A few weeks ago, I traded for 2 pregnant does (yearlings). They are Boer/Nubian crosses, but I am hoping to get a bit of milk off of them, just for our own use.

Now these girls have not been handled at all, and they are wild. Actually, they are tons better in just the 2 weeks, but not what you would call tame....as in, I can't touch them yet

I have been taking grain out and sitting in their pen every day, they are to the point to where they will come within a foot or 2 from me and eat from the pan. But still act very nervous, run to the rear of the pen when I come in...

I was curious if this is how everyone else tamed goats down?

When we do 4-H lambs every year, we just bring them home, halter them and tie them to a post for a while. Once they stop fighting, we start walking them and within a few weeks they are pretty tame. Has anyone tried that with goats?

They are due in March, and I sure would like to be able to handle them without tackling them by then :)

Thanks

Tracy

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), December 25, 2001

Answers

I am fairly new to goats but have lots of experience winning various animals over . This is what I would try. First I would make their pen kinda small - at least to they can't get too far away from you. So they see you put hay and water in their pen. I would also sit there when they eat and talk to them. Eventually start offering them treats like animal crackers, apple etc. Food works wonders. Good luck.

-- Trisha-MN (coldguinea@netscape.net), December 25, 2001.

Make sure you are with your does when they kid. I let my does lick my hands while she's cleaning her kids and it seems to really bond you with new mothers. I spend lots of time with the new mom the first 12 hours. The sweet lady that I bought my first half wild girls passed this on to me and it works.

-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), December 25, 2001.

Yes, the lamb halter thing worked wonderful. EXCEPT. I had a weak kid (unbeknownst to me) and the thing had a heart attack or something and DIED. The other three kids were fine and very tame but she had a stroke. Went nuts and spazzed out when she was tied. Such is livestock. I had good luck with my wild doe after she kidded and we helped her. She got REALLY tame when I milked her (lotsa milk baths until she understood what I was doing). Good luck!!

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), December 25, 2001.

I'm glad you asked this, Tracy, as I have one doe that looks like she is probably pigmy/saanen cross and very pregnant. She was wild as a hair when I got her, and has really tamed down, but even to catch her for worming, trimming, shots, etc, is a rodeo. She will take food from your hand, tho. I'm hoping to get her into a smaller pen by herself before she kids and try the methods mentioned here. She probably won't be a milker, but is a sweet thing. What a learning experience! Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), December 25, 2001.

One of my original, big, horned does, was so wild I never thought I'd be able to milk her at all. Was to the point, I had visions of her on the auction floor once she had kidded. To my surprise and delight, when she did kid, I had no problem getting her on the milk stand and she actually stood pretty still the first time:) In short, she turned out to be a good goat.

Do have a milk stand ready ahead of time. It's quite a trick to try to milk a wildish goat without one. And if you can be there at kidding, that's all the better.

-- mary (mlg@col.com), December 26, 2001.

There are a lot of posts about taming wild goats in the archives. About tying her to a post, please, please, never tie a goat up and leave her there. If you tie her up, especially a wild one, stay with her all the time. They can actually break their necks from lunging and struggling. I used to tether all my goats, and made it a rule, when tethering a goat for the first time, to devote most of the first day watching the animal and making sure they didn't get hurt. They can get into some pretty amazing predicaments in a very short time.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 27, 2001.