goats and sheep

mooshu

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i have thought about getting a few sheep(jacob) and a few pygmy goats. can they be feed together, and will a buck of the oppsite species harrass the females when they are in heat?
 

freemotion

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No clue, just felt bad that no one has chimed in....yet! If it they are like all other animals, it probably depends on the individuals and how much space you have for them, whether there are corners that someone can get trapped in, the individual personalities, etc. Keep in mind that goats need copper and sheep don't so you will have to separate them so they have regular access to species-specific food.

I have had different animals kept together for years, and they do best with some time apart. The chickens go into their coop at night (mostly...some are in the rafters.... :barnie ), the turkeys have their own space at night so they can fill up on grain (they are too slow compared to everyone else to get enough to eat, at least right now) and the goats have their own space. I also have a couple of empty stalls that I can stick someone in if needed....the growing doeling gets fed in there twice a day so she can get a little extra.

I find it to be a lot of fun. Not an efficient system for a serious farm, but it works for me.
 

clarkai

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Yes, sheep and goats will try to breed each other, and you can have a baby geep born. But most of the time the fetus will die before it's born because goats and sheep have different numbers of chromosomes. Yes, bucks and rams will harass and try to breed with does and ewes.

It really is best to keep them separate unless you have a lot of room, can make sure the goats are getting copper and the sheep aren't, and can assure that your does won't be breed by rams and your ewes won't be bred by bucks.
 

mooshu

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:/ a geep, huh? well, i wondered but didn't think it would be possible. guess i should have guessed as with the chicken hybrids that happen. does anyone actually have a picture of a geep?
 

bibliophile birds

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mooshu said:
:/ a geep, huh? well, i wondered but didn't think it would be possible. guess i should have guessed as with the chicken hybrids that happen. does anyone actually have a picture of a geep?
according to Wikipedia, geeps cannot occur naturally as they are the fusion of two embryos, one sheep and one goat, making them a chimera rather than a hybrid. it goes on to say that actual goat-sheep hybrids are poorly documented. there apparently was a well-documented on in 2000 in Botswana (the Toast of Botswana), but that's about it.

i think these pictures are of the same geep...

this picture is kinda weird
goatDM0802_468x391.jpg


but this one's kinda cute
Geep.jpg
 

clarkai

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Well, if geep means the chimera rather than the hybrid, then I used the wrong term. It was the term we used on our farm, but it's easy to be wrong. Perhaps uncommon is not the right wording- extremely rare and improbable to have a live birth from a goat x sheep cross. Most often, these result in spontaneous abortions.
 
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