Goats For SALE! 10 Things You MUST Know Before Buying Goats
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Goats For SALE! 10 Things You Must Know Before Buying Goats
Owning goats (or any livestock) is a HUGE commitment. Animal husbandry is not something that should be taken lightly or something that one should jump into. Say goodbye to vacations, sleeping in, nights on the town, fancy shoes and manicured lawns.
However, if you want to add goats to your homestead, I encourage you to do so!
We love our goats! Love, love, love our goats.
#10 Milk, Meat or Both
One of the decisions you need to make before looking at goats for sale is do you want Milk? Meat? Or Both?
We own Nigerian Dwarf Goats due to our limited space. NGD’s are the smallest recognized dairy goat breeds and perfect for small homesteads.
While they are ideal for those with limited land, they are not heavy milkers. If you want goats for milk, I suggest looking into one of the other dairy breeds.
Milk Goats For Sale:
- Nigerian Dwarf (read my Top 9 Reasons Why You DON’T Want Nigerian Dwarf Goats Here)
- Alpine
- Nubain
- Lamancha
- Oberhasli
- Saanen
- Toggenburg
For more information on dairy goats and their milk production click here. Please note, they have not updated their research to include the Nigerian Dwarf.
Meat Goats For Sale:
- Boer
- Kiko
- Myotonic (fainting goat)
- Pygmy
- Savanna
- Spanish
- Nubian
For more information on meat goats, click here.
In addition to milk and meat goats, there are some breeds that people claim are good dual purpose goats.
However, if you plan on raising goats for profit, it’s best to stick to a specific purpose breed.
# 9 Goat Babies
This little tidbit of info may be a no-brainer to some of you, but for some, this may come as earth-shattering news.
If you want goat milk you need to have goat babies. GASP!
A goat in milk will only produce a good amount of milk for a little less than a year. Then you need to dry her up, let her body rest, breed her, wean the baby, then you can have her milk again.
Breeding your doe’s can generate income by selling the kids, or you can your herd grow and raise them for meat goats.
You need to keep the breeding cycle going if you want to stay in milk so picture goat babies in your future.
#8 To Disbud or Not to Disbud That Is The Question
Goats have horns. You can buy a goat with horns or without horns but they are all born with horns.
Goat owners tend to feel very passionate about this subject and to be honest, I am on the fence.
If you plan to show your goat or enter 4-H contest, you need to have your goat disbudded.
Disbudding should take place when they are a kid and not an adult.
If you don’t care about showing your goats, another thing to consider is goats tend to get their horns stuck in the fence- a lot.
This can cause injury and even death. So if you decide to let your goat keep their horns, make sure your fencing is adequate.
Disbudding
When we got our buck, the breeder messed up disbudding the first go around so she did it again. When she was finished, outside of the horrid smell, his little eyes were bulging out! She claimed ‘oh he will be okay’ but I was highly concerned for his well-being.
When you disbud a goat, the hot iron burns down to the skull. We could literally see his raw skull for weeks.
Now I am not a vet, nor a scientist, but I do know what heat can do to brain cells.
Personally, I am not a fan of disbudding. However, if we were to show goats in the future I would do it.
#7 Poisoning Your New Goat
Just because your goat can eat everything, doesn’t mean they should. And when I say they will eat everything- trust me.
Make sure you check your land for any of these toxic plants or trees, prior to buying a goat for sale.
To see a list of toxic plants click here.
#6 Registered or Unregistered?
Ahhhhhh…… the ever debatable topic of registered or unregistered.
Registered Goats For Sale
A registered goat is sold with paperwork to register it with a registry (what registry will depend on what registry the parents were registered with, or if they are being registered as grade goats, etc). With a registered goat you can trace the ancestry and get an idea about their background from the breeders and what you might be dealing with as far as health and confirmation issues.
Unregistered Goats For Sale
An unregistered goat is simply that, it is sold with no paperwork and typically sold with no history of parents, etc.
