# Why won't my goats go to bed??



## PygmyMom (Mar 3, 2014)

My goats are out of control at bedtime. These three ladies absolutely will not go in their yard or let alone pen at night. Here they are loitering along the fence I had to put up because they were butting at the patio door of my bedroom all night! They do this every night!

They will NOT retreat to their pen until I give them cookies. It's ridiculous. They will quite literally scream until I go out in the middle of the night and give them cookies. I do it because I don't want the neighbors to wake from the "desperate" goat cries but really, I leave for work at 5am. I'm tired.

They are well fed and have more than enough grazing space. What can I do to correct this? I'm at my wits end.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

They have you quite well trained now and, to my eye, are pretty fat. It's going to be noisy weaning them off of being spoiled. You taught them to do this at sometime, changing will be hard.


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## MoonShadow (Mar 1, 2015)

No more cookies haha atleast for while anyways. Maybe get come cheep plastic snap dog collars from the dollar store and guide them to where you want them to sleep and lock thwm in if you can, at the same time every day untill they get the routine down. You can snap them off when your done if you're uncomfortable with keeping them on. 
My goats know to go in the barn everynight at 6:00. They are more then happy because they know they get a bit of hay to nibble on and even when they dont get hay they are fine because I haven't made hay a constant thing everynight for the soul purpose of them not getting too attached to it and cry when they dont have their munchies at night haha

I have a New little doe who is a scremer so i undeetand the frustration. I wish you much luck!!


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## PygmyMom (Mar 3, 2014)

goathiker said:


> They have you quite well trained now and, to my eye, are pretty fat. It's going to be noisy weaning them off of being spoiled. You taught them to do this at sometime, changing will be hard.


They look fat? Two of them were looking pretty thin this summer (like grossly thin) we ruled out illness, parasite, etc. to be the cause so I just increased their daily feed by about a cup each and hoped they would start to fill out! So if you think they look fat, that's great news to me! It's hard for me to tell when I see them everyday. it means we can probably cut back on the extra feed too 

The don't get hay/feed/snacks anything at bedtime. They never have that's why this is so frustrating! It's like they all just decided randomly one day "hey lets scream at mom for midnight snacks just because we want to". I've tried to change it up and bring hay or a handful of feed and they just aren't having it. They want a cookie and they want it at 1am.

I tricked them one night this summer with a cookie to get them into their pen and quick shut the gate to lock them in. They literally ripped off the fencing on the gate and almost took the gate clear off the hinges to get out after. UGH! Do you think that started the cookie craze? That one act of trickery?

It's sounds silly I know, but seriously I am loosing my mind over this.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

All it takes is one time of cookies for them to think that's how it is now. I gave mine grain the other day just to con them into coming in the pen to worm a few and now for 3 days they stand in the pen screaming at me for grain. 
Are you feeding them anything during the day? Maybe change their feeding time and spot to night and where you want them to be. You also said you sectioned a part off? Is that where they normally slept?


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## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

I feed mine once a day in the evening. That's how I trained my goats to go to their pen at night. Maybe try feeding them in the evening like Jessica suggested.


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## KristiStone (Apr 29, 2015)

I let my girls out for a while every morning, then bring them back in with the lure of grain. They always try to get out one more time, but then realize, no in, no grain! They are so smart! :book:


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## PygmyMom (Mar 3, 2014)

Ok I'm kind of embarrassed how anal I am about what my goats eat but here goes.. 

We give fresh Timothy grass/hay every single morning. I'm talking zero weeds, $17 per 50 pound bale fresh green grass/hay. I give about three pounds per head each morning. Then in the late afternoon (usually around 4-5pm) they each get a feed pail with another pound of grass/hay and three cups feed. A special feed that I drive 130 miles round trip every other month to stock up on. I pay $25 per 50 pounds for it. It's a specifically formulated feed for Pygmy goats hand made by a long time Pygmy breeder up north. It has all of their minerals, etc. mixed right into it so I don't offer loose minerals on top of it. 

They also have about an acre of land to graze freely on during the day. They mostly stick to my hosta and Lilly's near the house but will eat leaves, oak and apple bark, Kentucky blue grass, etc. we have very few weeds out there and zero toxic plants/fertilizers/etc. We also bring in about 15 pounds of fresh oats a month (may-August) from a farmer and throw that out there for them to graze on too. 

I tried to feed them "dinner" later in the day but they just scream and scream as they know when it's feeding time because that's when the DH gets home and the dogs get fed. They expect dinner too. 

I have a pen about 35X20 ft that they have always been fed in and slept in. I always just shut them in at night. They have a house, rock formation and toys to play on in there. This is the pen that they nearly ripped the gate off of to get out and began burying my bedroom door. We then fenced off another pen around of that pen about a 1/4 acre to keep them from doing this, but as my original picture shows, they just stand at the gate to that and loiter and scream until I give them a cookie to get them BACK into the sleeping/eating pen. 

I just don't get it!!!! Maybe it wasn't the trickery that caused it? Could it be they miss their friends and are lonely? I sold ALL of my goats, adults and kids alike, and only kept these three. It's been months since then. Could they STILL be sad about it and are acting out? I just don't know what to do


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## PygmyMom (Mar 3, 2014)

Also in hindsight I'm thinking maybe my girls are more traumatized than I thought. We also lost BOTH of our herd dogs within two months. The cookie screaming started around the time we lost the first dog, around the same time I tricked them into their pen, and around the same time I sold all of my other goats. UGH!


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## CritterCarnival (Sep 18, 2013)

Chase them away from the gate with a squirt bottle or a spray from the garden hose. It may sound cruel, but goats can be very stubborn and won't quit until it becomes very unpleasant to continue.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

My dear friend they are spoiled. You are dealing with very smart animals and the only way to get on 'your terms' is to put your foot down and ignore them when they scream. They are not called kids for no reason you must treat them like little kids lol your the boss what you say goes


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Their diet is a bit unbalanced. They need some alfalfa to off set all the grass they are getting. Try substituting one of the grain feedings with about a pound per goat of alfalfa pellets. They should be getting loose minerals and kelp even with the mineral pack in the grain, it probably isn't quite enough...


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## PygmyMom (Mar 3, 2014)

Thank you! I will pick up a bag of alfalfa pellets and loose minerals Tommorow. I used to feed the alfalfa pellets to my ND wether before I sold him a few months ago but didn't think it was necessary for my open doe's with their current diet. Maybe I'll start by giving them handfuls during the day so they think it's a "treat" when I put it in the feed bowl at dinner time. I'm going to try this tomorrow and see if it helps to redirect the night time cookie screaming.  thanks! 

And yes they are spoiled. Embarrassingly so. But I do try to err on the side of caution because we all know how sensitive and unpredictable goats are, I am scared to death to loose one! #whatgoat #baaaaa


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## rochelle (Jul 10, 2016)

Yep at night I only feed mine grain so that's when they know it's time for bed! And what's so weird about my babies is they are so adjusted to me & my schedule I love them so much! I work 3 days a week so during the day while I'm at work they stay in their pen, I get home they get to run about the whole yard! On my days off, they get to be out all day...I only have 1 ND (5 mo old) & 2 Pygmy (1 yrs old) sure are stinkers! But bedtime they get their grain, mix in some minerals & get a kiss on theirs cheeks & sweet dreams babies!


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