# New to meat goats



## kimbuffet (Apr 18, 2013)

We have Nubians and my daughter has shown for a few years. She decided she want to show meat goats as well. We bought 2 doelings from a nearby farm and are trying to teach them to lead and calm them down. Any suggestions would be great. Our Nubians love treats and will follow you anywhere with animal crackers in your pockets. These two Boers could care less what treat we try to give them. I will include a photo. We are not sure how well these will show. Critiques would be welcome. They were kidded in January. The black faced is 100% Boer and the other is 75%.:think:


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## Chadwick (Jan 24, 2014)

United they stand huh!

They sure are cute, good luck !


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## Crossroads Boers (Feb 19, 2011)

Beautiful girls!  Love the black heads they have, so cute! 

I've bought more than 1 wild Boer kid over the years... and I've found that time, petting and grain works well for taming them. I haven't tried any treats other than grain on these kids as I doubt they would be comfortable enough with you to take it. When feeeding time comes I try to hold their grain in a bucket for them at first, then move to holding it in my hand. Once they are ok with eating out of my hand I will start trying to pet them. Most of them back away and leave when I try to touch them, but they want the grain I still have so will keep coming back. They will eventually give in to the idea that humans aren't all that bad. I have 1 doe who we bought last summer who is still pretty timid, but she's several years old. The kids seem easier to train. You can win a lot of them over just by finding a special spot they like scratched. A lot like it on their rump, chest floor and neck or shoulders. That's how I won two of our kids over after we got back from a 2 week trip. We left when they were just a couple days old and by the time we got back they were scared of people! They are both super friendly little guys now though, as they love to be scratched/petted. 

If you have time, I would work on making them friendly before lead training. If you need to hurry and get them trained for fair you could try doing both (calming and lead training) at the same time. Probably won't work too well though as most goats don't like lead training...  Lots petting and grain as treats (if they like grain) might do the trick while lead training. 

Good luck!


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## crazygoatlady_inthemaking (Apr 25, 2014)

They are cute! What ive always done is spend as much time in the pen as possible. When they were young and we just seperated ours we would just sit in the pen an let them chew on our clothes and such. Then when we bought goats that wernt that tame we would sit in their pens and have a small bowl of food so when one of the wilder goats cam close we would let them eat out of the bowl.

Now walking.. First you need to halter break them by everyday for about a week to put their halter/chain on them and tie them to a fence. Everyday make the time longer and longer to where they are used to it and then start to walk them. My goats from out pasture were started out young so they knew what to do. But we had this one doe that would pull on the lead and wouldn't budge an inch. Well we would get a bucket of feed and walk with her so when she walked a few steps she could nibble on the feed an we would make the distance longer and longer between letting her eat. This is a great way to do it ive tried.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Very cute!


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