Got Goat?

Well, that was fast.

Actually, it's goats. You really don't want to try one goat.

No names yet.

Here's what we know about them:

They are twin sisters, eight weeks old.

They are 3/4 Saanen and 1/4 Nubian. These are good dairy breeds.

They are naturally polled and heterozygous for this trait (dominant trait; their sire is horned), and they both have wattles.

They've been wormed and vaccinated and were weaned last week. They were raised by their dam, not on artificial milk.

Their mother is Buttercup, a Saanen/Nubian cross:





The udder shot is standard when looking at dairy goats, no matter how strange it feels to point one's camera phone at a goat's ass. Her udder is actually much more symmetrical than it seems from the picture, which is not straight-on.

and their father is George, a Saanen:

His horns are scurs. Rosie thought his pee-midden was a wonderful rolling opportunity. Another reason to forgo owning a buck, at least for the immediate future.

The kids were not handled a lot, and are quite convinced that I'll most likely eat them in the morning. But it's also unacceptable for me to leave them entirely alone. They are less afraid of a human standing on the other side of a stall door than they are of a human lying down on a chaise lounge.

They can easily jump a dutch door. They can also rebound off fencing at least 5' off the ground, in the manner of Xena, Warrior Princess running around the walls of a room, but without the aid of wires and stuntwomen. They do not require a run-up for any of this. Thus, my decision to soft-release them starting in the foster dog pen, with its 6' kennel panels, was prescient and nearly insufficient. And gave me time to go construct the necessary stall modifications.

Any blade of grass outside the dog kennel is far more delectable than the one growing a centimeter away from it inside the dog kennel from the same plant. I did not know this. Also, the sweet feed I got as a bribe is either poison, or OMG, it's that kind of candy that creeps use to get little kids like us into their vans.


They are not identical. Pink collar girl has longer hair, a prettier face, and has (I think) nicer dairy conformation. Purple collar girl is whiter and has a shorter face and stockier build, though she is two pounds lighter. (34 v. 32 pounds) Pink collar girl is the boldest, the most vocal, and appears to be dominant. Purple collar girl has a cut under one eye, apparently the result of her objecting to weaning last week by sieving herself out of a pen.

There was a wether who was also for sale, but he was rather small, as was his dam. Since one of the possible jobs for a wether would be as a pack goat, I think I'll hold out for a nice big guy who could carry a lot of gear.

I've got some ideas for names, but am open to suggestions.