Naptown Nigerians Mini-Nubian Goats

Time 2021-01-14 06:03:20

Web Name: Naptown Nigerians Mini-Nubian Goats

WebSite: http://www.indygoats.webs.com

ID:166572

Keywords:

Nigerians,Naptown,Mini,

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Welcome to Naptown Nigerians Naptown Minis: We are a CAE/CL/ Johnes Disease-Tested Negative Herd!We are your resource for show quality pet Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats. Wether you need a few wethers to clear brush, show, or hike with or family dairy goats, we will help get your city homestead started. When you buy or reserve a goat from us, you're not just getting our goat , you're going to get a lot of support with all aspects of goat ownership. We love having pet goats and we think you will too!Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats are NOT pigmy goats.See, Pigmys are a dual purpose goat not bred to have a sleek dairy conformation, hence their cobbly legs and rounded bodies. Nigerians are leaner, longer and provide more milk that is very sweet and rich. With a pair of milking does, we are able to make several pounds of cheese and rich, sweet yogurt every week. I could tell you all about the breeds origin, height (which by our book is "knee high or less"), weight and etc., but why reinvent the wheel! Check out the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association's Web site for breed information (http://www.ndga.org/)and our EXTENSIVE resources page for all our favorite linksto everything goat.MILK - Nigerians are a dairy goat, but that doesn't mean you just start milking them. You have to BREED the goat, who then has to "kid" (have babies), in order to lactate, or produce milk. A "First Freshener" is a goat who has had babies for the first time. The first time your goat kids, she will not produce as much milk as she will the next time. In other words, capacity increases with each breeding up to a point. We have found that keeping at least two does makes sense. This way, we can breed both the first year and get enough milk. Later on we can rotate their breedings if we need less milk as each doe produces more. Our two does as first fresheners give us over a quart of milk a day and feed their kids too! This lets us make cheese every week. When the kids are weaned, we will have plenty to drink too. Don't want to milk? Don't breed your doe or buy a wether (a "fixed" male goat).A pair of wethers make GREAT pets. If you aren't sure, then you can buy does and decide later if you want to breed them. Just know that if they aren't bred for several years, getting them to cycle regularly can take some work. In 2015 our herd is on milk test to be able to determine (and certify) not only how much they are milking, but the quality of the milk as far as butterfat and protein and to be able to make more informed breeding decisions as we freshen our does each year.DIET-Goats will NOT mow your lawn (sheep and geese do that), but they will clear brush. Goats are like deer. They BROWSE, meaning they eat bushes and trees more than grass. Goats will not eat "just anything" either...and they will not eat tin cans ;). Some won't even eat things they enjoy if they've touched the ground, including their hay! This is a good thing as eating things off the ground and grass that is too short is a good way to get a stomach full of worms. Goats eat mostly hay, a blend of alfalfa and grass, as well as grain in some situations. Too much grain or rich alfalfa can give a goat bloat or make them really sick and overweight. They also need a loose mineral, not a salt block. We feed our does who are in milk ormid-pregnancy 2-3 cups of our goat mix each day which consists of grain, alfalfa pellets and black oil sunflower seeds. We add Calf Manna to the mix if a goat needs to put on a little more weight or is in heavy lactation and losing condition. We also feed free choice kelp and this has really improved coat sheen and skin in our herd.All our goats have access to grass hay, minerals, and fresh water always. Our goat mix changes as their needs change but a good reference is 2 parts (noble goat, ADM, or other high quality) pellets, 1 part alfalfa pellets, and one part black oil sunflower seeds. A wether may not need any grain. It depends on the hay they are given. They need the right balance of calcium and phosphorus (2:1) to avoid urinary stones which can be fatal. COST OF FEED -- Bales of grass hay cost aslittleas $2 around here and as much as $5. Alfalfa is typically between $5 and $7 depending on the quality. Choose hay that is green, smells fresh and is not dusty. It should also be heavy for its size. When we started I bought grass and alfalfa hay separately so I could add alfalfa until my goats maintained their condition but were not fat. I find I feed mostly alfalfa hay around here now, sometimes switching to a higher grass blend in summer if the does are in good condition at weaning. Bales should be HEAVY for their size, green, and dry. Their should be no mold and they should have never been wet. Look at your hay rick and be sure your goat cannot get it's head stuck or hang from it, but it should not touch the ground. Goat pellets cost just under $15 per bag, alfalfa is about $12 and sunflowers cost more at about $15-23. If you make our mix for a pair of does, you will buy 2 bags of pellets, one alfalfa and one sunflower for a total of about $60. This will feed does wethers for 8 weeks or more and does in milk about 6 weeks. You can do all this cheaper if you buy from a co-op or feed supply...this is using Farm Supply Store prices and bagged feed.HOUSING - Goats don't need much but my experience has been that I need to get inside where they live and I like to know that I will fit comfortably and stay warm and dry! Our goats are comfortable in a plastic interloc shed (8x10). We used a smaller waist-high shed for their first summer and it now serves as hay and feed storage. We like plastic because goats don't! lol...they don't chew on it and you can scrub it with gentle soap and hose it down. Goats don't like to be wet. They need a place without wind in the winter, and if you learn how to do deep bedding, the manure will compost underneath and produce heat all winter. You MUST check at goat level with your nose to make sure there is no strong ammonia smell though. Our goats waste enough hay to keep their bedding pretty fresh, but we do need to add straw to the top periodically to ensure they have a clean, dry place to lie down. Some goats are allergic or sensitive to straw and will get irritated skin, so keep an eye out for this. We start with a base layer of stall freshener (I use PDZ). About every two months in summer, three in winter, we rake all