Chat
12-06-2020, 09:42 AM
We have two kikos in our string. If we had it to do over again, we would have chosen differently but not for personality reasons, mostly the physical traits of the breed.
One of our wiser members here had said they are not especially desirable for packing because they are bred to be meat goats and therefore bred to put on a lot of weight. That has turned out to be true of our white Frankie. He's got a belly on him that won't quit and would make long-distance endurance pretty hard on him. This is just on pasture and very little goat feed. We really expect to lose him before his time, his.weight gets that out of control.
The other, Butterscotch, has somehow managed to hold a somewhat athletic figure but he has developed.the classic kiko horns, like a Texas Longhorn bull, which would make traversing narrow mountain passes or narrow rocky crags difficult. For these reasons, I would not recommend kikos to serious packers planning on challenging hikes or hunting trips.
Having said that, their personalities for the job seems fine. They are both friendly and cooperative and carry their packs well, both still too young for a full pack however. Growing up, they did challenge us more.than any of our la manchas and nubians ever did. Both would playfully pin us to the gate when our backs were to them opening or closing the gate and they saw the opportunity. At that point, it was gentle squashes but we needed to nip it in the bud. We followed Mark Warnke's suggestion of throwing them on their keisters and holding them upside down for 10 minutes. We are both very short people. It was not easy but we did it. Frankie learned fairly quickly. Butterscotch with an ego as long as his horns took a lot longer and he was pretty big before he finally gave up the practice. We love their personalities now but because of weight issues and horn width, we wish we had it to do over again.
We will live and cope with our decision however. We're not big on replacing animals...we get too attached. And so far, inspite of wanting to be serious hikers, have not done any packing that is as challenging as many people here. As a result, so far the two kikos have served us for our needs so far.
Hope this helps.
One of our wiser members here had said they are not especially desirable for packing because they are bred to be meat goats and therefore bred to put on a lot of weight. That has turned out to be true of our white Frankie. He's got a belly on him that won't quit and would make long-distance endurance pretty hard on him. This is just on pasture and very little goat feed. We really expect to lose him before his time, his.weight gets that out of control.
The other, Butterscotch, has somehow managed to hold a somewhat athletic figure but he has developed.the classic kiko horns, like a Texas Longhorn bull, which would make traversing narrow mountain passes or narrow rocky crags difficult. For these reasons, I would not recommend kikos to serious packers planning on challenging hikes or hunting trips.
Having said that, their personalities for the job seems fine. They are both friendly and cooperative and carry their packs well, both still too young for a full pack however. Growing up, they did challenge us more.than any of our la manchas and nubians ever did. Both would playfully pin us to the gate when our backs were to them opening or closing the gate and they saw the opportunity. At that point, it was gentle squashes but we needed to nip it in the bud. We followed Mark Warnke's suggestion of throwing them on their keisters and holding them upside down for 10 minutes. We are both very short people. It was not easy but we did it. Frankie learned fairly quickly. Butterscotch with an ego as long as his horns took a lot longer and he was pretty big before he finally gave up the practice. We love their personalities now but because of weight issues and horn width, we wish we had it to do over again.
We will live and cope with our decision however. We're not big on replacing animals...we get too attached. And so far, inspite of wanting to be serious hikers, have not done any packing that is as challenging as many people here. As a result, so far the two kikos have served us for our needs so far.
Hope this helps.