# Goats inside?



## Kennedymarne (Jun 16, 2015)

So on Instagram I have seen a couple pages where people have their goats inside, and it looks as though they live in there all the time. There's videos of them sleeping on dog beds, wearing sweaters, and running around the kitchen. We have had our goats for less than a year, and when we goat them it was summer and they were old enough to live outside, so we have never had occasion to bring them in, but I'm wondering if the people that have them inside have them potty trained? With my goats it seems as though they don't care where they "go." Lol so I was just curious if the people that have them inside miraculously potty trained them or if they are constantly cleaning up goat droppings. Just curious about the issue. I would love to hear all of your stories


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You can put diapers on them. Most goats just go anytime. I've only had newborn kids in the house.


----------



## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

I have heard that they can control urine but not feces....I agree with Karen..I have only had newborns that needed extra attention in the house.My house gets messy enough without adding livestock!! :lol:


----------



## Redbarngoatfarm (Jul 8, 2015)

Just needy kids in my home, but I have read on line they can be house broken for poop as well, but I totally don't believe it having been around goats for so many years...


----------



## deerbunnyfarm (Dec 14, 2015)

What I have seen on this is that they can be litter trained for urine but not Poop, and even urine training isn't that reliable. There are some YouTube videos on potty training goats and one couple that tried it said it pretty much failed as soon as they hit puberty, plus damage in their house increased...

I have totally let my girls come in the house in diapers and onesies though. They love clop clopping around on the hardwood and jumping on the steps.


----------



## ShireRidgeFarm (Sep 24, 2015)

I think goats are physically incapable of controlling when they poop... it just comes out and they don't really even know it's happening. I would not want a goat living in my house - I think it would get pretty gross. :-? But, I've heard of people with 'house-goats', and, well, as long as they don't mind... :shrug:'


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

Myra lived inside for a while. She was pee pad trained for urine. No control of poop. I have hard floors and just swept it up.


----------



## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

My bottle kids usually stay in the house until it warms up enough and they are big enough to contend with the adults in the goat pen. I keep them in a crate, but they are out running loose when I am around. I have had several that taught themselves to do both poop and pee in their crate. They will actually run back into the crate to relieve themselves. A couple have figured out the peeing on paper I have on the floor when they are out and about too, but they would poop anywhere the spirit moved them. I have never had an older goat in the house to see how they would do.


----------



## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

As much as it might not seem like it, goats actually _are_ capable of controlling their bodily functions. Now, whether they'll control these functions according to _your_ specifications is another matter entirely. 

I have a goat who, back when he was an "only child," got to have free access to our wraparound deck and who slept on the doormat at night. He never pottied on the porch except on the rare occasion when he would drop ballast because something spooked him. Otherwise he would take himself out to the yard when nature called. The only times he intentionally pottied on the porch were when we left overnight. We would come home the next day to a large pile of pellets on the front doormat and a goat that wouldn't speak to us for a few days.

Now that we have a whole herd and must gate off the porch, we still let that one old goat come up on the deck to spend time because he's the only one we know won't make a mess up there. When he needs to "go" he stands by the stairs and asks to be let off. We never trained him to do this. He just seems to know.

Another goat that knows how to "hold it" is a young wether who came down with silent pneumonia last spring. It was serious enough that I decided he had to stay in the house with me that night, so we curled up together on the basement couch next to the wood stove. We have a nice painted cement floor in our basement, so it's ideal for cleanup. I wanted to monitor his bathroom activities and waited in vain all night for him to let loose. He wasn't going at all, which had me quite worried. I finally gave up around 10:00 next morning and let him into the yard. He hadn't gone to the bathroom in over 16 hours at that point, and I tell ya what--I've never seen a goat go so many times in five minutes, nor have I seen a goat look so relieved! Poor fellow--I felt terrible making him hold it for so long! But how was I to know he was naturally house-trained? :shrug:


----------



## Bansil (Jul 23, 2015)

in my mind the pee and poop would be least of the worries :shock: the amount of noise and such playing out side....drywall would not survive, you would be watching tv and BLAMMM" a new door from kitchen to living room:slapfloor:


----------



## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

There was a user on here not too long ago who had a sometimes house goat. I can remember the goat's name was Barbara Sue but can't for the life of me remember the human's name!


----------



## Kennedymarne (Jun 16, 2015)

I just couldn't imagine it! It's hard to keep my barn clean with goats, let alone my house lol


----------



## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Yeah, I have to agree with Bansil. Bathroom issues would be the least of my worries about having an indoor goat. Chewing curtains and furniture, rummaging kitchen cabinets and office files (sorry, my goat ate my tax returns!), and jumping all over the furniture would be the biggest problems. I can see litter box training a goat, but not training it to stay off table tops and out of my stuff--it's in their very nature to climb and be curious about everything. When my goats are in the house I supervise them every second!


----------



## Bansil (Jul 23, 2015)

Damfino! I never thought of the let's be up as high as we can :shock: Grannies prize china cabinet would be scratched, and the nice warm fridge top would be a sauna at goat retreat...

