Does anyone understand goat behaviour???

[warthog]

Are goats sent to try, test and drive us abosolutely crazy?

We have a scary couple of hours last night, I was heartbroken and crying my eyes out.

Couple of days ago, I put Poppy and Artorius back in with the herd. I thought it was a little early, but supervised and all seemed well, and have kept checking and he is integrating really well.

Yesterday he decided to go out into the bush with Poppy, I was keeping and eye on him and all was going well. At about 3pm we had a heavy shower, only lasted about 10 minutes, but all the goats came running back in for shelter.

4ish I went out to feed them and close the bush gate for the night, no Artorius (Arty for short), I was frantic. I called DH and we got our wellies on and went searching the bush (Poppy is just standing there eating and playing with other goats like nothing is wrong).

After about 1 1/2 hour of searching and calling no Artorius, by this time it about 5.30, it goes dark here by 6pm at the moment and light is already failing. We are frantic. What more could we do, I am almost hysterical.

Well darkness came, and we are indoors, I am cursing Poppy she is not one little bit bothered.

I had closed the gate to the pen from the bush, obviously to protect the other goats, but knew that this meant if Artorius was still alive he couldn't get back in.

At about 6.15pm I hear a little maaaaaa, I am already half way out the door, when I heard another little maaaaaaaa, Poppy is still doing nothing. DH and I rushed to the bush gate, to see little Arty, calling for his mum, she is still doing nothing, I opened the gate she then went to him and started talking to him.

Poor little guy had been out there on his own for about 3 hours.

Little Arty, is OK, no injuries, nothing, he wasn't even wet.

The point of this post is, does anyone know why mother goats behave this way, she has been a very good mum feeding, cleaning etc and she herself is such a sweetie, although last night I could cheerfully have throttled her.

I would have expected her to be shouting and calling for him, going frantic.

Some months ago, I posted similar behaviour with Pepper and Chops, when Chops got his head stuck in the paint pot, and Pepper ran with the rest of them to the rock pile and stood there just staring, not calling nothing. If I hadn't been in the garden, I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong.

Is this how goats behave towards their young, does anyone know, have any experience with such behaviour, or do I need a goat shrink.

 

[lilhill]

Mine all have different personalities and behave differently. Some moms will panic and cry until their little ones are found and back with her. Some babies cry and cry and mom will totally ignore them for the time being, even though they are great moms. Your little Arty probably hadn't been away from Poppy long enough for her to have been concerned about him yet. These types of things will definitely get the panic button pushed, and I'm really happy it turned out fine and Arty is back with the herd. Stinkers!

 

[Emmetts Dairy]

Poor little guy Im sorry...I would of been frantic too!!! But I agree..they are all differant....I have the same...some are cryer and some just ignore everything if it dosnt directly effect them or interupt their feeding time....

Im glad he made it home safely!!!

Maybe you should put a bell around his neck if he's gonna be a wanderer?

 

[warthog]

It may well be that Poppy is a lot clever than I thought she was last night.

Went out to change their water at 12 noon. They are all out in the bush including Arty.

Few minutes later they came charging back in, couldn't see Arty, oh no not again. So out I go into the bush, searching and calling, got all the goats to come with me, hoping they might lead me to him, no such luck.

But what I did notice was Poppy looking in the general direction from which Arty came back last night, and she was sniffing the air.

Now what I think, I HOPE, is going on, is when she takes him out and he gets tired, poor little soul, she stashes him in a safe place, in the shade, and goes about her eating.

Mum logic, if she doesn't eat, she can't feed her baby.

Later this afternoon, I noticed they were back together again, he was fine, she was happy, no problems.

Tomorrow, they will be penned for most of the day, we have to go out.

But Monday when I open the gate and let them out, I am going to sit in the pen and watch what goes on, should be interesting.

 

[Ariel301]

She probably was not worried because she knew where she left him. Some goats will do that, stash the baby somewhere and go off a while for a bit of a vacation. Others are so overprotective that they won't even let their babies leave their side to play with other babies. They're all different.