Automatic Goat door or Doggy door (FINISHED)

[secuono]

It is crazy and it is expensive, but so is loosing goats every few days until they're all gone.
Lots of people think animals smaller than themselves cannot be stronger than they are. Which is a fatal flaw. Very easy for them to rip & bend cattle panels down, wood boards off, rip limbs off a goat and through openings. If a person tried to do all that, they'd come out of it exhausted, cut up and disappointed.

Hopefully the cat won't bother.


There are motion activated noise & light machines. Probably shouldn't use the water version in Cali, but the other two may help keep it away. Though, neighbors may not like you.

 

[Augie]

It is crazy and it is expensive, but so is loosing goats every few days until they're all gone.
Lots of people think animals smaller than themselves cannot be stronger than they are. Which is a fatal flaw. Very easy for them to rip & bend cattle panels down, wood boards off, rip limbs off a goat and through openings. If a person tried to do all that, they'd come out of it exhausted, cut up and disappointed.

Hopefully the cat won't bother.


There are motion activated noise & light machines. Probably shouldn't use the water version in Cali, but the other two may help keep it away. Though, neighbors may not like you.

He hasn't been back to the gut pile since last week when I (shooed him away).

 

[Ridgetop]

Out of curiosity why are LGDs not an option?

Cougars hunt in a set territory of miles, not blocks or acres. They hunt in one location for a week or two, then move in a pattern through their territory allowing the prey animals behind them to forget they were there. He will be back when he finishes moving through his territory, since he easily caught your goat.

Once you put up your 6' chain link fencing you need to understand that your goats will rub on it and stretch it out of shape. It will eventually roll up at the bottom too. When we first started we put in chain link because we had only had dogs. Big mistake for livestock which we rectified with our next fence, 5' high welded oil pipe with no climb around 5 acres. The cost was high - $20,000 but it has lasted for 25 years with horses, sheep and goats.

We have modified that fencing over the years. One of our Weimaraners was a digger. So were the coyotes. There were specific areas where they dug in or out making it easier to dig proof the fence. Those areas were usually in the bottom of the gully where the water runoff would wash away dirt under the fence, enticing the dogs and coyotes to enlarge the holes. We kept filling the holes in with rocks, power poles, etc. but every rain would make other run off holes. This is the final solution to that problem.

To stop digging under fences, we took 3-4' lengths of chain link and wired them to the bottom pipes, laying the chain link fabric out on the ground inside the fences. This was to prevent the dog from digging out. To prevent anything digging in, Iay the chain link fabric on the outside of the fence. . Eventually dirt and weeds will fill in over the metal mesh and it will become an impervious root mat around the bottom of the fencing. This solved the digging problem.

The second modification was necessary many years later. We are on very steep hillsides. The dirt sloughs down against the fences which reduces them in height. When we were walking our new Anatolian puppy around the fences, we were horrified to find that at one point our 5' fence was now only 3' high! - in the front where coyotes were known to congregate. Our older Anatolians were fence trained but not the puppy so another round of modifications were undertaken to raise the fence height. We took heavy duty 5' T posts and used pipe camps to attach them to the fence uprights. Then we strung more wire on the top of the fence on those posts effectively raising the fence height by 4'.

Here is the T post clamped onto the large vertical oil pipe.
Here are the attached T posts on the oil pipe fence as it goes down the steep hill. That fence is now 8'-9' high depending on how high the ground surface has sloughed to.

I suggest that you attach electrified wires on the top to keep the big cat from coming over the fence. Barbed wire - several strands around the bottom.

The 8 x 8' house will not be large enough for all the goats for very long, particularly since they have horns. I suggest that you give that house to the buck, and provide another one at least 2-3 times that size for the does and kids. The sliding door is good but needs a latch of some kind to prevent the cat from raising it up to enter the house.

By feeding them inside the house they will learn to enter it at night when you feed. This is another reason to have a larger house for them. You are feeding on the floor and that water bucket takes up about 4 sf of space. Goats are finicky feeders and once they trample the hay underfoot they won't eat any of it, unless they are actually starving. This type of feeding is why most goats don't get a lot of parasites since they are not ground grazers.

i suggest you remove the wire on one end and build a covered feeder on that end. Use a hinged top so you can drop the hay inside the feed box. Make sure to have a hasp with a clip to prevent the cat or other predators being able to lift the lid and enter the goat house. If you don't want to remove the wire end on the house, build the hay box narrow to fit over the wire and the goats will be able to eat hay though the wires. Again make sure the lid to the hay box has a strong hasp and clip on it.

To cut down on water spillage inside the goat house, and give more room, another way of watering the goats would be a narrower water container along one side with a float valve to keep it filled. Be aware that some goats like to play with the float valve and will break it so some sort of protection over it might be needed. If you are on a dirt floor, sitting the bucket on gravel might help. If on a wooden floor drill drain holes in the floor under and around the water bucket.

