Tell me good things about goats - Page 2

[PenelopeJune]

Aw, that is just darling! (the mama and baby goat, not the goat poop eating story! Haha!) I want, I want!

I was perusing Fiasco Farms website. I'm a little put-off by the disbudding procedure. It seems horrible. Do some breeds of dairy goats not have horns at all naturally? I'd really rather avoid that.

[Chicky2]

I do not know of any naturally hornless goats, only that hornless goats (polled, I think is the term) can sometimes occur naturally.  I'm not thrilled with the thought of disbudding, but I think it is necessary.  We have a very trusted lady to do it for us.  She's actually doing it the day she is coming out here to help us hive a wild colony of bees that took over our cabin floor.  It'll be quite a day! 

[forestrymom]

Disbudding is awful. We did our first 4 this year, and we had 2 successes and 2 misses. The misses were the boys, and I know we weren't aggressive enough. We followed the FiasCo Farms method and they are very kind and gentle, but they misled us to think we needed to be REALLY careful, and instead we should have been less careful, especially with the boys. Oh well, next year we will do better. Its hard, because they do cry, but it is necessary, IMO, because of my young kiddos.

[hildare]

we haven't actually disbudded... not afraid to rubberband their privates, but the debudding is awful, for sure...

we don't disbud the weathers, b/c we end up eating them before their horns grow backwards into their heads, though they are dangerous for the mama goat.  they can puncture bags and such. 

our billy had a bad disbudding, they grew back ( i think you're supposed to do it twice? ) but it's curled and blunt, so we're leaving it. 

[limette]

Our vet gasses them for disbudding. Polled goats can't reproduce.

[Chicky2]

Yeah, I'm definitely not looking forward to it, and told my dh he will be the one to hold their noses.  I would take them to the vet if I didn't trust this woman so much.  She's the one we bought our does from, and she is really into holistic goat care.

[Arduinna]

You really don't need to disbud unless you are showing registered goats, or selling to dairies or others that will be showing. We were, so we did, but this was years ago and if I got goats again I'm not sure I would. There is a learning curve in doing it correctly and we had a couple situations in the beginning where they we didn't get the whole area and later they grew in pieces of horn and we have to have the vet surgically remove them, which was horrible and totally disgusting when healing. Plus we lived in the boonies and our goats could have made good use of their horns for protection. We had 2 that were attacked and ended up with more damage than they would have if they had been better able to defend themselves. Their horns will not normally grow back into their heads as someone suggested.

[olaz-b]

We don't disbud our goat kids and in the many years of having goats, I have never had problems with the horned does, either them hurting us or themselves.  I actually prefer to have the horns, because I can use them as handles. I think most countries around the world do not disbud goat kids.  

The bucks are a different story, I don't trust them, but I still keep their horns.  A couple of years ago, when I was 5 months pregnant, our buck snuck up on me from behind and rammed me to the ground.  Everything was fine, except for a huge bruise on the back of my leg.  I've learned how I must always keep an eye on him and know where he is in relation to my position.  

I think disbudding is a personal decision, but in my opinion, not necessary.