Ok, I have gotten lots of good, and wonderful advice on trying to handle this doe. I put an ad in the paper yesterday to sell her after she jumped over and 8 ft fence in a single bound. I thought she just needed some adjustment time, but instead of settling down, she is getting worse. We are lovng her, giving her lots of good attention, but she continues to get worse. It now takes 3 people to milk her and that is with her in a milking stand. I am milking her once a day trying to get her to dry up without infection, I give up on having her for a milk goat, or any goat. I feel like I have tried to give her a fair chance, but she is not the goat for us. :-( She is so sweet when you are petting her..but the devil in her comes out when we aren't around! eek, anyway, I just thought I would let you know that I am not keeping her and thank you all so very much for the advice. I hope my cute pygmies work out, so far so good! :-)

Cindy Cluck

-- Cindy Cluck (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), June 21, 2000

Answers

It's said we are all created equal.... equal meaning the same, wouldn't that be boring.

A friend had a dog that was the stupidest animal I ever met. They thought with enough time, energy, training, etc., they could make the dog smart. The dog ended up having to be "put down". There are animals (and some people) that were not born with all the right amount of brain cells.

Don't feel bad about it.....nothing is equal.

-- Peggy Adkins (adkinsonthefarm@hotmail.com), June 21, 2000.

Thanks. I do think she has scrambled brain cells. ;-) Never a dull moment with her around! I will go for duller, I think. My pygmies got out today, thanks to a bit of help from the larger goat....but a bucket of food had them back in the pen in minutes. I then spent the next one hour getting that bigger doe. She is back on her airplane cable fastened to a tree inside the big pen. sigh...It drives her nuts that she can't get to the fences, but oh, well! Thanks again.

Cindy

-- Cindy Cluck (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), June 21, 2000.

Cindy, Too bad about the non-milking milk goat. I am glad you are not giving up on goats completely. My advice to first time goat people is to buy a goat that is already trained to milk. And I tell them to actually milk the goat first to see if she is easy to milk i.e. teats not too big or too small for your hands, nice stream of milk, those tiny orifices are hard on my hands, and taste the milk. It is really impossible to tame some goats. I call up the local meat processor and have them turned into goat burger. It is great stuff just be sure to have them add beef suet not any of the goat fat(thats where the "goaty taste" comes from). Okay, Sell the critter and learn from the experience but does do make great goat-burger! karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000.

Thanks for the tip on the beef fat! There are a few meat processors around here, I will call around and see what they charge in case I don't get her sold.

-- Cindy Cluck (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), June 22, 2000.