the bedding from the outside pen into the compost bin, then I muck the whole barn out into their outside pen and spread it out. Rain washes away most of the ammonia before it composts so I don't burn my plants. We have some of the BEST compost money can't buy ;). FENCES - We disbud (remove the horns before they grow) all our goats, not only because small children are around, but because a goat with horns is a strangled goat waiting to happen. They get those horns caught in the fence! They say a fence that doesn't hold water won't hold a goat. This isn't QUITE true, but the fence will become your goats favorite pasttime...they will LEAN on it, push out and walk up and down the fence testing for (and creating) weak spots. We use T-posts and cattle panels covered in garden fencing halfway up to secure kids and hens. COST OF HOUSING - Our goat house set us back about $450 on craigslist and the small one was less than $200 new. You can use large "igloo" dog houses, but we like to hang out WITH the goats in winter and where are you going to feed them that's dry? A calf hut or hutch would be a superior alternative to a dog house. Also...in inclement or cold weather...they will stay inside all the time and a doghouse is going to be too small for that. You also need a SEPARATE barn, shed, or garage to store the dry hay and food. Our fence and gates set us back about $200 ...we love cattle panels with garden fence attached to the bottom half to keep kids in. Be creative...you could use old wood pallets or buy a used round pen and cover it. Chainlink works GREAT and is the Yard they hang out in most of the time....but they will learn to lift the latch, and they might just chew through the window screen and find themselves on your sofa some spring afternoon....just FYI. CARE -- Goats need their hooves trimmed. Hooves are like toenails. If you don't trim them, they overgrow and the goat can't walk! Sometimes, especially in spring, they may need their hooves trimmed once a month while other times they may be able to go several months without trimming. I find the web is a GREAT resource for goat care, but we will show each person that buys a goat from us how to trim hooves. Goats need a vaccine every year. It's called CD/T and protects them against a disease cause by overeating as well as tetanus. Learning to give this vaccine yourself is a good idea...you can learn to give shots that could save your goat's life! Vet's seem to be closed when you have a really sick goat at 3 am on a sunday...but there are veterinarians near Indy that work with goats. I can direct you to one on the northside and one on the south side. If you are a vet experienced with goats, let me know and I will add a link on my resources page! Goats also may need occasional worming but many of our wormers are losing their effectiveness because people worm with too low of a dosage and without doing a fecal test to see what worms are present, making any worms that do exist resistant to that wormer! Please RUN FECAL TESTS before you worm your goats. A fecal only costs about $12 and a cat/dog vet can do it for you or you can invest in a microscope and do your own.. We trim their winter coats in late spring too to make the girls comfortable, especially our black goats! I uses standard cheapo clippers and that was fine when we weren't showing. Now I have Andis corded and Oster cordless clippers with an adjustable blade.You will find a goat's vet visit is often cheaper than a dog or cats...just think if a farmer had to take ALL their animals to the vet and pay that much! I pay about $50 for tests and checkups. That's $50 for BOTH goats. We do our own blood draws for CAE tests...and it issn't that difficult. $100 and everyone got tested...all came back negative! You can now sent bloodwork to biotrackign labs for pregnancy tests as well as CAE and Johnes tests. The 2015 cost was $6.75 for the pregnancy test and $5.00 each for CAE and Johnes with a $10 "accession fee" on the CAE tests if you send in less than 20 samples. Not too shabby! We used the WAUPUN lab in Wisconsin on the biotracking.com site.You will need to check on your goats and give fresh water at least twice a day, but they will reward you if you spend more time with them. They will bond with you just like a cat or dog, but won't mind that they don't live in your house. They will walk with you on a leash without barking or pulling you along (goats follow behind you), but they won't barf on your carpets or pee in your shoes. They won't chew up the furniture, but they will eat every ornamental shrub you ever planted... Oh, and you can't have just one...goats are HERD animals...but don't worry. After you've had goats for awhile, you'll find two isn't ever enough!I am an Attorney for about 8 hours five days a week. The rest of the time I spend growing, raising and preparing our food, working on art projects (painting, sculpting), writing, Kayaking or playing with my daughter Jackie. My husband and I met almostthirteen years ago and haven't looked back. Corey is a musician andruns a musician's repair service called Sound and Circuit (http://www.soundandcircuit.webs.com/). He is the goat man also, spending many a minute with kids curled up in his lap while pondering how to repair the next circuit on his current project synth. We truly enjoy everything we do on our urban homestead and we are glad to be your resource for all things urban farming, especially all things goat!When we bought our house in 2005, we had no garden and no fence! (No daughter either! ;) Much has changed since then. We have over 2000 square feet of raised garden beds, a small home orchard, a flock of laying hens and a family "herd" of nigerian dwarf dairy goats (along with our daughter, two dogs and two cats)...all on a third acre city lot. We select goat for milking ability, conformation, calm (mostly quiet) demeanor, and friendliness. We don't make a profit, especially when you consider care and food. BUT, we want goat's milk, and we support sustainable living...so we try and break even on our goat sales and make up for any losses with petting events throughout the year, all to be rewarded with the "free"fresh milk available to our family year round. We added our first registered Doe in 2011.She gave us our first doeling ever born on our "farm" this year in 2014. It was long overdue! We now have enough does to kid fall and spring, so we should have animals available several times during the year. The old adage of you can't keep them all is especially true for us!Be sure to visit us at our sister site on Urban Homesteading... http://www.indyurbanhomestead.webs.com/ !!!

TAGS:Nigerians Naptown Mini 

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