A question for those who have goats with and without horns

[sunnygoats]

My goats are all disbudded as babies. I have a set of 8 week old kids that I am selling. I have a buyer that has two Alpines (same breed as mine) and would be a wonderful pet home. He has beautiful facilities, large, open areas for goats to play, play equipment and everything is spottlessly clean.
The reservation I have is that his two goats (6 months old) have horns. Is it a bad idea to sell my two little ones to a home with horned goats. Will they be hurt while playing?
Thanks for you input!

 

[goatdude95]

I don't think so most older bigger goats don't like to play with babies but my buck is hornless and my doe has horns and the play and don't hurt each other

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

I have older goats pick on new goats to establish new "pecking order", but never ever had any goat violently injure another goat. They give soft nudges. Some has horns some dont, they get along pretty well

 

[FlightsofFancy]

I have a mixed herd of Nubians and Nigerians and some of my Nigis have horns. In my experience it works pretty well, but boils down to the personality of the goat with the horns.
For example: One of my does with horns, who is normally very sweet, went hormonal after she kidded and gord one of the other goats. I had to separate her from the herd for a week, but then she went right back to being a sweetie pie.
If you think he is a good goat owner and will monitor them....GO FOR IT! Good loving owners are a blessing!

 

[sunnygoats]

Thanks so much for putting my mind at ease! This is a great home but I would never put my little ones in a situation were they may get harmed. I did talk to the potemtial buyer about my concern and he said his two didn't really play hard and were very gentle. It's good to know it would be a doable arrangement!

 

[freemotion]

Just leave the collars off them so no one can hook a horn through a collar.

 

[Rence]

I know this isn't the same, but I have nubians without horns and for a short while I had two boers with horns.

I'm telling you, that didn't last long. It only lasted as long as it took me to find homes for the boers.

The horns on my boer buck seemed to be in such a way that they could snag an eye accidentally. I don't remember how alpine's horns curve though. I had the boer buck in with my nubian bucks for less than two minutes before I saw an emergency vet visit waiting to happen. They weren't fighting, no one was mean, it's just the way the horn would wave around. The nubians didn't have any experience with horns to learn to avoid them either. I think that experience, IMOHO, would have come at the expense of a few injuries. Which is not worth it to me. I'm not sure if it would have turned out differently if they were raised as kids together. And this buck would use his horns to ram at feeding time. So out he went.

The boer doe lasted a bit longer with my nubian does, but she made my nubians very unhappy and disturbed the dynamics of the herd. She most definitely used her horns to ram them at feeding time and to push them around.

 

[zatsenoughcritters4me]

all my goats get dehorned when they are little, at least the does, the billies we sell. I only have 1 boer with horns, and they do kinda get to be a pain when I am bending down to do something, and she does ram the others sometimes. if her horns didn't go straight back like they do I would not have her either. I vote for dehorned always, especially if you have kids around them. its much safer.