# Pygmy pet peeve!



## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

Has anyone else noticed that the default term for a dwarf sized goat seems to be pygmy?

I've been to several farms over the last 3 years looking to expand my herd with some doe companions for my Pygmy, Peggy Sue. Since the companion does are for resale I'm not looking for papered goats, just similar sized girls with pygmy conformation. Peg is my marketing aid, so my buyers are looking for cobby little baby faced goats like her. Without fail every farm I've been to advertising Pygmies that aren't registered doesn't have any actual Pygmies! 

I've seen Nigerian Dwarfs, mini Nubian mixes, and what I'm pretty sure are small Boers, all claiming to be full blooded Pygmies. I'm not looking for pure stock if I'm not going to a registered breeder, but it would be nice to see SOME Pygmy blood in evidence!

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just crazy? :GAAH:


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## dobe627 (Oct 16, 2007)

Nope its not just you. Pygmy to a lot of people works for describing a "smaller" goat. I've went to look at pygmies as well just to find anything but. One guy I tried to explain it to, this was in my beginning, but he didn't want to hear it. Just said his "pygmies" were just differnt colors. I didn't even get into build.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Yeah, I've noticed :laugh: "pygmy" means small, so people are using the name to refer to all smaller goats.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Yes, unfortunately, Pygmy seems to be the default for any small goat.


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## RedGate (Dec 7, 2012)

Around here people call pygmies brush goats in the same sentence. So "Pygmy brush goats for sale" is what I see often in our local paper. Any smaller unknown origin goat... Strange huh?


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## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

So glad it's not just me!

Every time I go to a farm I try to convince them to advertise "mixed minis" instead of Pygmies, but to no avail. You wouldn't advertise just any black mutt as a rotweiler, and you shouldn't call just any small goat a Pygmy!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Major pet peeve of mine as well! Any "smaller than a big goat" goat is termed a "Pygmy" around here.... and you simply cannot get the ones who advertise their "pygmies" to listen when you try and tell them that they are not pygmies.

I have pygmy/nigerian crosses as well as registered nigerians and there is a definate difference between them! My Angel, Heidi and Bootsie definately show their pygmy blood in their builds as well as color... Teddy shows more nigerian and his dam is my Bootsie / There are simply too many out there who just don't care to know that Pygmy is a breed and not a size


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## Jodi_berg (Oct 29, 2012)

liz said:


> Major pet peeve of mine as well! Any "smaller than a big goat" goat is termed a "Pygmy" around here.... and you simply cannot get the ones who advertise their "pygmies" to listen when you try and tell them that they are not pygmies.
> 
> I have pygmy/nigerian crosses as well as registered nigerians and there is a definate difference between them! My Angel, Heidi and Bootsie definately show their pygmy blood in their builds as well as color... Teddy shows more nigerian and his dam is my Bootsie / There are simply too many out there who just don't care to know that Pygmy is a breed and not a size


Just got my nigerian/Pygmy cross today he's 2 weeks old and looks all pygmy but he seems to have long legs!


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## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

I have full blooded registered Pygmy stock, and I'm breeding some Pygerians as a side project for my dairy. There is a HUGE difference in build! I'd like to keep my Pygerians 3/4 Pygmy, but I can't find a buck for my purposes 'cause they are all mixed minis.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

A lot of people just don't get it...and don't care to get it. If they can't even get the breed they own/raise correct...it's scary to think...what other basic goat things do they not know. It takes a 5 minute google search to figure out if your goat is a pygmy or not. :doh: You want to yell at them...SMALL GOATS DO NOT = PYGMIES! It's frustrating...I hear ya!


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I see it all the time. One time someone was trying to sell a stunted Nubian as a Pygmy. Its so annoying. Or how about those "purebred but unregistered goats". A purebred Alpine does not have pendulous ears and a purebred Toggenburg is not white.


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## TexasRanger (Feb 2, 2010)

The "brush goat" thing in my area generally means a mixed breed of any size. Alot of my buyers are not native English speakers so at times it is easier to just list size or purpose. Pet, brush eater, meat or milk. 

I tried putting the breeds in the CL ads (Nigerian, Miniature Silky) and no one had any idea what they where. Since mine will be mixed breed pets, I just say small goat, I will tell the buyer the breed if they ask. 

