Pygmy Goats

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HorsesandParrots

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Figured some of you would have goats and horses!
We've reserved 2 little pygmy goats that my daughter and husband have chosen and they will be coming home when ready to leave mum. An impulse buy as my little one has become goat obsessed and why not haha.. but we have plenty of time to get ready and research.

We have a pony stable with a small concrete turnout area attached (all rubber matted) that they'll mostly be living in ( worst of winter / nighttime / whilst babies) that was previously used for a lami prone mini. It's not huge, maybe 10x8 stable and double that outside but I think would be sufficient for 2 pygmy's.

However, the outside is just post and rail fencing (4 rails). What stock fencing can I use to goat proof this fencing but also the perimeter of another paddock that I will let them out into during the day that is also safe for when the horses/ponies use it? It's about an acre. From what the breeder said, they won't eat much grass so I plan to let the horses use it now and then to keep it trimmed down.

Any other advice for a first time goat owner such as best bedding and how much they'll need? I use chopped rape straw with the horses and one is on shavings but can get normal straw if better? Best food / licks for them or anything to add to the shopping list? How much hay are 2 pygmy's likely to use and the best way to feed it?

Thank you very much in advance!
 
do a search on my experience with pygmy goats. they are satan in tiny cute bodies. you are insane to bring them into your life willingly.

to answer your questions - dont worry about your fencing, because it wont keep them in. four post fence and rail def won't. neither will your perimeter facing around the acre. even if the army built it. the breeder isn't lying that they wont eat much grass. what will happen is your acre will grow absolutely wild and they will totally ignore it and anything edible in it and instead focus their attention on the acre perimeter fence and escape immediately into your neighbours. it doesn't matter that you have an acre, they don't care. they will just f•ck off as soon as they possible can, to the most inconvenient place they can find. we had an acre and they still ended up jumping into a neighbours yard and pulling their license plates off. or head butting their tiny children. or eating the wires for their electricity boxes or cable tv. thats when they weren't eating the break cables under the jeeps. or wedging their heads into metal gates.

attached is a picture of OUR four post fence and rail, plus the three other layers of fencing we put over it. you mightn't be able to se the FOUR rails, because they head butted them down. the wire fence with concrete posts turned into a climbing net. and they ate through the wooden fpanels at the back. when all threee combined, they just used to slide in and get stuck, scream at the top of their voices, and the I'd have to climb in and drag them out by their back legs while they kicked me in the head, which involved all of us screaming simultaneously. a friends children came to 'play' with them, and the toddlers that weren't traumatised by the head butting ended up with their hair being eaten off them.

my ptsd is kicking now. so I'll just walk away and get a drink before I end up writing more paragraphs about the absolute horror this little four legged satan animals brought into our lives.

visit them in a petting zoo, sponsor them in a charity. don't let them near your home.
 

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paddi22 said:
do a search on my experience with pygmy goats. they are satan in tiny cute bodies. you are insane to bring them into your life willingly.

to answer your questions - dont worry about your fencing, because it wont keep them in. four post fence and rail def won't. neither will your perimeter facing around the acre. even if the army built it. the breeder isn't lying that they wont eat much grass. what will happen is your acre will grow absolutely wild and they will totally ignore it and anything edible in it and instead focus their attention on the acre perimeter fence and escape immediately into your neighbours. it doesn't matter that you have an acre, they don't care. they will just f•ck off as soon as they possible can, to the most inconvenient place they can find. we had an acre and they still ended up jumping into a neighbours yard and pulling their license plates off. or head butting their tiny children. or eating the wires for their electricity boxes or cable tv. thats when they weren't eating the break cables under the jeeps. or wedging their heads into metal gates.

attached is a picture of OUR four post fence and rail, plus the three other layers of fencing we put over it. you mightn't be able to se the FOUR rails, because they head butted them down. the wire fence with concrete posts turned into a climbing net. and they ate through the wooden fpanels at the back. when all threee combined, they just used to slide in and get stuck, scream at the top of their voices, and the I'd have to climb in and drag them out by their back legs while they kicked me in the head, which involved all of us screaming simultaneously. a friends children came to 'play' with them, and the toddlers that weren't traumatised by the head butting ended up with their hair being eaten off them.

my ptsd is kicking now. so I'll just walk away and get a drink before I end up writing more paragraphs about the absolute horror this little four legged satan animals brought into our lives.

visit them in a petting zoo, sponsor them in a charity. don't let them near your home.
Click to expand...
You've just saved me from typing that 🤪
If you do unfortunately get any don't attempt to breed them. They will need an emergency cesaerean at 2am on a Sunday morning emptying your bank account and then die the next day anyway. If any of the offspring survive being bottle reared they will spend the rest of their lives under your feet tripping you up, butting your knees. and screaming for attention.
 
