nickolas
Senior Member
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:04 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

my goats.

I have 4 Goats. a Doe named Barbara, 2 young does named Basil and Snowball a big Buck named Luke. They are all Saanen dairy goats. I got the first lot of goats in june last year. I milk them and make a small amount of cheese. and I just bought a cream separator so I will have a go at making cream soon, and ice cream and butter.

also last night snowball had twin girls so that means I now have 6 goats :).

kids this morning. just a few hours old.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=14 ... =2&theater

and here are some old pics from last year.
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f8cbedfe_PICT0240.jpg (54.09 KiB) Viewed 12006 times
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ElizabethB
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Location: Lafayette, LA

SOOOO jealous! Love your goats. One of your babies looks like she needs more attention from Mom. Larger baby - Fifi. smaller baby Lil Bit. Beautiful animals. I love goat cheese! Have never tried goat butter.

Silly story - when my uncle Leo was born (in the country - home birth) he was allergic to cow's milk. Grandmother got a goat to milk for him. Leo's older brother - Uncle Junior - was a rascal. He would ride the goat like a pony. One day he decided to bring the goat into the house. He led her into the kitchen. Grandmother's bedroom was next to the kitchen. The goat saw her reflection in the mirror of Grandmother's chifarobe. She butted her head on the mirror and cracked it. My sister has the chifarobe with the cracked mirror in her living room. That mirror will never be replaced.

nickolas
Senior Member
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:04 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

haha thanks. yea she didn't want to clean the smaller one. so I have it a bath.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

I make fetta cheese. I love it

nice story.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Awww so cute! :D

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

What do you feed them?

nickolas
Senior Member
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:04 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

every day I give them grains, chaff and hay. and right now when its dry and there is no green growth around I feed them tagasaste and black locust branches. as well as greens from the garden. there diet is closer to a horse than what people would feed meat goats.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Where I work there are goats. I know they are primarily meat goats, but they are pretty much kept as working pets.
I work on a farm and they get fed mostly lettuce and weeds. They do not get any grain. There once were a dozen of them but their numbers have dwindled. The oldest billy goat just died recently, he was about 5 years old. What remains are sisters and a brother. One of the does died kidding earlier in the year. Before that, a newborn kid died after a day. Apparently that is a common occurrence and I am thinking they are not getting enough minerals, namely selenium. They do not get a mineral block either and they get all of their water from the lettuce.

Will they eat bread?

nickolas
Senior Member
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:04 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

that doesn't sound too good. I don't know much about meat goats but I know its very common for dairy goats to live to 14 years. mine are not even full grown until 2 years old. and they definitely need a better source of water. at least a few bucket in the shade for when its hot. I know that when my girls are producing milk they drink 3 times as much water as the others.

yes you can feed them bread as long as it has no mold. I save all the crusts from my bread's and give it to my girls as a treat.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Thanks. Apparently I read that goats can live on lettuce, but these goats drink their pee. I tried to give them water once by letting a hose run in the pen but they didn't know what to do with it. I know that they require a lot of minerals but I have not even seen a mineral block for goats.

nickolas
Senior Member
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:04 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

thats a shame. if you wanna use a mineral block I just use the ones for horses.

reiki rooster
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Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:28 am
Location: Demorest, GA

071.jpg
Ah I love it! How did you make the tire tower stable? My guys would topple that in a heart beat.



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