# Just introduced new female with horns! help!



## camurphy11 (Jan 7, 2012)

I just recently bought a new 10 acre farm. With it we "acquired" a wonderful wether FIG , I thought he should have some company besides my goldens who live outside. He did wonderful adapting to the dogs. I adopted a 1.5 yr old female nubian , but didn't realize she had horns. So she has been a bit aggressive with the horns but not overly so. Just it seems to show whos in charge, and with the dogs out of fear. She horned my older son who does the feeding/caretaking of the animals yesterday not hard or damaging but just caught him off guard. How do I handle her, make sure she does no damage and have her know we are in charge? I have a younger son I now would be concerned with when he goes out to do feeding. I also just bought and am waiting for two pygmies to be ready to come home. Worried how she will react to them, they will also have horns.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I would find her another home unfortunately ...it is hard to break that bad habit....if she is hitting people... with her horns... using them in a mean way...she will and can hurt someone very badly one day.....as well as other animals.... she has an issue of being on the mean side and I recommend ...she is found a new home especially with young children being around her...  :hug:


----------



## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

She needs to know whose boss. Aggressive behavior needs to be nipped in the bud quickly or it can escalate out of control quickly. Never grab her horns. If you can get your son to flip her when she acts aggressive that could help. You go on one side of the goat and take the opposite side legs and tip them off balance onto the ground and keep them their until they cam down. All my goats have horns and one is aggressive to people (other than me). I recommend doing something like in the pictures below to help anyone from getting poked. All it is is a stick gorilla taped to the front side of her horns. It will also helps keep any of their goatie companions from getting hurt too. The doe in the picture has a tendency to get someones(one of the goats) legs in her horns and twisting. This keeps her from doing that. If you need any help you can PM me.


----------



## Iwantgoats (Oct 3, 2008)

I had a moonspotted doe last year that I just loved butttt...she had that horrible habit of head butting and I was finding myself constantly watching her when I was in the goat pen. She gave me beautiful moonspotted doe but then she became even more aggressive. I sold her and the baby together. I just was not going to have a goat that I'm afraid to be around. Once they learn that bad habit it's hard to break.


----------



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

Goat rule #1: resist the temptation to buy a horned goat.
Or have them taken off.

I will never buy a horned goat again (unless its a Boer goat..of which the horns curve back).
The dairy horns go straight up and are dangerous to other goats and humans.
With my horned goat she used to be dangerous to other goats and not humans...now she isn't dangerous to other goats and she isn't herd queen anymore and stays to herself. If she stayed that bossy I probably would have banded them or had a vet do it (not a good thing to do...expensive or bloody).

I wouldn't buy anymore Horned goats and if you want to keep this doe get her horns taken care of.
Even without her horns a aggressive doe can still cause pain for a caretaker.
Another idea is find a hornless doe to lord over her (what I did) and she doesn't use the horns on other goats anymore.
Find a bossy doe that is larger than her. For now clip the horn tips down to where you see a dot of blood. Make them blunt as they won't hurt as bad that way for you or other goats(also what I did to my doe and they stayed blunted).

Sorry if this sounds too harsh.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Goat rule #1: resist the temptation to buy a horned goat.
> Or have them taken off.


 I have to disagree here...I know that some breeders do not like horns.... I have boers and they have never hit people in a mean manner.....I know accidents can happen but ...it can happen with goats ..with or without horns ..depending on the situation....I am not saying that you are wrong on how you feel about horns but...we have to remember... those that do love horns (me for one) and has never had an issues even with children around them....you have to start out with a goat that has the right temperament... in the first place and teach the kids the proper ways to be around them.... :hug:


----------



## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

I would quickly send that doe down the road as she should not have attacked a human at all for no apparent reason.. To have the nerve to do that tells me that she had possibly done it before. To have this sort of disrespect toward humans is not good. She can possibly be be re-trained but not able to be in with your young son for now at all. It is hard to re-train animals like this but may not be impossible. I would start with a young doe and not waste your time on her.


----------



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

toth boer goats said:


> > Goat rule #1: resist the temptation to buy a horned goat.
> > Or have them taken off.
> 
> 
> I have to disagree here...I know that some breeders do not like horns.... I have boers and they have never hit people in a mean manner.....I know accidents can happen but ...it can happen with goats ..with or without horns ..depending on the situation....I am not saying that you are wrong on how you feel about horns but...we have to remember... those that do love horns (me for one) and has never had an issues even with children around them....you have to start out with a goat that has the right temperament... in the first place and teach the kids the proper ways to be around them.... :hug:


I was meaning that only for Dairy goats.It isn't even rule #1..but should be in there somewhere (maybe rule #20).
I like Boer goats with the horns on as well because they curve back and they hardly use them.
Dairy horns go straight up with a point usually.
Some dairy goats don't use them(like my doe) and I have decided to keep them on because of that. I have a little sister and my mom that have already got poked near the eye(accidentally) from dairy horns. If you read on fiasco farm it explains it better..that is why I don't go for horned dairy goats anymore. I also think the horns look beautiful on my LaMancha..we just have to use more caution.