I need to add that goats will also go into season and scream at the top of their lungs for days on end. I bet the breeder didn't mention that. if you want more info just google questions like thisScreenshot 2026-04-27 at 20.20.01.png

it's like being tortured by the cia.. you get a few minutes of relief listening to music with headphones on and then once the song ends, the sad reality of your life arrives again. we ended up getting ours a mini-hysterectomy as the only time she would stop screaming was if I was beside her and she was pretending to shag her poor brother. who was equally as tortured by the noise the noise as I was. I would have to get up in the middle of the night when the screaming started, and pet her while she humped her poor brother. eventually we rang a vets asking could we get her vocal chords removed because at that stage we thought our neighbours might shoot us. they said no, that was illegal, but it was something goat owners regularly asked them. they did take her ovaries out. which did stop the screaming. but the time she had spent screaming was now spent just planning more evil.
 
Oh Paddi22 and Gloi, thank you for bringing a long buried memory back to me for what was probably the WORST 2 months ever, at my yard.
1989 is indelibly imprinted...
Auction that I used to pick ponies up at occasionally, had some, I cheerfully bought 3, thinking my daughter, then aged 5 would enjoy them....
I was SO pleased to hand them over as a gift to my small animal vets wife.... took me all winter to repair, reinstate etc all the damage. The neighbours heaved a sigh of relief. Strangely, she offloaded them back at the auction a few weeks later!
Give me a half dozen unhandled feral ponies any time!
 
A friend had two rescue ones she wanted to rehome, we said yes please as they were very cute.
We had a lovely goat house and fenced a great area for them, full of brambles and all lovely goaty things.
We put them in, they jumped straight out and rampaged round the garden for days, eating all my plants. Eventually we managed to catch the feral things and put them in a horse paddock with post and rail, mesh and a top electric wire.
We begged said “ friend” to take them back and they said they would.
They turned up and we spent hours catching the flipping things, put them in her car and they jumped straight out of the car window back in to the garden 😂🙈
Was a massive relief when they were finally captured and removed.
 
My sister in law has two castrated boys. My husband spends a lot of time repairing their damage when he visits her.
They have a turn out area with lots of "enrichment" toys but much prefer visiting her neighbours to help them garden consisting of stripping their trees and decimating their plants and vegetable patches.

If you've seen Jurassic Park the T-Rex fencing is probably your best bet to contain them.
 
I'll have another chat with the husband and see how keen he actually is after reading these... it's him who will be building / repairing .. just seems mean to say no when we have 4 horses he didn't want and he's only ever wanted some goats!
 
Goat does not have to be curry. The best beef stroganoff that I ever made was a goat.

Of all the goats you could have chosen pygmys are the worst. They grow horns and know how to use them, they also sharpen them on stones/bricks etc. My friend ended up with all her anglo nubian goats in kid to a neighbours straying pygmy which scaled a heras fence, which had been put as a second fence when the goats scaled a stock mesh fence.
 
I had 2 unregistered Sanaans, I work in the NHS so with people of multiple nationalities. Everyone of African or Indian heritage thought it was hilarious that anyone kept goats as pets and would offer me recipes :oops:. Mine were both polite and not a nuisance but I gather pygmies are a whole different scenario.
 
Not a pygmy but my son was given a goat by a relative of Mr EM. Unfortunately she turned out to be pregnant and had two male kids. No one would take them off our hands so we got them castrated as our vet said they wouldn't smell so much. They were just outrageous, they could climb out of anywhere and destroy anything. If anyone left the tack room open they would go in and then emerge with bridles hooked round their horns and run off. One fell off a stack of hay bales and broke his leg. They were also fascinated by cars and vans and would climb in if any doors were left open. I was very glad when I eventually managed to rehome them!
 
There is a café in Northumberland, near Fontburn reservoir called Goats on the Roof. I have never been. They have Baggott goats. The goats do go on the roof.
 
My friend had these 2 goats. Sometimes i had to look after them. The female at the back was fine but the castrated male, front, could be quite naughty. At home he would lead fine. However he would get out and go into the village including going to the vegetable shop to eat the stock. I would put his halter on to lead him home and he would flop on the floor and scream like he was being murdered. He was big, heavy and a dead weight trying to move him while he screamed as i dragged/carried him home.1000010444.jpg
 
Yep, this is why I decided to start with sheep instead of goats despite my mother arguing otherwise... I like goats, especially when someone else have them and they aren't my problem.

Though on a more serious note, my pony used to be on a yard that also had goats (I think they did both milk and meat). From what I remember, they had a really large pasture they shared with the horses, and a five or six steel wire fence with a good amount of electricity. Can't remember anyone escaping. That's about how I'd prepare for getting goats if I had decided to get any.
 
rabatsa said:
Goat does not have to be curry. The best beef stroganoff that I ever made was a goat.

Of all the goats you could have chosen pygmys are the worst. They grow horns and know how to use them, they also sharpen them on stones/bricks etc. My friend ended up with all her anglo nubian goats in kid to a neighbours straying pygmy which scaled a heras fence, which had been put as a second fence when the goats scaled a stock mesh fence.
Click to expand...
These are hornless at least!
 
A friend got some pygmy goats, they were a nightmare, you can't fence them in as others have said, hers were always out on the road 🙈
 
Just realised I only use goat's milk soap and shampoo bars as my skin loves it so must retract all anti-goat comments and state they are wonderful creatures.
Also give warm goat's milk at bedtime to any puppies I may collect.
#teamgoat (as long as they don't live here)
 
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