get a running start and jump five feet up, and between the two panel bars on the gate. I would recommend having a permanent-type pen set up with tightly pulled fencing and no makeshift stuff, if you want to keep them in.
How Do They Do With Other Animals
My goats live well with horses, dogs, sheep, cats, and chickens. However, I had to separate them from the chicken coop, because they attack chicken food like savages. Chicken food is not good for them. I tried covering it, making the chicken’s door smaller, and putting slats over the food that beaks could still access. Nothing worked. They’d just do their liquifying trick, and get into it. My solution was to fence them out of that area. I have also seen people make homemade feeders that have angles that slow goats down, but even then, usually those people end up fencing their feed off as well.
Keep in mind that goats will hop into horse feeders, and they shouldn’t be allowed to eat any horse grain or supplements either.
Landscaping and Trees
Goats cannot be put near any landscaping. It will be devoured in minutes. They also love tree girdling, or ring-barking. This is where the bark is taken off of a tree in a way that kills it, but leaves it standing. They love to nibble the bark off, and scratch their heads on it.
Upkeep
Goats are easy to keep. They need hay and/or grass. I give my two wethers a handful of goat balancer mineral every few days to keep up their nutrients and prevent urinary calculi, which is common in males.
Their hooves need to be trimmed about every month to two months, depending on their footing. Hoof trimming is relatively simple. The hardest part is holding the squirming goat if yours aren’t the best about standing.
Final Thoughts
If I had known what I was getting into when I got goats, I still would have gotten them, but it would have been a much better experience. They are a challenge, but I find it to be a fun one, now that I’m not overwhelmed by it. For the most part, they just hang out in the field. They are extremely friendly and want to follow me around, but if they are ever in my way, a little hay lures them into their pen pretty easily… unless they want to play ‘try to catch me’, in which case, you just have to smile and play the game. I like to take mine, and my friend’s goats on walks around the roads and paved walking trails like dogs. They are super entertaining to sit outside and watch on a summer evening, when they get into really big head butting matches too. So should you get them, or not? Well, I think it depends entirely on the person.