New to Goats and Pack Goats

[Henrico451]

Hi... My family and I decided to get a little Nigerian Dwarf girl for a pet.  I've had dogs all my life, but I've never had a goat, so it was going to be something different.  Well... needless to say, we fell in love with her.  After getting her, I started doing a LOT of research on goats and found out about pack goats.  I've always done agility and obedience with my dogs, so I thought getting involved with my goat would be great too.  Of course, Genevieve, my dwarf, is too small to pack, so I decided to add a LaMancha and a Kiko to the mix.  My LaMancha is 11 weeks, and he is a bottle fed baby.  I've had him since he was 6 weeks.  My kiko was just weened.  He stayed with his mother, but we went over and played with him every weekend until he came home with us.

We have started leash training the babies, and we have also started trail training the babies.  We have only been going out for about an hour because of the heat and because the babies are so young.  I know there is so much I have to learn, so I decided to join this group and get all the ends and outs about pack goats.

[Nanno]

Welcome! Goats sure are a lot of fun and very smart! We've trained most of ours to do tricks and also work with them on dog agility obstacles. Where are you from? Any plans to attend the NAPgA Rendezvous this summer?

[Henrico451]

Welcome! Goats sure are a lot of fun and very smart! We've trained most of ours to do tricks and also work with them on dog ability obstacles. Where are you from? Any plans to attend the NAPgA Rendezvous this summer?

I live in Texas.  I won't make the Rendezvous this year.

[Sanhestar]

Welcome!

One thing to keep in mind as the goats will mature.

Pygmy goats are copper sensitive and can't have copper in their mineral feed whereas "normal" = big goats need copper.

[Nanno]

I live in Texas.  I won't make the Rendezvous this year.

Where in Texas? We just held a mini NAPgA Rendezvous at Davy Crockett NF in early April. Wish you could have been there!

[Henrico451]

I live in Texas.  I won't make the Rendezvous this year.

Where in Texas? We just held a mini NAPgA Rendezvous at Davy Crockett NF in early April. Wish you could have been there!

I'm in the Piney Woods of East Texas.  I live about 30 miles south of Texarkana, right on the Louisiana/ Arkansas border.  Was that the NF off of 21?  I wish I had known about it!!  I don't live that far away from there.

[Henrico451]

Here are some pictures of our little ones on a hike we went on Sunday.  They did so well!!  I have a white and silver LaMancha male named Gandalf, a white and tan Kiko male named Dumbledore, and a female Nigerian Dwarf named Genevieve.

   

   

   

   

[Nanno]

Aren't they just wonderful! Looks like you're having a lot of fun! I love their names. I wish you had known about the mini NAPgA Rendezvous back in April. Here's a write-up about it:
https://www.packgoatcentral.com/forums/s...p?tid=3633

Maybe we'll do another one sometime! The folks in Davy Crockett NF were very accommodating.

[Henrico451]

Welcome!

One thing to keep in mind as the goats will mature.

Pygmy goats are copper sensitive and can't have copper in their mineral feed whereas "normal" = big goats need copper.

Thank you for that info.   I didn't know that.   Do you know what people who have both types do to keep the little ones out of the copper?

[Nanno]

Pygmy goats and Nigerian Dwarfs aren't the same breed. I'm on another goat website where it seems like most of the people raise Nigies, and their Nigies need copper. I don't think you need to worry.