*This is only some of the most basic information on goat cares - It is important for you to do your own research and work with a veterinarian. There are also many books on dairy goat cares, websites and groups online. Customers of our goats are welcome to mentoring from us if you need.

#1 Tips/Advice:

Acquire the healtiest breeding stock that you can- (by looking for herds that do disease testing and that don't have other ruminant species on their farm).

Buy from herds that do disease testing. Although no blood test can give you a guarantee, it is one step in the right direction to having a healthy herd. Keep in mind that some diseases stay on your farm for years to come. Disease is the last thing you want to worry about when just starting out with goats.

Also, farms with other untested ruminants (like meat goats, sheep & cattle) could be more at risk for some diseases such as Johnes & CL. Some diseases can be spread from those animals to your dairy herd. Unfortunately those types of animals are untested and some have run through sale barns/auctions or have been penned with animals that had. When starting your herd (or adding to it) it is something to consider about where you are purchasing from to minimize your risk and keep your herd disease free. Some dairy herds are now keeping stricter biosecurity measures, this is great news.

*don't buy from sale barns/auctions

*buy from disease tested herds

*buy from farms with no other untested ruminats(no meat goats, no sheep, no cows)

*buy from herds that don't lease bucks, & don't board does for breeding

*show herds have very minimal risk as long as they follow the above measures as well

*buying young stock is recommended as well as they have had a shorter lifetime to have been exposed to more diseses risks

*I also recommend NOT using ground transporters as they haul MANY goats, and a variety of ruminants from all across the US. There are a few that run with individual stalls and disinfect between. Its very unfortunate but I have heard stories of disesases being picked up on transport. Safest is to pick up yourself or air ship.

#2 Tips/Advice:

Acquire goats from long time breeders that are willing to mentor you along the way. Knowledgeable help when its needed is invaluable.

(We have had goats nearly our whole lives and started this registered ND herd in 2011.)

#3 Tips/Advice:

Be prepared.

Read & research so that you are prepared for owning and raising goats. There are so many good Goat Books, Goat Websites and Online chat groups as well as Facebook goat groups that you can follow and learn from.

Veterinarians, Mentors, Goat Books, Goat Websites and the Goat Community online are all valuable resources - use them all!

#4 Tips/Advice:

Look up the goats in pedigree.

Look at the dam's udder picture. Important for both doe kids and buck kids but especially important when buying a new buck kid/new herdsire. Herdnames in the pedigree may not mean much if dam had a poor udder herself.

Look at the pedigree of sire and dam and research them online and the grandsires/granddams. Look for LA scores, Milk Stars & Show results. If these are not available look at photos and udders.

At minimal you want to see the udders behind a dairy goat (#1dam, sire's dam, dam's dam).

If you do not find any of this info I would then go by the dam's udder photo and body photo.  If a seller cannot provide pics of the dam herslef/her udder I would caution you.

About Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, Basic Cares & More-

They are the smallest recognized dairy goats.

Similar in size to a pygmy but Nigerian Dwarf have much greater milk production ability. Nigerians come in all colorings and patterns, pygmy do not. Dairy goat body type, larger udders and larger teats for milking.

Although a dairy breed, many just keep them as pets and for weed/brush control. Farm children enjoy learning animal husbandry by caring for these little livestock and some show them in 4H. Many adults are involved in showing them in dairy goat shows too.

Life span typically 10-14years

Height typically 17-23 inches

Weight typically 50-75lbs(some bucks can be more)

Herd animals – they do best with at least one or more companions.

Females are does.

Males are bucks.

Casterated males are wethers.

Babies are kids. (Kids are 'Out of' dam, 'By' sire)

Breeding - bucks can breed as early as 6-8wks old so do not house them with young does or their own mothers too long. Dont breed young does till they are at least 40lbs in size (this is usually between 8-12mths old). Just make sure they are 40lbs or you could have kidding issues. Some do leash breeding so they know exact dates (especially handy for cooler weather kidding). Some run 1 buck in each doe pen but you will not know exact due dates. Dont breed too early in the fall or risk cold weather births & deaths.

Pregnancy/Gestation is approx. 145days (145-150 is most common). Does heat cycle is approx. every 17-21 days & is more regular starting late summer, with fall & winter being their main breeding time. (Bucks will be in rut at the same time.) Pregnancy can be determined by ultrasound or blood test, you can learn to draw blood. Kids can be felt on the Right side (think Right Rugrats, Left Lunch-rumen is on the left). We have a video on the video tab/Facebook - it is a very short 45sec video on how easy drawing blood can be (draw blood for pregnancy tests and disease testing).

