Ok, I must be a gluten for punishment...I love our little pygmy goat and she has not given me an ounce of trouble ,soooooooo....I bought 4 more of them (I have 6 children..I wanted one for each.) I get to keep the troublesome doe for myself. Anyway, we got these cuties day before yesterday. My pen is looking good and I knew I needed another line of wire on the bottom for these little tikes. Welll....my dear hubby, not realizing I was not done with the big fence, let the goats out to graze before we left for church. It is the same pen that managed to keep my dwarf nigerian in so I can understand him not realizing I was going to add to it tomorrow. Anyway, we got home from church to see my golden retriever keeping the goats cornered in the driveway. My troublesome doe that has fought, kicked, climbed my face etc..not to mention not letting her milk down for milking, resulting in we finally found out, mammary tissue ingorgement, Poor goat..had scratched up her face, but had all those babies with her. She quietly led them back to the big pen when we got the dog away. Those babies were lined up behind her like ducks, walking quietly back there!! I was so proud of her!! I cleaned up her wounds and gave her some sweet feed all to herself.

Cindy Cluck

-- Cindy Cluck (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), June 18, 2000

Answers

What a happy ending! I have found when my Pygmies have gotten out, they never wander very far & if I get a scoop of grain, they'll come back every time. :-)

-- Wendy (weiskids@nalu.net), June 18, 2000.

Yeah for the troublesome one!It is an ill wind that blows no good! Is she doing better on the milking?

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000.

I wish I could say that the milking was going better, but it got worse with the arrival of the pygmies. I am going to let her dry up and hope to have better luck after she kids. I know she was bred, but it is too soon, that I know of, to tell if she is pregnant. She is getting a little bigger belly, but it could be just eating more? We have the pygmy billy for the pygmies that are about old enough for breeding, I guess he can give us a clue if she isn't pregnant. ;-) I have read in several places that pygmies give about a quart of milk a day, so who knows, maybe I will have better luck with them. If she doesn't let me milk her after she kids (the bigger one, a nigerian dwarf) then I will sell her. Thanks so much for the support and help!!!

Cindy Cluck

-- Cindy Cluck (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000.

A friend of ours who raised Alpines used to keep a Pygmy just for fun; she milked it (and complained about it's tiny teats). She REALLY likes coffee, and kept the animal milking because she liked the richness of the milk. It had more butterfat than the Alpine milk, and was GREAT in coffee.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), June 20, 2000.