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Goats are sweet creatures and can make great pets - well, Nanny goats are sweet creatures; don't get a Billy unless you need to breed which isn't always easy. The rutting season is not pleasant and nannies tend to chose the worst weather possible in which to kid. They often need help.

Goats provide some of the most healthful milk around. For the lactose-intolerant, a goat to milk could be the best answer...if, of course, you have enough acreage to keep goats. Acreage needed will depend on your terrain; call a County Extension agent to find what is recommended for your area. Somewhere I read that a confined goat is a dead goat. So this is an "acreage" pet, not one for the backyard. Since they are "herd" animals, you need more than one goat to have healthy, happy creatures.

Although, goats can eat bushes, trees and herbs other livestock cannot digest, they need considerable room to roam and graze. They often also need alfalfa supplements, just like any livestock animal when the grazing is bad or ice covered. They need a great deal of water and, like most livestock, they cannot take care of themselves unless there is constant grazing and a pond or other permanent source of water. Cats and dogs can sometimes forage for small amounts of water that wouldn't be enough to keep a larger animal alive.

Goat fur can be clipped and use in weaving. Goat meat is highly edible. You can make great soap from what milk you don't drink. If you have the requisite land for goats, they also make wonderful lawnmowers. In fact, my earliest memory of goats is of those an aunt kept for breeding/milking/lawnmowing purposes.

Aunt Libbie's nanny goats were all friendly. No tantrums, no biting-and she did keep her billy mostly locked in the barn during mating season when visitors came. Unfortunately, her nannies ran free even when company came to call. (Goats also climb extremely well so fences alone don't always work; another reason not to have goats in town.)

Feed any goat all it should eat, and it will still eat anything and everything else it can find. Including, on one visit we made to my aunt's farm, most of the upholstery from the car where my unwary father left a window open. I can still see those two nannies with their behinds poking out from the driver's side window. One turned to look at us with a long string of inside-cushion fuzz trailing down. She was such a cute goat and the one that always followed me around. My father wasn't so amused. To the day he died, he swore that *@@ goat was laughing while she chewed.

If you have a pet goat, keep it fenced with a privacy fence like you use for extremely large dogs (tall and with the wire running back to the inside at the top) to protect your own property and also the property of neighbors and visitors. And again, the one thing this topic didn't address at all - make sure you have some free range for your goat(s) to forage. They are farm animals, after all. They need space. Don't try a goat as an in-town pet!

Learn more about this author, Margaret Shauers.
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