Goat watching

We like to watch the goats out in the fields – but they seem to spend just as much time watching us!  Goats are herd animals and they like to be with their human friends.This is Kosset in the foreground with her pal, Biscuit, close behind.   Both these goats are permanent residents and have been in the sanctuary for a long time.   We believe both of them to be in-kid so watch out for the patter of tiny hooves in due course.   The goat’s pregnancy lasts five months, so maybe around Christmas time???   The last time Kosset gave birth, she had four evenly sized kits – three females and a male.   She is a loving mother but even so it was too many for her to rear, goats have only two teats, unlike cows, who have four.   So we took over and reared two of her babies on the bottle for her.   The kids reared naturally grew bigger as she had a lot of milk, but they are rarely tame when running with mum.   They just don’t get the handling that the bottle fed kids enjoy.    The two kids we reared had four bottles of milk a day to begin with, gradually tapering down to two bottles as they grew up.   Bottle fed kids become ‘imprinted’ on their human nurses and are very tame – they follow you about saying ‘is it feed time yet?’. Kids that have been hand reared will stay tame all their lives.

Most of our sanctuary goats are Anglo Nubians with floppy ears, a roman nose and a variety of colours.    These goats are not native to England but came over on early ships from the Middle East.   Travellers wanted fresh milk on the journey so it made sense to bring a few goats to ensure supplies.    These ‘Nubian’ goats were very popular, their milk is rich and creamy and goats milk is healthy and easier to digest than cows milk.   They are also large and friendly goats, not so inclined to climb as the swiss breeds, so they are easier to keep in.   There are exceptions to every rule though!    There are not many pure bred Anglo Nubians left in the U.K. and they are on the brink of gaining ‘rare breed’ status.

If you would like to ‘adopt’ one of our goats please get in touch.   You’ll receive a photo of ‘your’ goat, the story of her life in the sanctuary, an adoption certificate and regular updates.   Most of our goats are now in-kid so it will be exciting when they start to kid-down.   Adoption costs £15.00 per year and we’ll be having Open Days when you can come and meet the herd.    We urgently need donations for the upkeep of the goats and for our campaign against ritual slaughter (which is still legal in the U.K.) – even a small amount makes a difference – please help if you can.  [donate]