I recently purchased a 2 year old alpine from a member of our community. We live at the base of Mount Hood. So much wonderful trail to wonder around on here! I was just looking for a grazer to help around the farm. I had never heard of pack goats. Once I had a conversation with him I was hooked. I've been reading all about them since. He is so sweet and handsome! I named him Emmitt after the best running back ever, Emmitt Smith. I am considering getting him a buddy. I read that goats are social animals and enjoy having another goat around. Then I read that alpines are kind of bullys to other goats. What are your thoughts? I love that pack goats are bottle fed to make them more people loving. Will the same work for llamas and sheep? Would Emmitt get along t
With other livestock? If I get another alpine or 2 would i need to keep the kids separated from Emmitt? Thanks for the help and i look forward to meeting more pack goat enthusiasts near by! Cheers!
Welcome! Emmitt is beautiful!!! He looks like a buck. Is he still intact? If he is, you should get him wethered (neutered) unless you have plans to breed him. Buck goats are a real handful and need females to keep them occupied.
Emmitt definitely needs a companion. Another goat of similar size is always best. Goats like to butt heads and they can't do that with any other species, so having another goat for him to play with will give him an appropriate outlet for his behavior so he doesn't become aggressive toward people and other animals. Alpines are more prone to bullying than other breeds, but that's not always the case. If you get Emmitt another goat around his size, they won't be quite so capable of bullying each other. If you get a couple of kids, you'll have to be careful. Some older goats are awesome mentors and will take little ones under their wings, but others are holy terrors to any goat smaller than themselves. Sometimes you just have to try it to find out.
When it comes to bottle feeding for friendliness, avoid llamas and be careful about sheep. They don't imprint on people the same way as goats do. I think ewes are ok, but rams are more likely than male goats to become aggressive toward people if bottle raised. I'm not sure about wether sheep. Llamas are not good candidates for bottle raising! It causes them to become very aggressive toward people when they reach maturity. There's even a name for it: Berserk Llama Syndrome. Llamas are best raised by other llamas and not handled excessively when young.
Good luck with Emmitt! I hope you guys have many awesome adventures together.
11-26-2019, 07:38 AM (This post was last modified: 11-26-2019, 07:40 AM by GorgeG.O.A.T..)
Thank you for the information! He is wethered. I will start my search for another alpine. He is huge so ill have to adopt another one I suppose. One more question. He stinks to high Hell. Is there any way to help with that?
He must have been very recently wethered! The stink is a buck thing that will fade in time now that he's neutered (but probably not until spring when he sheds his coat). Also, are you 100% sure he's wethered?
There's a very good chance that since he's more mature, he'd do great with a couple of younger goats. Goats that are raised with others their own age, or yearlings put with younger goats are usually the worst bullies. Since this guy is older and probably a little lonely for others of his kind, he's more likely to take to youngsters. The fact that he's been a buck for two years may also help with that. Bucks are often better herd leaders than wethers. The hormones must help their parenting instincts or something.
He was wethered 6 months ago. That's super interesting. I cant wait for next spring haha! Ill post an iso ad on here and get him some buddies soon. Thanks!
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