Birthing/Birth Kit basics- paper towels, nose aspirator, iodine for dipping umbilicals, lubricant, gloves, dental floss/umbilical clamps, snares/pullers, soap&water/hand sanitizer, vets# in your cell phone. Be prepared for bottle feeding in case, tube feeding syringe, bottles, nipples. Births can be any time of day. Cold weather kiddings need monitored or kids will freeze to death or ears/feet frost bit off. I suggest spring births when it will likely be warmer April/May. Learn to find and feel the does ligaments, then you will know what day the doe will kid. We start feeling ligaments 3x day 2wks from due date.

Housing –shelter/shed/barn must be rain and snow proof (goats hate wetness just like cats do, and it could make them sick or die). They can handle summer heat if provided shade and can handle cold winters in a snow proof building/shelter.

Does and wethers can be housed together. (Bucks are typically housed with other bucks, separate from the does.)

Fencing – can be a smaller dry lot or larger pasture -most fencing works ,from panels to woven wire field fencing (keeps them safe from predators and roaming dogs, they will kill them horns or not). For housing and fencing keep in mind they are about the size of a lab dog.

LGD's - Livestock Guardian Dogs - worth their weight in gold! They will protect your farm and animals. Start with a pup and grow them up with your farm animals. We have had a great pyrennes mix and anatolian shepard and prefer the anatolian because they do not have a long coat to maintain. Anatolians grow and dense coat for winter comfort.

Feeding – 1-2x day, pasture or free access to hay(alfalfa or grass hay) roughly 4lbs hay daily per goat adjust by your goats' intake/waste - we prefer to feed hay 2xdaily rather than free choice, grain/pelleted feed can be added in addition but is optional. Alfalfa and grain/pelleted feed helps with milk production. Bucks and wethers do Not need grain/pelleted feed – not feeding this helps prevent urinary stones that cause painful death. Goats also like alfalfa pellets. Goats on pasture are browsers, meaning they eat a variety of plants in the pasture but prefer weeds and tree leaves over grass (they quickly clear weedy areas). Some people include ammonium chloride in buck feed to help with stones.

Mineral - choose a loose goat mineral or cattle mineral WITH COPPER, offer free choice (Not sheep mineral, sheep mineral lacks copper which goats need but kills sheep). They do not need a white salt block it could deter them from eating their mineral. A really good goat mineral we have found is Vitaferm/Duraferm Goat Concept Aid. 

Water – must be fresh and clean (goats are picky about anything floating in their water)Goats are ruminants - they have a special stomach called a rumen on the left (remember as Left Lunch -rumen movement, Right Rugrats-babies can be felt on the right).

Health/illness– your vet is your #1 support, there are also many informational books and groups online. Consider asking the breeder you purchased from to be your mentor. Some goat illness to research: fever, pneumonia, infection, cough/colds, diarrhea/scours,pinkeye, soremouth/orf, bloat, enterotoxemia, polio, listerosis, coccidiosis. Grinding teeth can mean pain. (There are others of course, but these are more common than some of the others)

Disease- Some diseases people blood test for,most commonly: CL, CAE, Johnes, brucellosis.

Temperature is normally 101.5-104.5. Own a thermometer – illness can often be visably seen by the goat ‘acting off’, tail tucked or body hunched. A temperature can mean infection or pneumonia requiring medication(vet care). Contact your vet immediatly for fever.

Issues for does can include mastitis, pregnancy toxemia/ketosis, cyctic ovaries- to name a few.

Issues for bucks can include UC Urinary Calculi (urinary stones). The stones block and lead to a painful death, see vet immediately. Limit chances of UC by NOT feeding any goat feed, all stock or any other grain type food. Also clean drinking water will promote drinking, in the winter warm water will encourage drinking to help prevent stones.

Calcium Phosphorus ratio 2:1 some say up to 4:1. It is about ration of their food sources. Grain/pelleted feed can contribute to this ratio being off causing stones. Some add Ammonium Chloride to wethers/bucks feed. Or better yet dont feed grain/pellets or only in small quantiites like 1cup per day. We feed all alfalfa and have never had a case of UC. We know of others who fed too much feed and did get UC.

Wattles - they are kinda like furry skin tags on the neck, they do nothing. Some call them goat jewelry, they are unique to some goats.  Occasionally a kid is born with a wattle cyst, your vet can fix it easily by swabbing in it with a silver nitrate stick. (We do it ourselves now, easy and a permanent fix with no surgery needed.)

Milking- some milk twice daily approx 12 hrs apart, others milk once a day at the same time each day. 2-5lbs day milk production. 1-1.5quarts a day is good production, some produce less & some more. Dry off does gradually lessening how often and how much you milk out. Milk stand training- dont give up, keep your hand on the udder(like massaging it) when they are acting up so they see they cant get you to stop that way, when they calm down then stop massaging and try milking again. We shave some of the hair in back prior to kidding (messy), and we keep udders shaved to get less hair in the milk.

