# Castrating older buck



## wyomingtrapper (Mar 27, 2014)

Anyone have any experience with castrating a three or four year old buck, in terms of behavior change? I'm wondering if the habits formed by that time will be rather ingrained, or whether the decrease in testosterone would make a significant difference in settling him down. While no doubt not as easily trainable as a young goat, have any of you found success in training young adults that haven't had previous training?


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Yes to both questions. My buck that was castrated at 2 years of age is less bucky than the wethers that were done earlier. He calmed down in about 6 weeks. We bathed him and never a problem since. I also have trained an older wether. We went some rounds on who was boss for sure, he settled down and became a very pack goat after we had established that.


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## agilitymaster01 (Sep 25, 2013)

goathiker said:


> Yes to both questions. My buck that was castrated at 2 years of age is less bucky than the wethers that were done earlier. He calmed down in about 6 weeks. We bathed him and never a problem since. I also have trained an older wether. We went some rounds on who was boss for sure, he settled down and became a very pack goat after we had established that.


Did you just band him as you would when they are young?


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

He was banded with a calicrate bander at Caine institute. It worked very nicely. The sack was cut off a week after banding. This boy was much too old to just expect everything to dry up.


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## agilitymaster01 (Sep 25, 2013)

so did you cut it off, or a vet?


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

The vet cut it off. At the time I hadn't a lot of experience with the whole process. I could probably do it myself with a California bander now. A burdizzo can be used at any age as well.


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