I have become the proud owner of a very little goat named Poppy. Poppy was a wild goat, but she is quickly getting tame and is turning in to quite a character. Having never owned a goat before it has been an interesting couple of days for me. Here is what I have learnt so far about owning a goat:
1. Never turn your back on a goat, every a teeny tiny little one can escape in the blink of an eye from a gap you didn’t think a mouse would get through.
2. Small goats are very very fast and almost impossible to catch. When I couldn't catch Poppy Nairn helped, making a flying rugby tackle in the mud and seizing the screaming baby goat. Poppy now checks for Nairn as she considers her escapes.
3. Goats are more stubborn than you can possibly imagine. Poppy decided that she didn’t like being bottle fed so I had to force feed her. It has taken 16 feeds for Poppy to relent and suck from the bottle.
4. Force feeding is a messy stressful business for both the feeder and the feedee. The ratio of milk wasted to milk consumed is about 199 parts all over me and 1 part inside the goat. A sub lesson of this is that there is only so long you can bear to smell of sour milk and baby goat before you need a shower. The length of time is about 3 minutes.
That is a lot of learning in four days. I can only wonder what lessons next week will bring!
2. Small goats are very very fast and almost impossible to catch. When I couldn't catch Poppy Nairn helped, making a flying rugby tackle in the mud and seizing the screaming baby goat. Poppy now checks for Nairn as she considers her escapes.
3. Goats are more stubborn than you can possibly imagine. Poppy decided that she didn’t like being bottle fed so I had to force feed her. It has taken 16 feeds for Poppy to relent and suck from the bottle.
4. Force feeding is a messy stressful business for both the feeder and the feedee. The ratio of milk wasted to milk consumed is about 199 parts all over me and 1 part inside the goat. A sub lesson of this is that there is only so long you can bear to smell of sour milk and baby goat before you need a shower. The length of time is about 3 minutes.
That is a lot of learning in four days. I can only wonder what lessons next week will bring!
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