GOAT LABOR SIGNS-

From a past Facebook post of ours:

Some signs your doe is in labor...will kid today...soonish...maybe.
*None, one, or all may be noticed in the last 1-24hours before kidding. Not in any particular order & not limited to these:  ;)
-very soft mushy hollow near & around tail
-ligaments GONE (#1)
-pin bones can be felt more distinctly
-sunken sides/belly change
-nesting
-standoffish
-udder noticeably filled overnight or hours
-strutted shiny udder
-teats bigger all the sudden
-slow wobbly/loose in rear when walking
-running others away, territorial
-digging and digging and digging
-up down, up down, up down
-restlessness
-uncomfortable when tries to lay
-starring at the wall or head on wall
-heavy loud breathing
-grunts/moans
-tail flutters (like a hippo without the pooh)
-pissy ears/ears back
-stretching body out
-yawning
- head tossing, rolls head to back
-back legs sprawled out when laying
-looks at her side/belly
-vocal, soft talking to belly
-hollering a lot for no apparent reason
-licking own hair on body,leg
-licking teats or self nursing
-licks your hands, your clothes
-licking anything, like the walls (seems to be one of the last signs we see many times, its like their tongue prepares to work overtime for getting those babies clean)
-not eating/drinking but then eats/drinks
-discharge, mainly long white goo strand
-needy behavior, wants you to touch her
-hollering unless your in sight
-resting with head on her belly
-crooked shepards hook tail
-puffy vulva area, soft, stretchy skin there
-sunken/concave vulva area, vulva long slit
-vulva open when laying
-sniffing around on ground where laid

Worming – only as needed determined by fecal test or compare eyelid coloring to the FAMACHA chart. Do not over use wormers or the parasites will build resistance and no wormer will help you.

Lice or Mites can affect goats. Other skin/hair issues can be fungal, bacterial or deficiency.

Hoof trimming is easy and done as needed (monthly to every 2-3 months). Our favorite trimmers are ARS red handle and Silverline.

Medical Kit basics to have on hand- thermometer, blood stop powder, wound spray, bloat release, Toltrazuril(or Dimthox), CD Antitoxin for dealing with Enterotoxemia(not to be confused with CDT that is different, CDT toxoid is the annual shot), Tetnus Antitoxin, 18 & 20gauge needles, 3cc&6cc sysringes, antibiotics(*Penicillin G & *Biomycin(or LA200) are two that are easy to find ones to have both on hand), wormer(Ivomec is easy to find). (We have much more in our kit but we are raising babies and keep a large herd so it helps lessen the vet trips to our farm).

Babies - If & when you plan to breed your goats be prepared for birthing, disbudding, banding/castration & tattooing. I highly recommend learning at least the disbudding from a mentor.

Bottle Feeding - if at all possible feed fresh goat milk, goat milk they thrive on! Formula they dont do so well on. If no fresh goats milk available better than formula is plain straight Vitamin D whole cows milk from the grocery store.

Bottle Schedule: 1-2days old offer colostrum 4-6x day,   3days-3wks old give 3x day bottles,    4wks-7wks give 2x day bottles,   8-12wks old give 1x day bottle.

Banding - a method of 'nuetering' males so to speak. It is said to put this off as long as you can to allow growth of urinary before banding (to help prevent Urinary Calculi/stones). Males can be fertile at 6-8wks old so some band them at that age.  (We pull boys at 8wks old or sooner if we see them extending of they can breed mothers or young does.) We use a regular bander and the green bands. Kid may act uncomfortable like they are stretching, may bleat out loud but is fine in 15-45min. (They actually have more issues waking from surgical casteration and are sore for days, so banding is overall less on the kid.) Typically they have no issues and fall off in 3-5wks. You should watch kid/check daily for infection.

Polled - means naturally hornless, did not need to be disbudded. We recommend avoiding polled to polled breedings, it can result in hermaphrodites. Some breeders including ourselves have experienced getting a hermaphrodite from a polled to polled breeding (ours happened the one and only time we did a polled to polled breeding). Breeding polled to polled does not guarantee all polled babies, you will still get horned babies too.



 HORNS/DISBUDDING-

Photo of buck horn base and why we do the figure 8 method on all males. Males horn base extends forward and requires 2 overlapping circles to avoid future scurs. Females only get a single circle on each bud.

