Mini goat

Queen Mum said:

Sheepdog said:

Okay, so this is going to be a pretty silly question... I know nothing about goats... only ever have had one goat, he was just a white whether that was my lawn mower, played with the dogs and thought he was a dog. Mr Goat, was just a pet and I made a harness and cart for him and I would lead him around and collect firewood in the cart. He was a pretty awesome goat when he wasn't eating my garden, or standing on the hood of my car!!!!!

Not really thinking about getting into goats, but you just never know, there is a slight possibililty.

I just love the look of the boer goats, maybe because I have dorper sheep... the similarity with the coloured heads..... and I love the floppy ears, which is why I love the look of the nubians. Just for pets, not for milking or meat, I was wondering if there was a miniature Nubian or even better a miniature Boer (which I know would defeat the purpose... especially for meat goats, why would you have a miniature meat goat, that woulnd't make any sense....) but from a pet owners point of view... a cute floppy eared thick set, miniature goat... do they exist, is there anyone even breeding them or trying to breed them. Just curious.

Also maybe a pygmy/nubian/boer mix... I guess I am looking for something that doesn't really exist, but a long eared mini goat that was thick but not a barrel on legs like the pygmys... how easy is it to breed down size and get small? How strong are the genes for the floppy ears, when cross breeding Nubians or Boers, how many of the progeny retain the floppy ears? Very curious.

Click to expand...

OK, here's what I can do for you, since I live in Oklahoma. I have a miniture La Mancha buck, Houdini. We have Nubian dairy goats. And I live very close to a Boer goat farm. I can "borrow" a boer doe that is slated as a "toss away" and breed her to Houdini. And it will probably produce miniature floppy eared Boer babies.

The reason I know this is because the farm I just left in Texas had about 10 miniature Boer/La Mancha goats that were NOT MUCH bigger than Houdini. Snowflake is about 18 inches at the shoulder. She is part Boer and part Mini La Mancha. Here is a picture of Snowflake. You can tell how tall she is by looking at the fence behind her. Each one of those squares is 4 inches high.

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/1156_snowflake.jpg

Click to expand...

Mamaboid said:

They don't actually faint. They more like freeze up for a few seconds. In some of them this causes them to fall over if they are off balance. There are different levels of myotonia from 1-6 with 1 being very rarely faints, to 6 which is what my one buck is and he falls over if you look at him cross-eyed. You wouldn't have to worry about the babies fainting tho, because they don't faint unless they are pure fainter, so none of your babies would faint. They all have airplane ears, and when mixed with Nubian, would probably produce slightly smaller floppy ears, or larger airplane ears.

This is my youngest buck Dude he is about a 4 or 5 on the fainting scale
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/4738_goats_again_046.jpg

This is my 3 yr old buck Eli he is about an 8 on a scale to 6
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/4738_new_goats_and_puppies_016.jpg

This is my 3 yr old doe Elsie. She is only about a 2, she doesn't fall over, she just stiffens in her back legs and doesn't do that very easily.
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/4738_new_goats_and_puppies_021.jpg

Click to expand...

Queen Mum said:

Sheepdog said:

Okay, so this is going to be a pretty silly question... I know nothing about goats... only ever have had one goat, he was just a white whether that was my lawn mower, played with the dogs and thought he was a dog. Mr Goat, was just a pet and I made a harness and cart for him and I would lead him around and collect firewood in the cart. He was a pretty awesome goat when he wasn't eating my garden, or standing on the hood of my car!!!!!

Not really thinking about getting into goats, but you just never know, there is a slight possibililty.

I just love the look of the boer goats, maybe because I have dorper sheep... the similarity with the coloured heads..... and I love the floppy ears, which is why I love the look of the nubians. Just for pets, not for milking or meat, I was wondering if there was a miniature Nubian or even better a miniature Boer (which I know would defeat the purpose... especially for meat goats, why would you have a miniature meat goat, that woulnd't make any sense....) but from a pet owners point of view... a cute floppy eared thick set, miniature goat... do they exist, is there anyone even breeding them or trying to breed them. Just curious.

Also maybe a pygmy/nubian/boer mix... I guess I am looking for something that doesn't really exist, but a long eared mini goat that was thick but not a barrel on legs like the pygmys... how easy is it to breed down size and get small? How strong are the genes for the floppy ears, when cross breeding Nubians or Boers, how many of the progeny retain the floppy ears? Very curious.

Click to expand...

OK, here's what I can do for you, since I live in Oklahoma. I have a miniture La Mancha buck, Houdini. We have Nubian dairy goats. And I live very close to a Boer goat farm. I can "borrow" a boer doe that is slated as a "toss away" and breed her to Houdini. And it will probably produce miniature floppy eared Boer babies.

The reason I know this is because the farm I just left in Texas had about 10 miniature Boer/La Mancha goats that were NOT MUCH bigger than Houdini. Snowflake is about 18 inches at the shoulder. She is part Boer and part Mini La Mancha. Here is a picture of Snowflake. You can tell how tall she is by looking at the fence behind her. Each one of those squares is 4 inches high.

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/1156_snowflake.jpg

Click to expand...