| How Do You Take Care of A Pygmy Goat? |
| The following is fed twice a day... 1. GRAIN: I give my adult does (does over 1 year of age) 1 cup of grain. The grain I feed is a 16% all grain sweet feed; my girls never seemed to like pellets in their food. Do not feed horse grain or sheep grain to goats. Horse's grain has too high of copper levels and sheep grain has too little copper, both which goats can not tolerate. Pregnant does recieve the same amount of grain until the last 2 months of pregnancy. After that I slowly increase their food 1/4 cup per week. (waiting 2 weeks before increasing from the first 1/4 cup, ending up with 3 3/4 cups of grain a day I give the last 1/4 cup after the doe has kidded) I start all (both doelings and bucklings) 2 month old kids at 1/4 cup and work my way up to 1 cup gradually over the course of about 9 months. To decide when to increase the grain you have to run your hands over the goat, feeling for fat. My bucks get a grain mixture of a 15% meat goat food and a 18% sweet feed 1:3. The meat goat food has the ammonium chloride already added to help prevent urinary stones. For more information on urinary stones click here. Adult bucks also get 1 cup of grain. I top-dress loose minerals (see below) on their food to encourage them to drink more water. 2x a Day... 2. HAY: I have two hay racks in for the 5 girls plus two in for the boys. I fill them up with a good quality hay at each feeding. I'm sure there is some scientific amount of hay you should feed but my goats know when to stop. Usually I like to see all the hay gone in 1 hour, if not, they waste it. Don't panic if you go through a lot of hay... goats love to throw it on the ground. 3. MINERALS: I feed loose minerals "free choice"; this means they can eat as much as they need. Watch the calcium to phosphorous ratio in the minerals for your bucks. Again go to the "Urinary Stones page" for more information. Do NOT use sheep/goat combined minerals, again, not enough copper. 4. WATER: LOTS of fresh water twice a day. Wether it is clean or there is a full bucket they still get FRESH WATER! ESPECIALLY FOR THE BUCKS!!!If I see anything fall into or contaminate their water they get fresh right away! Fresh, clean water is important! They WILL NOT drink dirty water and they don't deserve it! Try to provide warm water in the winter and tepid water in the summer. My goats won't drink anything but warm water. Some extra guidelines... a) Make feeding changes gradually over the course of 1 week. This will help prevent Enterotoxemia. This disease is from the over growth of bad bacteria in a goats stomach and is deadly. b) NEVER feed moldy, insect, or mouse infested grain or hay to goats. They don't handle mold well and it will lead to sick goats. c) Keep buckets and feed bowls sanitary. My rule is if I wouldn't eat/drink out of it it is too dirty. d) Try to feed around the same time every day. Goats like to get into a routine. |
| Feeding |
| Other Sound Management Practices |
| 1. DUSTING/CONTROLLING LICE: Lice look like little orange pieces of dandruff running around on your goat; mainly on it's neck and shoulders. Usually I dust the goat with a powder called "CoRal" but recently I have been using diatomaceous earth.(DE) (All natural food grade of course, you can find this at Hoegger Supply Co.) Both of the powders do a great job but the DE you have to apply more often. This isn't actually so bad, though, because I feel safer using it on pregnant does because (if it is food grade) it is not harmful to the animal. When using the DE you have to dust once every 4 days until you don't see anymore lice, while with the CoRal you dust 1 time every 10 days until they are gone. 2. WORMING: Recently I have switched wormers to the Hoegger Herbal Wormer. Supposedly it is safer and more effective than chemical wormers. Plus... here is the big bonus... it is safe for pregnant and nursing does too! Wahoo! The directions say to give 2 doses (1/2- 1 1/2 teaspoons) for three days then just once a week. Maybe not so good if you have an extremely large herd but it works pretty well for me! (See the Hoegger Supply Co. for more details) 3. DISBUDDING: I ALWAYS disbud by kids. Does are usually disbudded at 2 weeks of age and bucks at 1 week, but I get mine surgically taken off by Dr. Stufft. He does an absolutely wonderful job and I will probably never have horns burnt off again. Too much stress on me. Disbudding is a very good idea. First of all, these animals are supposed to be pets and nobody wants to hug a huge pointy horn. And second, the horns are actually dangerous to the animal and the goats around it. I have heard of stories of goats taking each others eyes out. Plus they have a "pecking order". Usually it is the young kids that get pounded by the older goats. Not fun for them if the other goats have horns! ALL kids that are sold WILL BE DISBUDDED! NO EXCEPTIONS! 4. TICKS: Check for ticks on a regular basis. It is much easier to take a tick off when it is not already bloated with blood. Goats can get diseases from them too! 5. VACCINATIONS Vaccinating goats helps to prevent life threatening diseases. I give my goats the CD & T vaccine. This is both tetanus and enterotoxemia (type C&D) in one vaccine. Never mix the two separate vaccines together. If you want to give them both in one shot you have to buy a combination vaccine that has them both in it. Here is a sample of my vaccination schedule. (Have an experienced goat herd or your vet show you how to give them the first time.) AGE Vaccine/Dose 1-2 weeks tatanus antitoxin (if disbudding goats with iron) 3-4 weeks 2cc of CD&T (sub Q- subcutaneously) 6-7 weeks CD&T booster, 2cc (sub Q) Every 6 Months (from then on) CD&T booster, 2cc (sub Q) When Castrating 2cc of tetanus antitoxin every 2 weeks until healed *Make sure you have Epinephrine on hand every time you give a shot. Injections can cause the goat to go into anaphylactic shock. The Epinephrine stimulates the contraction of smooth muscle cells in the body to combat the shock. Contact your vet immediatly (after giving the epinephrine) if your animal goes into shock. The animal will die if it does not recieve the epinephrine so being prepared is a good thing. Signs of anaphylactic shock include: difficultly breathing, collapse, seizures, severe distress, and death. Watch your goat for 10-15 minutes after the vaccination injection to make sure it doesn't show any of these signs. Never give a vaccine to a pregnant doe without permission of your vet! 6. NAVEL DIPPING I always dip the navel of my newborn kids in strong 7% iodine as soon as possible after birth. I make sure I get the belly (without the penis) and the cord both covered in iodine to prevent navel ill. Navel ill is the deadly infection of the umbillical cord that travels into the kid. To dip the cord I use a pill bottle filled with the iodine and I have a person help me hold the cup on the kid's belly while we filp the kid over. They may have brown bellies but it is WELL worth it. 7. HOOF TRIMMING I trim my goat's hooves about once a month. The more you trim them the less work it is every time. To trim a goat's hooves you use a pair of hoof shears to cut the excess walls of the hoof away. Then you cut any extra growth in between the toes off and shave the hoof down with a wood plane unto you see a little pink. Cutting the hoof too far down could cause the goat to limp for awhile, but as long as the cut isn't serious it should heal up and be back to normal. If you cut the goat's hoof and it bleeds it will probaly bleed quite a bit or at least look like it is bleeding quite a bit. (It alway gives be a heart attack when blood spurts everywhere, usually it is from my finger.) Be careful with the trimmers. |
 |