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Herd loss

1K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  toth boer goats 
#1 ·
Hi all. My horse passed away this past Sunday. The herd consisted of the mare and 6 goats. She was the boss and my one male goat, a wether named Finnegan, was her second in command. They were pals, though he would make lame attempts to challenge her at times. He was born here and the horse instantly took a liking to him. Now that she is gone, he has become an even bigger a-hole to the other goats. He chases them away from hay and is a loser when trying to put everyone to bed at night. Will he settle down after awhile? I figure he thinks he's big man now without the horse, but I am getting mad at him. [emoji17]

Thanks.
 
#2 ·
He won't "settle down" as you put it without intervention now.

Try completely isolating him so that the rest of the herd continues as a unit, but he can't harass them. The next day put him back in with the herd, but yank him back out the moment you see the bullying. After a few days of trying this, the other goats should start to coalesce into a unit, which he'll be outside of, which goats hate.

I don't think he thinks he's the Big Man now. I think he's acting out in grief and can't express it well, but you can't allow this to go on, because this behaviour will cement. Everyone will be miserable, including him.

This sounds mean, but it really would be in his best interest to be isolated (completely, don't undermine this by playing with him) for a day at a time in order to realign the herd dynamics.
 
#5 ·
I am very sorry for your loss, that is very sad :( the last thing you need is to worry about the bullying. I would do what Mariarose suggested. Sadly though, he sounds to be the boss now, and it can be a hard fix - stay consistent with the suggestion would be my advice.
We've had to sell a couple of really good producing does in the past because they were overly mean to our other does. One of them was the hardiest goat, best mom, she was great with my kids, but she went out of her way to be mean to the others - she'd guard the door of the shelter to keep them all out in the rain, or run across the pen to butt someone for no reason.
We did try separating her with her daughter from the others, but sadly it just didn't work for us.
But I've certainly heard of it working.
We have 7 does in one pen right now in our main do herd pen that get along great. 3 others stay with their kids in another pen. 1 of them is quirky, the other is fine with the herd, but the 3rd one is the boss, and she can be mean, so I have to keep an eye on her when we wean..
 
#8 ·
I separated him into another pen this morning. I hate to make him more sad because he usually naps with his Mom during the day, but he was even shoving her today and I don't want that to go on. Of course everyone is rubbing on his pen fence and trying to steal his hay. Teases! I hope some time alone eases his mood. He got like this when he was younger and I tried separated him from his Mom at night.
 
#13 ·
I'm sorry about the loss of your horse. That's tough. I'm not sure what to say about your goat except keep him separated for a while as suggested. He might be nicer when reintroduced but he also might not.

I've generally found that our bullies tire of it after a while because they eventually decide they want friends. My only goat that didn't want friends didn't stay a bully for long. Once he established himself as King, he eventually quit overplaying his role and was an excellent herd leader. It just took time.

It's hard to watch them be mean, but unless you have any pregnant or very old goats in your herd it is unlikely that anyone will be injured. Just make sure the food is spread out enough and that your boss goat can't monopolize the shelter. Mine would lay in the narrow doorway of the calf hutch to make sure no one else could get in, so I fixed it by adding more calf hutches. If I'd had a barn I would have just widened the doorway. One thing that takes the wind out of their sales is knowing they can't prevent the other goats from still eating, getting shelter, etc.
 
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