In the name of science I have an idea :cheers:

I will donate $5 towards a new go-pro project that entails 24 hr live feed of a couple normal outside goats living in a normal "child proof" house...like maybe the inlaws :chin:

any takers :shades::mrgreen:


----------



## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

SalteyLove said:


> There was a user on here not too long ago who had a sometimes house goat. I can remember the goat's name was Barbara Sue but can't for the life of me remember the human's name!


The pygmy goat Peggy Sue? Her owners user is AxyKat I do believe... 

I have only had adult goats in my house if they are out of their pen and I leave a door open, or if I'm just so lazy that I don't want to walk around my house to the porch to put a goat there for kidding time, so I walk them through the house and yes sometimes things get knocked over from their giant bellies and hallways are a tight fit :lol: 
The longest I have ever had a baby goat in the house was this years terminal c-section kid that I was very attached to.... he slept in the house every night and I would put him in the front yard during the day but the little human kids would keep letting him in because he was so cute :lol: 
So I'd put him out so I could go do something and I would come back in the house and he'd be on the couch, in the kitchen, on top of the woodstove (no fire at the time) trying to get on the tv, headbutting the dogs or just where ever doing whatever :lol: But at night he slept in an XXXL crate because he got way too big for a box and couldn't be trusted. He was over a month old by the time I finally was cruel enough to leave him with the does since the others were finally kidding. He was a monster though and mauling the new babies for a friend to play with


----------



## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I also recall a story somewhere that a man left his house to run some errands and his back door was left open. His goats got in the house and when the man returned he thought he had been ransacked and robbed, but it was just goats and a supreme mess :lol:


----------



## Kennedymarne (Jun 16, 2015)

The closest I've got to this is when the goat jumped in the camper when we left the door open lol he immediately went for the table!


----------



## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Little-Bits-N-Pieces said:


> I also recall a story somewhere that a man left his house to run some errands and his back door was left open. His goats got in the house and when the man returned he thought he had been ransacked and robbed, but it was just goats and a supreme mess :lol:


This reminds me of a story a friend told me about the time their house _was_ robbed. Unfortunately, the burglars left the back door open and the family's goats went in and "house sat" for them until their return. He said the goats did far more damage than the burglars, and they thought about leaving a note for the next robbers who might happen to break in: "Please help yourselves to anything in the house, but remember to CLOSE THE DOOR on your way out!!!" :lol:


----------



## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

I have a funny bathroom story about my first milk goat. "Nibbles" was a first freshener and it was my first time milking, so she was quite impatient and I was quite slow--never a good combination! She started out by dancing and kicking, so I tied a foot down and smugly thought to myself that I'd outwitted her. Far from! She had a couple of much _dirtier_ tricks up her sleeve!

It started with pooping. As soon as Nibbles finished eating she would poop, no doubt hoping that I would make her leave the stanchion the same way I always made her leave the porch when she pooped. I didn't throw her off the stanchion as planned, but I did have to whisk the milk pail away, fetch the broom, and clean up before I could continue. No doubt she enjoyed the break in routine because she began pooping more frequently. Within a week she was pooping 4-5 times in one milking. And then to top it all she started peeing!

I was about to tear my hair out with frustration and I wasn't sure what to do. My milk stanchion was on the back patio so cleanup was not an issue--I just sprayed it down with the garden hose--but it was making an already lengthy milking session into an hour-long ordeal, and I couldn't always move the milk pail in time. It was both disgusting and infuriating and the problem was only escalating.

I knew Nibbles was doing this on purpose, so I decided to take punitive action. I attached a sprayer to my hose, turned it on, and left it sitting next to my stool. The second Nibbles' tail went up, I moved the milk pail and directed a jet of cold water onto her bum. She was a stubborn girl and at first my water treatments seemed to leave no impression. She would hunch up and look miserable, but she kept right on doing her business. But on about the third day as I turned on the sprayer she clamped up and put her tail back down half-poop and that was the end of it. I may have had to spray her another time or two, but by the end of the week I was able to put the hose away and she never did it again.


----------



## fcdairygoats (Jun 24, 2013)

There is no way I could ever have a house goat 24/7. That would drive me crazy. lol Imagine all the stuff they would get into!? I have newborns in the house and have brought sick goats in when I needed to warm them up. I made the mistake of bring my pygmy who looked like she was going to die (she wouldn't even stand up) in my bedroom with out putting her in a crate. Ugh what a mess that was when she decided she was warm and it was time to get up and get into everything she could reach! Lesson learned.....any goat or kid that comes inside for whatever reason is crated so they can't get into anything. Even if they are deathly ill they will still be crated! lol


----------



## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Bansil said:


> Damfino! I never thought of the let's be up as high as we can :shock: Grannies prize china cabinet would be scratched, and the nice warm fridge top would be a sauna at goat retreat...
> 
> In the name of science I have an idea :cheers:
> 
> ...


Hmmm, maybe I can drop a couple of goats off at my daughter's. It'd have to be Nigerians because she lives in a small 2 bedroom apartment on the second floor with her hubby and 4 year-old son. They need the extra money... ;-)


----------



## Bansil (Jul 23, 2015)

I would bet good money if someone started a kickstart thing to do this, people would bite :thumb:

BRB....................

OKAY I'm back...we may have a taker on this adventure, we will have to wait on _*Redbarngoatfarm*_ though :thumbup::laugh:


----------