Another reason I've stopped breeding is it is horrendously hard to sell goats out here. I get too many people saying they love this or that goat, but never show up or call/email/text back.


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## JoclarynFarm (Feb 20, 2013)

Axykatt said:


> I have full blooded registered Pygmy stock, and I'm breeding some Pygerians as a side project for my dairy. There is a HUGE difference in build! I'd like to keep my Pygerians 3/4 Pygmy, but I can't find a buck for my purposes 'cause they are all mixed minis.


We have a registered Nigerian buck, 2 Pygmy/Nigerian does and a registered Nigerian doe. Are "Pygerian" Pygmy x Nigerian dwarf?


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## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

Yup! Pygerian are Pygmy/Nigi crosses. Cute, right?


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

I love Pygerians, they are adorable to say the least


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## animalfamily (Nov 23, 2012)

Not knowing a bunch about goat breeds myself, I just refer to my goats as mix breed "medium" sized goats. Their breeds are so mixed up: some dwarf, some pygmy, some nubian milk, and so on, that I gave up trying to pin any sort of "term" on them. They're just adorable little goaties in my book!! ;D


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## KMarlow (Mar 3, 2013)

I was just talking about this issue with my dad this weekend when I was visiting with him. He has pygmies and nigerians. He's getting out of the pygmies to go more nigerian though because they sell better. He was telling me about an ad he saw on CL and called about. The guy had listed that he had nigerians, but had no pictures on his ad. So my dad was asking about colors and what they looked like. The guy gave descriptions of pygmies. My dad tried to tell him that it sounded like he had pygmies instead of nigerians. The guy was adamant they were nigerians though. Needless to say my dad decided not to go look at the goats.

I have a pair of pygerian wethers. IMO they have pygmy look with the nigerian legs. One of them is my avatar. They are spoilt brats!  We got them from my dad at 5 weeks old because their mom got really sick and dad made the decision to pull the kids so the mom could be treated.

I'll be having some pygerians in a week and a half too! Both of my does are bred to a nigerian. I've got a pygmy doe and a nigerian doe.


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## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

He does have a very Pygmy face! Nigies and Pygs look so different I don't understand how people can't tell them apart. Pygs look like babies with their round cheeks and cobby bodies and Nigies look more like small fat deer. 

At least I think so.


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## KMarlow (Mar 3, 2013)

Axykatt said:


> He does have a very Pygmy face! Nigies and Pygs look so different I don't understand how people can't tell them apart. Pygs look like babies with their round cheeks and cobby bodies and Nigies look more like small fat deer.
> 
> At least I think so.


My wethers will be 2 years old in July. Let me see if I can't find a good picture of them for you. That is if you are interested.  May not be majorly recent since most of the recent pics of the goats have been of the does as I track their pregnancies.


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## Axykatt (Feb 1, 2013)

I saw the pics on yer other thread. What nice looking boys!


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## pdpo222 (Jun 26, 2011)

When I see pygmy's for sale in the paper I ask to see a pic. If the color is not that of a pygmy I just let it pass. The problem is that any small goat is called a pygmy, so when you try and tell someone they don't have them, they bought them as pygmy's so they don't want to hear it. I use to try and tell people that they don't match the color that is accepted with the pygmy breed, but they could care less. They bought them as pygmy's and they will sell them as such. So it's always buyer beware.


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## hearthnsoul (Jul 5, 2009)

It happens a lot with Nigerians as well. Some years back we went for a Nigerian doe and it was beyond being clearly a Pygmy mix, no Nigerian In there to be had. She was a mess and I just felt like I couldn't leave her behind. So we decided to bring ner home and kept her as a companion for our Nigerian. We didn't expect her to have a long life you would have had to see her to understand, but she was here for 4 years, she thought she was a chicken, and actually moved herself into the chicken house, talk about free range she did that too from neighbor to neighbor, when she finally did pass on, although we had been prepared from day one for it, I never could have guessed what an empty space she would leave in our heart, we never could have guessed the personality she would have had. Ahem, sorry went off in another lane. 
Yes it happens here too, Nigerian as well as pygmy is used for anything small!


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