Natural Goat Care Basics

We find that taking care of our goats in a holistic way – using proper nutrition, supplements, and natural remedies when necessary keeps our goats healthy and strong. Typically, when we hear of problems with goats that we have sold in the past, the new owner is using a more conventional feed, care, and medicine regimen with their goats. We believe most often these problems can be prevented with proper, natural goat care.

The following are the natural goat care basics that we like to share with the families who purchase goats from our homestead to help them get started off on the right foot.

Natural Goat Care

Natural Goat Care by Pat Coleby is an excellent reference book for basic goat care and help for any problems that may arise. The website fiascofarm is also a wealth of information.

Housing

Goats need basic shelter from wind and rain. A three-sided shelter is sufficient. The more open space they have to roam, browse, and soak up the sunshine, the healthier they will be.

Diet

We provide access to good quality hay and/or pasture at all times. Goats also enjoy and benefit from browsing weeds and wooded areas. This is the only feed that goats require. At milking time we use a handful of organic grain (oats groats or barley) in the stanchion. We also add a splash of apple cider vinegar to their water, especially for does before kidding.

Free-Choice Minerals

Goats have high mineral requirements. We have found that providing them free access to various minerals keeps them healthy and disease free. We provide our goats with free access to small amounts of: sulfur, kelp, salt (we use Redmond Real Salt), baking soda, dolomite, and copper sulfate kept in separate compartments. The goats know instinctively what they need and will not overconsume if the minerals are kept separate. (Important! – copper must always be given alongside dolomite, which balances copper in the body.) These minerals can be purchased either separately or in a mixed form at Goat World or in larger amounts at Advanced Biological Concepts or possibly at a local organic feed store. Our local organic feed co-op carries kelp, DE, Redmond Real Salt, and apple cider vinegar in large quantities. If you do not wish to supply separate, free-choice minerals, a mineral blend must be purchased and can be found at any farm store. Refer to Pat Coleby’s book Natural Goat Care for more information on free-choice minerals as a preventative to disease.

Companion Animals

Goats are very social and do best when they have at least one companion. Herd animals are the best choice (another goat, cow, donkey…)

Good Quality Fencing

Goats are clever and very nimble! They require more secure fencing than animals much larger in size.

Wormer

We provide 1 Tablespoon Basic H concentrate per 5 gallon bucket of water 3 – 4 times per year. (Add to already-filled bucket of water and stir gently, otherwise you will have suds!!) Basic H is a natural soap concentrate that can be purchased online or from any Shaklee sales rep. Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth and/or an herbal wormer can also be good choices, but be cautious of wormwood if you are breeding.

Hoof Care

Goats need frequent hoof trimming! Also, make sure to keep their bedding dry. Overgrown and/or soggy hooves can cause problems. These are the hoof trimmers we use. Nothing special, but they work well.

Breeding

If you are interested in breeding your doe for milk, you will need to either keep a buck on your property or rent a buck using a stud service. We do not rent out our buck as we want to be very careful about potential disease from other farms and homesteads. Many farms do not lend or rent their bucks for this reason and we have found it to be much simpler to keep our own buck. There may be stud services in your area though, so it is good to check around. Except for breeding, we keep our buck separate from our does (with a wether for his companion) as he can be very stinky!

Kidding

We have had very little trouble with kidding. Typically, our does handle the whole process themselves. Again, this is most likely because we keep our goats out on fresh pasture, give them good quality hay, and maintain their mineral supply. We also make sure to add apple cider vinegar to the water buckets in the weeks leading up to kidding.

Once we know that a doe is in labor, we’ll move her into a separate stall for a few days where she and her new kids won’t be bothered by the other goats.

We choose to dam-raise our kids for at least 7-8 weeks in most cases. Dam raised kids will grow to be much healthier than bottle fed kids.