# My goats ate my barn wall!



## Summersun (Apr 24, 2014)

So my goats pens share a wall with a storage shed/barn. I noticed it was getting scraped up and thought they were rubbing their horns on the wall. Now they have eaten huge holes in it and even seem to have eaten some insulation. Nobody is acting sick but I'm worried. They don't have free choice hay but they get 20 lbs of alfalfa for 4 pygmies and 3 big goats. Plus they get 1 cup grain per pygmy and 3 cups for the big girls each day. They have stems leftover so I know they aren't starving and everyone is at good weights. I don't know why they did it.


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## SeventeenFarms (Dec 10, 2013)

I think that your goats are being goats. 

They may also be bored when they are penned. My boer does will nibble and teeth scrape their shed (made of wood) when not let out for awhile. When I am able to let them range for a few hours each day it stops.

I have one ND that when free ranging , goes after anything plastic - like the sheeting on my winter hoop house even though there is brush and browse all around, or the styrofoam insulation on my stable water hydrant, and she is well fed. 

Maybe put up chicken wire on the wall to deter them?

kbt


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## ariella42 (May 22, 2014)

Do they have free choice minerals? Sometimes goats will go for wood if they're deficient in something. Of course, it's not always a sign of deficiency, since, as SeventeenFarms said, goats are goats. It's worth looking into though.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

My monsters have scraped most of my new barn walls from the point that they can reach all the way down to the ground. They get hay, grain and free choice loose minerals.


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## harleybarley (Sep 15, 2014)

Two of my goats eat paper and plastic. Only in front of me. Only when they're mad at me. They look over their shoulder to make sure I'm watching!

Goats are... inexplicable? Boredom, frustration, mineral deficiency... And there's a LOT of "I wonder..." stupid behavior. I wonder what would happen if I climbed on this dangerous thing human told me to stay away from? They can't read and they don't have fingers, so they explore with their mouths mostly.

BUT they can get intestinal obstruction (hardware disease) and it's a painful death (or very expensive and risky surgery). You need to stop them. Fine mesh hardware cloth over the wall should stop them from getting a bite, but they can tear the mesh, so it needs to be against a solid wall (patch the holes they tore out of the wall first). Metal barn siding panels are chew-proof (but goats can dent them); formica glued to plywood is hard to chew; solid boards of non-toxic hardwood will stand up to chewing better than plywood/particleboard. Once you get the wall chew-proof, a playset in the barn or more playtime outside might help redirect their energy.


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