Disbudding- A holding box is amazing(Caprine Supply). Rhinehart X30 with 1/2 tip(NOT the small pygmy tip, or you will get scurs). We also own a butane gas Portasol with the 18mm tip, and love it. We heat our x30 for approx 7-10min and test it on a piece of wood. We burn each bud 5-6 seconds, we go just past the copper color and we prefer to pop the cap off to ensure we fully detached the blood supply in the skin to the bud area. For bucklings we do the figure 8 method to prevent large scurs. We spray with Blukote or Aluishield. (Some day we hope to get the disbudder called EXPRESS, it is another gas disbudder that sounds superior.) We isbud males at 4-7days old, females at 4-10days old.

We have had people come to us when their attempts at disbudding fail. The common problem was that they just didn't do it adequatly, they didnt burn far enough down --we go just past copper, to white - this ensures all the tissue is disconnected so there is no blood supplied to bud area.

A doe on a rare occasion will not recognize the kid over the new smell from disbudding. If she pushes them away, put them in the kidding pen and her outside it starring in at them. She will smell them through the wire and get use to it.

***NEVER USE DISBUDDING PASTE ON THESE TINY GOATS! IT IS A HUGE NO NO IN THE WORLD OF DAIRY GOATS. It is said to take over 30min+ of caustic burning pain. Their skin and skulls are too thin. They have to be full body restrained for 30min+ to keep from itching the paste and rubbing the acid everywhere including on their mamas udder or from getting in their own eyes and going blind! Just plain cruel & irresponsible to use especially when disbudding with an iron is a much faster alternative, with no prolonged pain. An iron is far superior and only lasts mere seconds for a lifetime of benefits.

Horns - many people who start out with horned goats regret it and opt to switch to a disbudded herd. Horns will NOT protect them from a dog/predator attack. Proper fencing and a Livestock Guardian Dog are the BSET protection for them.

Removing horns later in life can be dangerous. Surgical it opens up the nasal cavity, and banding them off takes 2-6wks.

Scurs - are small bits of horn growing even after being disbudded, some intact bucks have large scurs. Small scurs are common. Large scurs only need trimmed if curling into head. Large scurs can be cut 1/2-1inch at a cutting (dont cut too much or bleeding occurs). OB wire saw is needed to trim scurs.

Tattooing- We use & LOVE Stone brand .300 WITHOUT ear release. (We had Bass 5/16 with ear release and hate it, because it doesnt clamp thin baby ND ears deep enough.) We have 2 tongs, one for our herd code and one for the year code. We test EVERYTIME on paper before clamping their ear. Herd code in right ear. Year code in left ear. Clean ears with alchol, give Tetnus Antitoxin shot.We use Stone brand dish ink and like it better than the green Ketchum tube (roll on is no good). We rub ink in with gloved fingers and then add more and rub in with a toothbrush.

 From a past Facebook post of ours:

For newbies looking for tattooing info :)
OUR TATTOO KIT:
-2 Stone300 tongs, 4digit size(we prefer withOUT ear release)
-#300 size digits
-Stone green ink (we prefer in dish rather than the roll-on or tube)
-tetnus antitoxin
-3cc syringes, 20g needles
-disposable gloves
-alcohol
-papertowels
-each kid has a post it note with their # to test the tattoo on first
HOW WE TATTOO:
Wipe ears clean with alcohol. Give 1cc SQ tetnus antitoxin shot. Wipe a dab of ink in center of the inside Right ear, line up herd code in center of ear and clamp firm then immediatly release, rub the ink into holes, add tiny dab more ink to tip of toothbrush and lightly scrub in with the toothbrush. Switch tong/digits to that kids individual tattoo# and tattoo the Left ear.
Some do tattoos when they disbud, we like to do ours between 4-8wks old.
Other people have other methods, use ear release, 5/16, tube ink, rub in baking soda, ETC...but this works great for lasting tattoos here ;)
(We have had two 5/16 with ear release and did not feel they tattooed deep enough for us on the thin young ND ears, the springs on the tongs only let us squeeze closed so far. We noticed some pins were not going in as far as others.)

 Vaccines are optional – many do CD/T(Toxoid)annually.

There is always confusion on these 4 - make sure you are giving the CORRECT one:

*CDT Toxoid- vaccine, 2 shots 3-4wks apart, then 1 yearly booster (& 1 mth before kidding).

*CD Antitoxin - given when Enterotoxemia is suspected to save their life!

*Tetanus Toxoid - (vaccine, not needed if CDT Toxoid is done yearly because it includes Tetanus)

*Tetanus Antitoxin - this is for when animal not up to date on CDT Toxoid, and is added insurance when animal has on open wound. Also, it given at the time of disbudding, banding and tattooing because babies are not fully vaccinated with the CDT Toxoid yet (the tetanus antitoxin covers them for about 7days).

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