If you are locking them into their house at night, you can set up your alarm lights/sirens around the goat house. Motion lights will not be triggered by the goats if they are locked inside. Use your game cameras too to track where and from what direction the cougar enters the fencing.

Let us know when the cougar comes back and how your protection devices have worked out.

 

[Augie]

Out of curiosity why are LGDs not an option?

Cougars hunt in a set territory of miles, not blocks or acres. They hunt in one location for a week or two, then move in a pattern through their territory allowing the prey animals behind them to forget they were there. He will be back when he finishes moving through his territory, since he easily caught your goat.

Once you put up your 6' chain link fencing you need to understand that your goats will rub on it and stretch it out of shape. It will eventually roll up at the bottom too. When we first started we put in chain link because we had only had dogs. Big mistake for livestock which we rectified with our next fence, 5' high welded oil pipe with no climb around 5 acres. The cost was high - $20,000 but it has lasted for 25 years with horses, sheep and goats.

We have modified that fencing over the years. One of our Weimaraners was a digger. So were the coyotes. There were specific areas where they dug in or out making it easier to dig proof the fence. Those areas were usually in the bottom of the gully where the water runoff would wash away dirt under the fence, enticing the dogs and coyotes to enlarge the holes. We kept filling the holes in with rocks, power poles, etc. but every rain would make other run off holes. This is the final solution to that problem.

To stop digging under fences, we took 3-4' lengths of chain link and wired them to the bottom pipes, laying the chain link fabric out on the ground inside the fences. This was to prevent the dog from digging out. To prevent anything digging in, Iay the chain link fabric on the outside of the fence. . Eventually dirt and weeds will fill in over the metal mesh and it will become an impervious root mat around the bottom of the fencing. This solved the digging problem.

The second modification was necessary many years later. We are on very steep hillsides. The dirt sloughs down against the fences which reduces them in height. When we were walking our new Anatolian puppy around the fences, we were horrified to find that at one point our 5' fence was now only 3' high! - in the front where coyotes were known to congregate. Our older Anatolians were fence trained but not the puppy so another round of modifications were undertaken to raise the fence height. We took heavy duty 5' T posts and used pipe camps to attach them to the fence uprights. Then we strung more wire on the top of the fence on those posts effectively raising the fence height by 4'.

View attachment 81249 Here is the T post clamped onto the large vertical oil pipe.
View attachment 81251 Here are the attached T posts on the oil pipe fence as it goes down the steep hill. That fence is now 8'-9' high depending on how high the ground surface has sloughed to.

I suggest that you attach electrified wires on the top to keep the big cat from coming over the fence. Barbed wire - several strands around the bottom.

The 8 x 8' house will not be large enough for all the goats for very long, particularly since they have horns. I suggest that you give that house to the buck, and provide another one at least 2-3 times that size for the does and kids. The sliding door is good but needs a latch of some kind to prevent the cat from raising it up to enter the house.

By feeding them inside the house they will learn to enter it at night when you feed. This is another reason to have a larger house for them. You are feeding on the floor and that water bucket takes up about 4 sf of space. Goats are finicky feeders and once they trample the hay underfoot they won't eat any of it, unless they are actually starving. This type of feeding is why most goats don't get a lot of parasites since they are not ground grazers.

i suggest you remove the wire on one end and build a covered feeder on that end. Use a hinged top so you can drop the hay inside the feed box. Make sure to have a hasp with a clip to prevent the cat or other predators being able to lift the lid and enter the goat house. If you don't want to remove the wire end on the house, build the hay box narrow to fit over the wire and the goats will be able to eat hay though the wires. Again make sure the lid to the hay box has a strong hasp and clip on it.

To cut down on water spillage inside the goat house, and give more room, another way of watering the goats would be a narrower water container along one side with a float valve to keep it filled. Be aware that some goats like to play with the float valve and will break it so some sort of protection over it might be needed. If you are on a dirt floor, sitting the bucket on gravel might help. If on a wooden floor drill drain holes in the floor under and around the water bucket.

If you are locking them into their house at night, you can set up your alarm lights/sirens around the goat house. Motion lights will not be triggered by the goats if they are locked inside. Use your game cameras too to track where and from what direction the cougar enters the fencing.

Let us know when the cougar comes back and how your protection devices have worked out.

My chain-link fence was used for horses many years ago. It is skirted exactly how you suggested for digging. Great Idea to add more height in some areas since I'm on a hill as well. How do you install it with the hill being so steep and it being 8-9 feet tall?
The top of my fence is electrified. Thanks for the input on the size of the house. I plan to add some chain-link around the sides with a top to make it much larger. I was reading and it suggested to leave them locked for a day or two so the get the feeling of "home" that's why i feed them like this for bedding. I don't plan to feed hay in there only treats. I also plan to put the water trough outside and I have small hanging one inside. Do suggest any motion siren alarms. I cant find any that are not continuous and are not a camera. I have 2 cameras i can check on the goats whenever I want.
Thank you