I've been meaning to write a blog on this for a while, especially since we sell so many baby goats, but just never really got to it, however, since one of our subscribers just recently requested it, and we try our best to fulfill any blog requests, here it is!
Which Goats to Start With
This really depends on what you are planning to do with your goats. If you just want pets, neutered males are a good choice. They are often cheaper than females and tend to make better pets.
If you want goats to clear brush any goats will work, but again, neutered males are a good choice. If you want to milk your goats you will obviously need females.
I recommend that you either start with a pregnant doe and one or more doelings, or a doe that has just recently kidded (her kids should be no older than two weeks).
That way you don't have to deal with a buck for a while. You could also keep any of the female kids since they won't be related to the buck you eventually get, as long as you get an unrelated buck that is!
Where to Find Goats
Craigslist seems to be the most popular way to both sell and buy goats; however, you need to be careful. Scams and poor-quality animals are pretty common on there.
It's best to visit the farm before you decide to buy any goats, and if you can't, ask for more pictures of the goat(s) you want as well as pictures of their living space.
Also ask as many questions as you can think of. If the seller will only send you the same pictures that are on the ad, seems bothered by your requests, or if anything else seems wrong, and the seller can't give you a good explanation, move on.
Other ways to find goats for sale include searching "goats for sale near me" on the internet, checking bulletin boards at farm stores, and Facebook. One of the best ways to find good goats is by word of mouth.
Ask any farmers you meet if they know of someone who sells goats. You can also ask at feed stores.
Registered or Not?
If you plan to milk or show your goats you should get registered, otherwise there is no need to spend the extra money.
Feed
For most goats all you need to feed is unlimited amounts of grass hay (pretty much anything but alfalfa) if and when you don't have pasture for them. For pregnant and milking goats check out our blog on kidding. If you have pasture available, you only need to provide water and minerals.
Water
The number and size of water buckets you will need will depend on how many goats you have, their age, and how often you check on them.
In general, plan to provide about 2-3 gallons of water per goat per day. It is usually better to have multiple smaller containers rather than one huge one if you have a lot of goats.
Minerals
We like to use kelp as a natural mineral supplement, along with a salt block. If you want to use a regular mineral mix, always get the loose minerals, not mineral blocks, goats are usually unable to get enough minerals from the blocks.
And make sure it is a goat mineral, not a goat/sheep mineral, goats need a lot more copper than sheep. If you can't find a goat mineral, you can use a cattle mineral, but it's not ideal.
Halters and Leads
Once you are more comfortable handling your goats you will probably not use halters or leads very often. However, they are helpful when you are first starting out or when you are dealing with unfriendly goats.
Rope halters are the easiest to get off and fit the largest variety of goats, they also have the lead built into them.
Collars aren't recommended for goats unless they are breakaway collars.
Housing
The kind of housing you will need depends on your climate, what you are doing with your goats, and how many goats you have. There are tons of different housing setups that work for goats, and different ones work for different situations.
For winter housing, you need to make sure that whatever housing you decide on is dry, draft free, easy to clean out, and has enough space for the goats to comfortably live in if the weather is very cold or wet for days on end.
For portable summer housing, it needs to be sturdy enough not to be blown over, provide enough covered area for all the goats to get out of the rain or in the shade, and light enough to be moved without too much trouble.
We have been trying to come up with a portable housing solution for our goats for a very long time, and I think we have finally figured it out.
We put attached a tarp to a cattle panel and used chains on the bottom to keep it in a hoop shape and diagonal chains and cinder blocks to keep it from blowing over. It has stayed standing through many OK storms.
We may put a blog out on it at some point.
We are currently using it for our bottle calf, but we used it for the goats earlier in the spring and it worked well. Right now, we are bringing the goats back to the barn at night for milking, so we aren't needing to make one (or two) for them.
Thank you, Emma C., for the blog suggestion!
Some links you may find helpful
And check out our sourdough bread recipe that I finally added the video on feeding the starter to!
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