Introduction
Owning pygmy goats is an interesting and rewarding experience. In many ways, pygmy goats are very similar to dogs;
they enjoy human company, are playful, have routines and can be affectionate and have a caring nature. However, it is good to become familiar with how to care for pygmy goats before getting any of your own.
With regards to food, pygmy goats do not eat everything! They sniff, lick, bite and butt lots of things, but they do not eat everything! Even
if they do chew something which isn't food, they spit it out when they realise they can't eat it. Goats frequently
do not eat some foods, simply because they are fussy and don't like the taste! For example, Henry clearly prefers
white bread to brown bread if he's ever given bread as a treat (however he doesn't say "no" to brown bread!).
Pygmy goats can also be surprisingly fussy if the food they are eating is slightly dirty or muddy.
Pygmy goats are also much cheaper to care for than dogs or cats, for example. Goats also like each other's
company, and as such, they should always be kept in herds of 2 (or more) when they are growing up. Once a goat reaches
the latter stages of its life, then being with another goat is not necessarily essential. For example, when Joey passed
away, Henry no longer had any goat company, but he has coped fine since Joey's death. He enjoyed many years living with
Joey so he was not deprived of 'goat company' when he was growing up.
The paddock
The paddock has lots of benches
and tables. Henry loves to sit
on them and sunbathe during the
day, and he can often be seen
sleeping on them at night (when
it's warm enough). Joey used to
enjoy lounging about on them
during the day too, although he
almost always went in the shed
at night to sleep. Most of the
tables and benches have
originally been bought cheaply
at car boot sales, and over the
years, I have replaced the
wooden tops as the old ones have
worn out.
The paddock has a large amount of grass which provides an additional source of food. The trees also provide an additional source of food for Henry, who is tall enough to reach on his hind-legs and eat the vegetation on the lower branches. Joey was considerably shorter than Henry, and much to his annoyance, he could never reach the trees in the same way Henry could!
There is a high wire fence around the paddock to ensure that no escaping takes
place! Many bricks and pieces of wood have been placed on the ground in areas
which get particularly muddy. Goats hate to get their hooves muddy in wet
weather, so these bricks have always been appreciated!
The goat shed
It is important to provide
a decent-sized shed for pygmy goats, as it is essentially their
home. It's where they go when they want to eat hay, lick the
salt/mineral lick, drink water, chew the cud, shelter from the
rain, sleep, and just generally relax.
The shed has a window which Henry enjoys looking out of when
he's eating hay at the hay rack. Joey couldn't manage to look
out of the window due to his slight height disadvantage! The
half-door is opened and shut (to allow human access) via a bolt.
Goat access is via the latter half of the door, which has an
additional hinged flap to keep draughts out.
The shed is 8ft (2.4m) high, 8ft (2.4m) wide, and its depth is
6ft (1.8m). It has a light in it (with the cabling carefully
protected and shielded to ensure it is waterproof and goatproof),
which is externally controlled from our house. There is also a
goatproof CCTV camera (see picture on the right) in the shed which is wired up to a TV in
our house. This allows us to keep an eye on the goings-on in the
shed. It is particularly useful to monitor a poorly goat,
without causing disturbance to the goat who may be resting and
recovering.
The food
In terms of feeding, Henry is fed each day with a bowl of
special goat mix; a large sack of which can be obtained from agricultural
suppliers. When Henry and Joey were growing up, their feed was supplemented with
carrots and cabbage to ensure they had sufficient nutrients when they were
developing. Nowadays, Henry normally has a slice of warm toast each evening and
a banana skin in the morning, in addition to his goat mix in the evening.
Feeding slightly-stale or unwanted food to goats (such as biscuits which are a week or two beyond their 'best before' date,
or banana skins) is very sustainable, as otherwise this out-of-date or disused
food would be thrown away. You do have to make sure that any stale food is edible though (i.e. it has no mould or other 'nasties'). The manure which is produced from the goats can
then be used as fertiliser! Joey had a very sweet tooth and would love it
whenever we gave them an occasional sweet treat, such as a stale chocolate
biscuit! Henry still has the odd occasional sweet treat, but nothing will ever
beat Joey's enthusiasm!! However, the feeding of sugary products to goats must
be kept to a minimum to ensure tooth rot and other problems do not occur.
Toys
Henry and Joey used to often play with a small child's 'AA' car, that I used
to have when I was very young. After it broke a long time ago, we reinforced
it and made it goatproof, and they used to love to play on it. Videos of
them doing so can be seen on the videos page on this website.
They also used to play with an old toy scooter, especially liked
butting the soft rubber tyres.
Nowadays, Henry occasionally plays with some old balls (as well as an old marine buoy) which are in the
paddock.
Note
all toys are removed from the paddock when they have finished playing.
Body care
During winter, pygmy goats grow a woolly fur vest beneath their fur, that
keeps them warm. It starts growing rapidly (often within the space of 2
days) in the late autumn when the first frost occurs. When the spring comes
in March, they moult and lose their winter vest. With the help of grooming
and rubbing themselves on the fence, their winter vest is gone by the summer
months.
It is often necessary to shampoo a pygmy goat in the summer
(using a special animal shampoo) if a build up of dandruff has
occurred during the moulting process. Photos of Joey being
shampooed in 2004 can be seen in the
Photos of H & J
section.
Another event that occurs
once every 8 weeks or so, is hoof trimming. Pygmy goats regularly need
their hooves trimmed, otherwise they will start skidding everywhere! In the wild, their hooves are worn
naturally by rocks and rugged terrain, but when goats are kept as pets, it is necessary to periodically clip their hooves.
The standard method is to tether the goats to the
fence, give them some greenery to take their mind off what's going on at the
hoof-end of their bodies, and carefully trim their hooves, using special
trimmers.
