I have a beautiful farm in upstate ny. my favorite of my 6 goats, snowflake, is pregnat. but i am worried if the baby will come out ok because the "alpha" goat, ella, keeps on butting her with her horns in the somach. what should i do?
2007-09-06 03:22:44 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
It's pretty normal behavior for the "alpha" to butt the others around to keep her "alpha" status. If you have a large pen/pasture that gives Snowflake plenty of room to get away she should be fine. If they are in a small area and she doesn't have lots of space to stay out of her way, then it may be best to separate them when she gets close to kidding. The bad thing about separating goats is that it's VERY stressful for them to be away from the herd so you only want to do it if it's absolutely necessary. If she has a "buddy" that she gets along with well, keeping her buddy with her will help keep her from getting stressed out.
My goats are in a large pasture and have a large barn, and the only time I separate them for kidding is when the weather is very cold and the babies need to be kept on a heating pad. I most certainly do not separate them for long lenghts of time, it's best for babies to grow up in the herd and learn herd manners from the other goats. As long as they have plenty of room it's very unlikely that they will get hurt by one of the adults .
I have goats with horns & goats without horns, and I've seen some of my pregnant girls take some pretty hard hits but it's never caused any problems. However, I wouldn't want them confined to a small area together.
So, in summary, if they are in a large area I'd advise leaving them together, but if they are in a small area I would advise separating them but keeping a friend with each of them if possible.
2007-09-06 16:42:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
purely be advantageous you examine into how a lot this goat will fee to guard, do you have the time and the money to try this? Your coronary heart is contained in the main suitable place, yet are you going to do the goat any justice by paying for it?
2016-10-04 02:12:43 · answer #2 · answered by geissel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am just starting to breed goats and all teh breeders and several books have said that the femal should be seperated before giving birth and kept seperated until the babes are sold or 2 months old.
2007-09-06 06:43:33 · answer #3 · answered by Kit_kat 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is pretty normal. If it appears to be really aggresive behavior as she gets closer to dropping her kids you may want to isolate her. but God pretty much created goats with a toughness as butting is in their nature.
2007-09-06 03:31:27 · answer #4 · answered by Southern Comfort 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You Should Stop! Your Goat.
2007-09-06 03:39:10 · answer #5 · answered by PIOLO 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
put them in seperate pens...
if this continues she will kill the baby.. and snowflake will abort
2007-09-06 03:31:39 · answer #6 · answered by CF_ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