# Making friends?



## Catalytic (Jun 8, 2011)

So, our goats are here! Two Alpine does, owner says they are tame, but they seem very skittish of us. The "dry" one came up to my 13 yr old and sniffed him, let him scratch under her chin for a second. She followed us to the gate but when I tried to give her some bread for a treat, she skittered away.

The two babies are about 2.5 months old, one doeling, one wether, and are NOT tame at all.

How do we make friends?

I need to start milking ASAP (to try to get the dry one back in milk) and I need to get the babies off the other doe and start milking her.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Some type of sweet grain, raisins, cut up apples, etc. Sit in the pen, wait for them to come to you and give them some treats and slowly, gently pet them. Don't chase them or trap to catch them or they will start to shy away quickly. Let the does come to you and they will soon learn that you are safe to come to.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

It takes time... sit in a chair and have treats...grain or hay....
with time... they will walk up to you for the treats ect...talk to them in a soft voice and move slowly ...try to scratch between their horns they love it.... and will come back for more...


or if you want to achieve this quicker....you can tie them up with a dog collar and rope or something that won't choke them... and scratch them....between the horns first...I always find that is the favorite spot ... when they start liking that...give them treats.....talk to them in a soft voice.... do this daily for say 15 minutes at a time.....if you can walk them around on the rope ...take them for a browsing walk ..let them nibble on leaves ect....and then... eventually you can pet them on the neck and so on.... :wink:


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## glenolam (Jul 20, 2010)

KW and toth gave great pointers.

It's just going to take time. With some goats, they become your best friend the minute they step foot at your house. Others, not so much.

As for the one you want to try getting back into milk - it might be hard if she's really skiddish. You need to remain calm when handling her and not let her think you're worried about her being scared of you. She'll read your body language and probaly not give you any milk because she won't trust you. You may or may not be able to bring her back into milk, but you could try it for a week or two and see how she does - if she starts to get really stressed, I'd just give it up for this year.

Good luck!


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## Catalytic (Jun 8, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestions!

If I "chase" or corner the one doe to put the collar on her, am I going to cause irreparable damage? I think my collars may be too large, I bought them from Jeffers and they're "nanny" collars, but they look huge compared to the goats LOL.

I picked up a dog choke chain when I went to get some alfalfa pellets and a bucket for the milk stand, I can probably slip that on her easier, but will it hurt her? Some of the show collars Jeffers has look like choke or pinch collars, that's why I grabbed it, but I definitely don't want to hurt her. It's not the end of the world if she doesn't get her milk back, I'd just like to try. Her udder is still hanging and her teats look pretty full. Not too worried about milking the other doe immediately, because the babies still nurse, so that will keep her in milk for now, until we can be friends. Going to see if I can get some pictures of her udder to see what you guys think.

The "dry" doe HAS been milked before, her old owner's neighbors were milking her until 2-3 weeks ago, so I'm hoping once she trusts me, she'll be OK for me to try to bring it back. They are both first fresheners, though, and I'm not sure anyone has ever milked the other one (that has the kids).

We're still thinking of names for them.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Congrats on them! 
If you need to put a collar on her by catching her I would just do it and then work on rapport.
I would not use a choke collar!! They are just fine for show when they are used to being led and they should never be left on any animal for possibility of strangulation. 
I would use a plastic "break away" buckle dog collar. They sell them at the dollar store. 
Not sure if after 3 weeks she would still be in milk :shrug: I would think she has dried up by now but I don't milk yet so I am not real sure.


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## Catalytic (Jun 8, 2011)

I think they are used to being led, because the owner had no problems leading the does out of the trailer with some rope thing (I didn't really see it, I was too busy fawning over the goats LOL). The kids were another story, we had to trap them and then he carried them from the trailer to the fence.

I'm not planning to leave the choke chain on at all, I just thought it might be a quick way to get them on a lead to get them used to us. I will hunt down some breakaway collars, the ones from Jeffers are nylon that have a metal buckle, definitely NOT breakaway collars.


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## Catalytic (Jun 8, 2011)

I found the secret!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not for the babies, but for the does LOL.

One of them came to the fence and so I got a handful of SHREDDED!!!! alfalfa hay (sigh, that isn't what I expected it to be LOL) and she ate it from my hand through the fence. Got a little in the cheap bucket I planned to attach to the stanchion and went in the fence and got MOBBED by the does. They're totally fighting over it, backing up and charging each other with their heads LOL. So I let the bucket down to the ground (I'd clipped it to the fence) and the babies got it while the does were fighting. I did get the buckle collars on them while they were eating though, so I may move the stanchion into the fence later and see if I can bribe them onto the stanchion and brush them for a few minutes while they eat.

I know, I'm silly, but I have a grin a mile wide right now!


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

Congratulations on your new goats. I agree with the advice from the others and from experience. My 2 older doelings were not tame when I got them last fall and it took about 6 months to get them to the point of being able to pet them. Now they are wonderful although they will never be like bottle babies. They can be petted and handled. I just had lots of patience with them and brided them with lots with treats, they are nuts for sunflower seeds. For the hardest one to tame, I used to sit on the floor wih her grain in a pan placed between my legs and when she went in to eat it, I would gently pet her. At first she would back away but then realized that the only way to get the grain was to come close and get petted in the process. I did this every day for a long time and now she comes for pets even without the treats.


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## Catalytic (Jun 8, 2011)

peggy said:


> Congratulations on your new goats. I agree with the advice from the others and from experience. My 2 older doelings were not tame when I got them last fall and it took about 6 months to get them to the point of being able to pet them. Now they are wonderful although they will never be like bottle babies. They can be petted and handled. I just had lots of patience with them and brided them with lots with treats, they are nuts for sunflower seeds. For the hardest one to tame, I used to sit on the floor wih her grain in a pan placed between my legs and when she went in to eat it, I would gently pet her. At first she would back away but then realized that the only way to get the grain was to come close and get petted in the process. I did this every day for a long time and now she comes for pets even without the treats.


Yikes, how old were your doelings when you got them? These babies are somewhere between 2 and 3 months, I'm going to call the guy I bought them from and see if he knows the day they were born. I did pick up some BOSS today, so I'll try bribing them with that. I'm hoping to be able to start putting them on the stanchion for treats and brushing to get them used to it for hoof trimming and milking.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

That is great! The buck I used for breeding wasn't tame. It took three of us to pin him and put him a kennel to take to my house. When he left here 30 days later I could grab his collar while he was eating and then I put him in the kennel to take home. Every time I fed him grain I reached for his collar, so he expected it. At first he would keep running away but eventually he let me touch him. I even got a few pets in. It was actually really sad to take him back because he fit in so well with my other goats and I felt like I made progress with him. The owner contacted me a couple of weeks ago to see if I want to purchase him. I will probably have to start all over again if I decide to because they just turn him out to pasture and leave him there. No contact at all.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Some come around quicker than others. 
Sounds like these girls will realize you aren't there to harm them very quickly!


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