From raising Dairy and Boer goats I have found that the dairy goats can be more active/aggressive. My Boer goats never challenge the dairy goats, its the other way around. For me I would never buy a dis-budded Boer goat, it just seems so unnatural.


----------



## camurphy11 (Jan 7, 2012)

Maybe I made sound too harsh in my first post. She has not "attacked" she just has gently butted. Which my wether does, but he kinda will rub his head where his horns used to be onto your leg etc. To her defense this is only just 3rd day here. She came from a farm where she was mostly penned up all day in a stall, they had no way to leave her outside on her own unattended. They also had a german shepard who wasn't especially nice to her. So today, she seems a little more relaxed. She won't go near my dogs, if they approach her she runs away. She follows wether around like shes attached at the hip. My boys have been in pasture with her and again with the son who does feeding, she bumped every so slightly. But when he puts out dogs food/ hay for goats is the only times so far she has made that gesture. And I was told she was Nubian, but her horns curve around and back inwards.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> I was meaning that only for Dairy goats.It isn't even rule #1..but should be in there somewhere (maybe rule #20).
> I like Boer goats with the horns on as well because they curve back and they hardly use them.
> Dairy horns go straight up with a point usually.
> Some dairy goats don't use them(like my doe) and I have decided to keep them on because of that. I have a little sister and my mom that have already got poked near the eye(accidentally) from dairy horns. If you read on fiasco farm it explains it better..that is why I don't go for horned dairy goats anymore. I also think the horns look beautiful on my LaMancha..we just have to use more caution.
> ...


Gotcha.... thanks for clearing that up for me ....I really appreciate it.... that makes sense.... :wink: :hi5:


----------



## BillyMac (Nov 3, 2011)

My dairy goats have horns and I personally like the horns. Horns are not for everyone though, that's for sure. My take on it is just don't over react. Head butting is normal behavior whether the goat has horns or not. Any actual injury is unlikely and if an injury does occur then goat can be segregated, sold or butchered.


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I'm so sorry your having this trouble. If she's new, maybe she just needs some time to adjust? If she was penned up the way you said, maybe she is having security issues? And just needs to learn how things work at your place, and who her friends are  I'd definitely not allow her to do this, and make her learn who is boss. 
All the goats we've had so far have been horned except for 1. We've never owned a goat that will butt you, and all our goats are safe to be around. I couldn't have it any other way, especially with 3 kids.


----------



## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

Everyone in my herd has horns and I have to say I have never seen any of my goats butt us at all. I would really watch her there, esp. around your young children. 

I have also spent many hours teaching my children how to be "respectful" of the goats habits as well as their horns. I have also shown them how to act as the "leader" around the goats. I would hate to have to get rid of any of my foundation goats but I would in a heartbeat if I felt I could not trust them around my children. 

I have the most trouble w/my son and Mojo. My son wants to wrestle and play with Mojo and I catch him getting down on Mojo's level to do this . I huge NO NO at our place! He is now grounded from the buck pen :tears: I keep telling him it would be very sad if we had to sell Mojo because he lost respect for humans!


----------



## Di (Jan 29, 2008)

I have to ask you Boer and Fiber goat folks to understand...there is a huge difference between your horns and a dairy goats horns. I was so amazed at the horns on that Alpine hermaphrodite I had here awhile back...she would reach down and hook me around the leg...long straight and as pointy as a pencil! I only had her a short time...wasn't mine...she belonged to a friend. And of course when I told her, "she was an it", they sent her off to "freezer camp". I would never buy a horned goat, and every goat I produce will be disbudded, for their own sake. Except the Cashmere goats...they keep them...and they are beautiful. But, the horned goats do tend to "head butt" my hornless goats...so I do keep them seperate. But, that would probably happen horns or not...so I'm not blaming the horns in this case. :hug:

But, back to the original question. If you are sure you want to keep horned goats, you can use that "stick thing" taped on their horns, or I've also seen a tennis ball stuck down on them also. That one was kinda cute!!


----------



## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

I also disagree about buying horned goats...All but 1 of my goats have horns, they don't use them against any person or other goats...they hit with their head as any goat does. And they never hit hard enough for me to worry. 

I own Nigerian and Pygmies and horns never deter me from a sale...if you really like her try to do the ducktape/stick idea..if she is hurting people that is when she needs to be sold. I don't tolerate it even though I don't have 1 goat out here who even thinks about hurting me or anyone else!


----------



## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

I would just band them with the green cheerios. I have only done one that way the rest I have were disbudded as kids, but it was very easy and relatively quick. Just wrap them with electrical tape next to the base of her head, slip 2 bands on each horn below the tape against the skin at the base of the horn, wrap more tape over the bands.... 2-4 weeks later they will just fall off. Easy peasy. The cheap plastic bander is less than $10 at tractor supply if you don't have one already.


----------