Most of the time, there is a major price difference between registered and unregistered animals.
Another thing to consider, a lot of bucks are sold as unregistered and are usually wethered. In that case, you may have parent history, etc, but the breeder is choosing to sell a goat without papers. That is the seller’s prerogative.
Why I Buy Only Buy Registered Goats
This is MY personal preference so don’t go all spider monkey on me.
I want to have registered goats so I can track their lineage, sell my goats at a higher price and show in a contest or 4-H programs.
If you decided not to do anything with their registration, no big deal. But if you want to show your goats down the road, you can never register a goat that didn’t come with papers.
In addition, if you do choose to buy a registered goat- learn from my many mistakes by reading this article. Maybe it can help you avoid the headache and heartache I went through.
#5 Doe, Buck and Wether
Doe’s- Female Goats
Buck’s- Male Goats
Wether’s- Neutered Bucks
If you want to stay in milk you will need a buck. However, you should never keep bucks and does in the same paddock unless you want your doe bred.
Wethers are good company for both does and bucks.
#4 If It Sounds Too Good To Be True
Never be afraid to walk away from a bad deal.
This little piece of advice is the best I have ever received. I am one of those people who get quickly attached to animals- all animals.
Because of this, I often make bad decisions when it comes to livestock. I feel like it is my job to save the world when it comes to our four-legged friends.
But if you were offered a free goat or someone is has a goat for sale for a crazy low price, there is generally a good reason for that.
For more on this topic, read #2
#3 One Is A Lonely Number
Goats are herd animals, meaning they need other goat companions. This is very important. Even if you have other livestock where your new goats will live, they need other goats. Not horses, not chickens, not pigs, but goats.
They will get along with any animal, but they need other goat companions. So if you were planning on just one, either find another livestock for your homestead or get two goats.
Call me crazy, but when we got our buck we had him in the house. He was too tiny to put in the yard with our doe’s and our daughters fell in love.
For a while I even had him potty trained! (Yes I did!).
Alas, our little house goat longed for his four-legged future wives so outside he went.
Pairing Goats Together
When placing goats together in a paddock, the combos can work like this
- Doe’s together
- Buck’s together
- Wether’s together
- Does and Wether’s
- Bucks and Wether’s
- NO: Bucks and Does together (for more information on this read #1 on this article).
#2 Goat Vet and Health
If you are going to buy a goat for sale, the first (OK second) thing you should do is find a vet that specializes in goats. Taking your goat to the same vet that treats your cat is not a good idea, unless that vet is trained and familiar with ruminants.
If you are serious about buying a goat that is for sale, then ask the vet to do a wellness check and do blood work to check for disease.
And never be afraid to walk away from a bad deal.
If the goat is sick- walk. It’s not worth the money and potential heartache.
The vet check will cost you some money, but that is nothing compared to the cost of treating a sick herd.
There are even cases where people have bought sick goats (unbeknownst to them) that contaminated their soil and worse yet, the disease spread to their other animals.
And the number one thing you MUST know before buying goats is…………..
#1 Goats and The Law
Breaking the law breaking the law- now is that song stuck in your head?
While you may be a rebel at heart like me, I would highly advise against breaking the law when it comes to livestock.
Yes, it is your and land and Yes you should be free to use it how you see fit. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Buying goats for sale and bringing them to your homestead when it’s against the law is not only stressful for you but the goat as well.
Moving and transitioning to a new environment adds stress to a goat or any livestock for that matter. Not to mention your family members will become attached. If you add goats to a homestead where goats are not allowed, you can find yourself in a legal battle and possibly jail.
Ask me how I know? I could share with you all of my struggles with our county and our fight for our livestock but I will save that story another time.
If you can’t wait to know the details, here is an article about fighting for our chickens.
