# My wether ate the tail feathers....



## CAjerseychick (Sep 21, 2013)

off my new Roo!!!! Isnt that weird?!!!
Just wanted to share. We got in 2 free roos the other day and have been keeping them in wire dog crates during the day to get used to the yard, and over their extreme fear of goats and cats...
One roo kept squawking and I thought he was being a big baby, but it turns out that the young wether was reaching his lips thru the top of the cage and grabbing any tail feather in reach and EATING them... I saw him.... 
now the poor roo looks like a Hen.
(No worries, I let the roos loose today and they settled in fine followed the hens about their day, and settled in fine in the roosts with the others tonight-- the chickens roam freely through out the property... I just wanted the roosters to get oriented first)... Silly goat though, i have never heard of this!


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

I actually got my first goats because they were eating the tails off of Arabian show horses.


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## CAjerseychick (Sep 21, 2013)

GoatCrazy said:


> I actually got my first goats because they were eating the tails off of Arabian show horses.


I think its out of curiousity, and boredom? Maybe they like the texture? It looked like he was munching down a dried leaf or something, it took me a minute to realize....


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

That is very true, but it could also be due to something they are lacking. I believe feathers and hair contain a good amount of protein, and I would imagine minerals, vitamins, and other things. Goats have an innate ability to seek out what they need. Whether that is the case in your goats eating tail feathers or my goats eating the tails off horses I don't know.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

Following GoatCrazy's observation, this begs the question: if my little doeling is nibbling the doe's beard, and sometimes my own hair--and I think a lot of us experience hair-nibbling---both are proteiny things, so might this go beyond oral fixation and curiosity, and into the realm of protein deficiency?  If so, a lot of us are going to have to reevaluate what we are feeding! Hmmm....


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

Stranger things have happened, but there is a big difference between nibbling at a doe's beard or your hair and eating 2 or 3' of a horses tail.


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## goatgirl16 (Nov 21, 2012)

My first weather use to ride around in our truck with us and on day after we got back from somewhere my husband was in the back seat and he yelled to me is this yours? I looked and he was holding up a 4 inch chunk of my hair!!! I always wear my hair in a pony tail and nvr felt him nibbling on it!


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

:lol: :lol: :lol: Mine used to grab my ponytail and pull me over. When someone or something has a hold your hair, you tend to follow them right quick!


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## Dani-1995 (Mar 11, 2011)

One of our wethers last year would pick up the chickens by the tail feathers and chunk them... it was kind of funny to watch but I felt bad for the chickens. He'd throw them a good ways

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Goat Forum mobile app


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

Dru will bite off my hair. I guess she thinks I need a hair cut, she also tries to eat our clothes.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

If I ever accidentally fall asleep in the goat pen, I am sure I will wake up with a very new hairdo from my 5 goaty hairdressers.


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

My two doelings and my yearling taste everything too...clothes,shoes,hair,


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