chicks & ducks
Loving the herd life
Hi folks
I'm here because I'm at my wits end. 1 of my 2 whether goats has turned pretty mean! He's so aggressive that it's to the point where I had to squirt him with water yesterday just to be able to walk from the house to my truck and back. Otherwise he tries to ram and gorge and jump on me. He can be very sweet and used to be SUCH a cuddler but it's getting dangerous now and he hurt me pretty bad last night. Bad enough that I'm considering selling him off.
His brother(who is the more dominant between the two) doesn't behave like this unless he sees it happening already-then he just joins in. We're going to try and keep that one(the nicer one) as company for our alpaca but I think Benny-the aggressive one, has to go.
I've obviously gone wrong somewhere. We tried to discourage jumping up but that hasn't seemed to sunk in. My son, who is 10, is scared to death of the goats. To be fair they weigh more than him and they are not dehorned. He would run away from them-which I think they interpreted to be playing. Then they'd jump up so he'd grab them the only way he could-by the horns. I told him not to do it but he would panic and now that I've been in the same situation myself I can understand it. Getting hooked hurts!
I guess what I'm saying is-does anyone have any advice as to what I can do differently this time. Here's what I'm thinking
1. Smaller goats! We just got 2 regular male goats from a milking farm for $10 each to start out with-I don't like to invest a lot of money in an animal until I'm sure I can take care of it health wise. Now I'm more confident with vaccines/copper and all that I'm happier to invest in something smaller/more expensive
2. although I HATE to do it... we will dehorn. It sounds so cruel but I think maybe there are just some instincts that I can't conquer with them.
3.-what else? I had these guys leash trained and bottle fed them from babies and everything. It makes me so sad that it's got to this point-I really was trying to do everything 'right'(if there is such a thing).
Any suggestions? I can even take some constructive criticism -emphasis on CONSTRUCTIVE. I want to learn. What about breeds? are there some I should stay away from all together? Dh is asking about a fainting goat now but they still look pretty big to me-I was thinking DS might not be so afraid if, say, the goat was smaller than him? He's only a little guy himself.
Sorry my thoughts are a bit scattered, it's shaken me up a bit... Thanks!
I'm here because I'm at my wits end. 1 of my 2 whether goats has turned pretty mean! He's so aggressive that it's to the point where I had to squirt him with water yesterday just to be able to walk from the house to my truck and back. Otherwise he tries to ram and gorge and jump on me. He can be very sweet and used to be SUCH a cuddler but it's getting dangerous now and he hurt me pretty bad last night. Bad enough that I'm considering selling him off.
His brother(who is the more dominant between the two) doesn't behave like this unless he sees it happening already-then he just joins in. We're going to try and keep that one(the nicer one) as company for our alpaca but I think Benny-the aggressive one, has to go.
I've obviously gone wrong somewhere. We tried to discourage jumping up but that hasn't seemed to sunk in. My son, who is 10, is scared to death of the goats. To be fair they weigh more than him and they are not dehorned. He would run away from them-which I think they interpreted to be playing. Then they'd jump up so he'd grab them the only way he could-by the horns. I told him not to do it but he would panic and now that I've been in the same situation myself I can understand it. Getting hooked hurts!
I guess what I'm saying is-does anyone have any advice as to what I can do differently this time. Here's what I'm thinking
1. Smaller goats! We just got 2 regular male goats from a milking farm for $10 each to start out with-I don't like to invest a lot of money in an animal until I'm sure I can take care of it health wise. Now I'm more confident with vaccines/copper and all that I'm happier to invest in something smaller/more expensive
2. although I HATE to do it... we will dehorn. It sounds so cruel but I think maybe there are just some instincts that I can't conquer with them.
3.-what else? I had these guys leash trained and bottle fed them from babies and everything. It makes me so sad that it's got to this point-I really was trying to do everything 'right'(if there is such a thing).
Any suggestions? I can even take some constructive criticism -emphasis on CONSTRUCTIVE. I want to learn. What about breeds? are there some I should stay away from all together? Dh is asking about a fainting goat now but they still look pretty big to me-I was thinking DS might not be so afraid if, say, the goat was smaller than him? He's only a little guy himself.
Sorry my thoughts are a bit scattered, it's shaken me up a bit... Thanks!