Naming Your New Goats
Everyone knows after the ever-so-famous gateway livestock, the chicken, that you need to add goats. It’s only natural to have a milk source after you have an egg source and what better milk source than to start with baby goats? As a new goat-owner, you’re going to need the best baby goat names. I’m fully confident you’ll LOVE our suggestions! Check out our favorite names here.
Do you have any tips to offer new goat owners?
Great advice! One of our biggest issues when selling our goats is getting people to understand that goats are herd animals. They can’t be alone or they will get into trouble.
Exactly. All the social media attention makes people think they would make a good house pet. I had a neighbor who thought that, you could hear that poor goat bleating from 1/2 mile away!
We have had Nigerian dwarfs, pygmies, and a few crosses for a long time now…years. The above warnings are warranted for sure, but for people who know what they are doing, most of the problems cited will not happen. We have does and wethers together, and they are not problem.. Keeping any goats requires diligence. Feet need to be trimmed regularly, and butts need to be viewed very regularly, as are tails. A tail down for any length of time indicates a problem of some sort. Weight loss is an indicator of a problem. A dirty butt is definitely a problem…almost always worms, which are easy and quick to get rid of with one oral dose of the appropriate amount of Ivermectin 1%. They absolutely need companionship with other goats. They absolutely need space…lots of space. We have 22 goats. They have a nice barn with two loafing sheds attached, one a vented, shaded area. They have a half acre playground with picnic tables, barrels, teeter totters, and mountains made from cinder blocks to climb and play on. They have 4 acres of good pasture on which to graze, with blackberry groves for snacks. They also have about a 30 cu. yd. dirt pile on which they play king of the mountain. If we want them to come in from the back of the field , all we have to do is rattle a grain bucket and the race is on. Grain should be given very sparingly….very, very sparingly. To much grain causes a fatal disorder called urinary calculi (sp), a very horrible way for anything to have to die. This is also caused by feeding them alfalfa. Although they love it, alfalfa should never be fed to goats. A great snack, that is good for them and cheap is Costco’s tostitos. You get big bags for about 4 bucks, and they are salty and make the goats drink extra water, which is always a good thing, but it especially helps avoid UC. They also love a lot of things we do: watermelon, fresh peas, beans, cantalope lettuce, etc. If you go into your goat pen with an arm load of snacks, be prepared to be mobbed, and watch for the flying feet as they try to climb your legs to get at whatever you have. (Especially you guys. Those flying feet can hit you where you do not want to be hit!!!) As warned, good, tall fences are a must. Goats will find any way out, and they are like rats and mice, they will fit through holes you never would have thought they would fit through. And, since they like to scratch themselves by leaning into fence wire and walking along, damage to fencing is inevitable, so goat people need to inspect fences regularly. We were 100 miles from home once, and we got a call from our sainted neighbors that all 22 were out and about. He rounded them up and brought them home, and closed the very small passage from which they all exited. Nigerian dwarfs are great animals. Very easy keepers if you become educated before you get into them. We have bought some, rescued some, and raised a few of our own. We do not breed, milk, or sell any of our goats. Once they come here, they are here to stay. We have 11 does, 11 wethers, no bucks because we do not want a string of continuous pregnancies. Half of our goats are very tame…a nuisance tame if we want to work in their area…the other half are the rescues and will come to us for treats, but do not want to be handled. But they are very happy one and all!!!
There are polled goat breeds available. Myotonic is one of those breeds. Hardy, not fence jumper, and easy kidder, they are a great goat breed to raise.
[…] Before you buy your first baby goat(s), there are several things you need to consider. We have a great article to get you started, Goats For Sale. […]
thank you for all these tips. did my research before buying my two little does. drove all the way home from New Mexico (to California) because it was too hot to fly them. Only had them for a couple of days now. both a shy (one is getting pretty used to us). we put some chairs in their pen and we sit out there a couple of times during the day so they can get to know us. we close them up in a barn at night (we have coyotes out here)
one question: thinking of getting a dog. would an puppy be a good thing to raise with these girls? is an Aussie a good or bad choice?