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 With our first kidding season coming up, I’ve been accumulating notes on what supplies to have on hand and how to use them. The first half of the list below is everything that I could find that might be necessary to support a normal kidding, while second half identifies supplies that may be necessary if [...] Continue reading Kidding Season Supplies  When we first got the Nigerian Dwarf goats, I asked if there were any books that would be good to have on hand for reference. The two that our friends from Wild Wind Farm recommended are definitely worthwhile as they’re specific to the Nigerian Dwarf breed. I’ve since attended classes on goat care etc., but having [...] Continue reading Recommended Reading for Nigerian Dwarf Goat Owners I’m reasonably sure now that all three Dwarf Nigerian does are “in a family way”, but we carefully considered their maturity and pregnancy needs before taking this step. Basically, there are three stages of care to consider: 1) breeding, 2) early gestation, and 3) late gestation. At each of these stages there is a preferred [...] Continue reading Basic Goat Pregnancy Care  I’ve written about trimming the goats’ hooves before, but we’ve learned a bit more since then so I thought I’d share. It’s always important to keep their hooves trimmed, but particularly in wet and cold weather hoof care is important. In addition to improper alignment; when it’s wet, poorly trimmed hooves can cause them to [...] Continue reading Goat Hoof Trimming  Copper deficiency in goats has been a documented problem in many regions (North America, Australia, Europe, etc.) and is generally caused when livestock graze on pastures or are fed diets deficient in copper. In the United States, copper deficiency has been documented as a problem in Nigerian Dwarf, Boer, and Pygmy goats grazing on pasture in the [...] Continue reading Copper Bolusing Goats to Prevent Copper Deficiencies  Ultimately, the reason most folks have dairy goats is because they want the milk; and for this the does need to be bred and have Continue reading Goat Kids – Preparing for Breeding  Worldwide, goat milk is the most highly consumed form of milk and, amidst the varying dairy goat types; Nigerian Dwarf goat milk is increasingly popular. But why is goat milk and Nigerian Dwarf goat milk in particular so popular? Better For You Goat milk is easier for human’s to digest than cow’s milk. It’s naturally homogenized, with [...] Continue reading What’s so Great about Dwarf Nigerian Goat Milk Anyway?  Tinker Bell Eating Pea Vines Each time I work in the garden and consider bringing back some garden trimmings for the goats and chickens; I have to stop and look through my reference books – to determine whether that particular plant is safe for them to eat. So, I decided to make a list of [...] Continue reading Garden Greens for Goats & Chickens  Abscess Before Testing – Right Shoulder One of our Nigerian Dwarf goats, Honey, recently developed an abscess on her shoulder, causing us to worry that it might be CL. Although she’d tested negative for CL prior to coming to Bramblestone; and the herd she came from tested negative, we were afraid that she’d somehow contracted [...] Continue reading Caseous Lymphadentitis (CL) in Goats  There are three types of injections that goats in our area need annually; tetanus toxoid, BoSe, and a vaccination for enterotoxemia. Since Tinker Bell and Honey are now over a year old, it’s time to give them these yearly shots; and I thought that’d be relatively simple. But, it wasn’t quite that easy – here’s [...] Continue reading Annual CD/T & BoSe Injections for Goats  I finally got around to creating a form (see example below) for keeping health records for the goats; and it can be downloaded here if anyone’s interested in modifying it for your own use (it’s in Microsoft Office Word). Fortunately, Honey, Tinker Bell, and Jewel have all been healthy and I haven’t really needed to track much [...] Continue reading Goat Health Record Form (downloadable)  When we brought the goats home, I assembled the basics needed for goat keeping (see Goat Starter List), including a goat weight tape. The instructions said to measure around the girth to determine goat weight, and then adjust diet as necessary. This didn’t work in practice at all; weight tapes are for full size goats – not Nigerian Dwarfs. So I don’t know their weight, and even if I did – what [...] Continue reading Body Condition Scoring for Goats  I’ve been trying to decode Bit ‘O’ Honey and Tinker Bell’s pedigrees for several weeks now; it turns out a goat pedigree can be complex. I think I’ve finally succeeded so here’s the link to Bit ‘O’ Honey and Tinker Bell‘s pedigrees. Actually explaining them is hard; but here goes. In their pedigrees, the sires are listed on the top and the dams on the [...] Continue reading Understanding Goat Pedigrees  Most people express disbelief (or worse) when they find out we have Nigerian Dwarf (ND) goats. Apparently, “normal” folks don’t have goats in their backyards. So, why would we? Well, it turns out that ND goat ownership is growing faster than any other dairy breed in the US, for the following very good reasons: Milk Nigerian Dwarf [...] Continue reading Why Nigerian Dwarf Goats?  It’s hard to believe, but we’ve had the goats here with us for a month already (see The Goats Are Here). They seem to be doing just fine, and we love having them. It’s hilarious watching them run and play outside, they bounce and contort themselves in the funniest ways. As we were preparing to get [...] Continue reading Goat Starter List |
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