Aggressive Young French Alpine Goat!

[Lenhart]

Hey everyone... My French Alpine "Babe" has been acting out TERRIBLY! She has never been this way, and it's starting to drive me nuts . When I go into her pen, she circles me with her head and horns down, horning me in the back of my legs at times it hurts. When I clean her pen and bend over or something she jumps on my back. When I try and get into her pen, she plunges out of the the pens door. The past few days I have been getting really sick of it, so I get the hose and do a light spritz in her face and she backs off, but goes right to headbutting. When she starts to actually scare me and NOT leave me alone I smack her and tell her "NO" Nothing gets to her except for the hose! Theres no reason for her to be like this, I let her graze fall day at least 3 times a week and attention throughout the day and her pen is not tiny, she got a mini barn in it. We buy 50 LBs bags of GOOD pellet food for her, give her grass hay, and all the left over fruits and veggies we don't eat. It's concerning me very much because shes going to be huge and she's already walking all over us... When we move we were planning on putting her in with our horse, but I HIGHLY doubt she'll behave with a mare. If I can get her horns removed will she continue headbutt? Babe is my baby, I got her around 3 days old and I bottle fed her. Is getting rid of her my only choice? I couldn't live with someone buying her for slaughter or ending up in multiple homes! What do I do? I'm told it's too late to get rid of her horns, and that it could kill her. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Her horns are a little bit larger than this photo. Shes about 5 1/2 months old- just hormones ?

 

[Lenhart]

I am thinking maybe the pellets are hot-wiring her... Because when we ran out of them, she was her normal sweet self. Now that we bought another bag, she's been a brat. Take her off pellets?

 

[ksalvagno]

If she is not skinny, then take her off. Does she have any buddies? If not, I would also get her another goat buddy. She is probably bored and treating you like another goat.

 

[maggies.family]

Does she have any buddies? If not, I would also get her another goat buddy. She is probably bored and treating you like another goat.

This was my thought too. She just may be lonely (if she is alone) and you are her surrogate goat. Goats need companions.

On another note, she sure is cute! I have an Alpine and a Alpine/Nubian.

 

[Our7Wonders]

I've not been raising goats long enough to tell you about how dehorning an older goat goes, but I know it can be done and you can find instructions online. One of the members on this board has a blog with instructions and pictures up explaining the process. I know it's been done successfully, but I do believe you'll want to wait until she's a little older.

In the mean time, I know some livestock places sell little rubber caps that you can stick over the horns to make them less of a threat. But hers is a behavior issue and you're not going to resolve that without some action. First, if in your shoes, I would never, ever, EVER let that goat think it was dominant over me. I don't know if it would be right or wrong (and maybe some others could answer that) but when she did that to me I would likely get behind her and take her down - not too forcefully, you don't want to hurt her, but I would definately leave the impression that I wasn't at all afraid of her and also send the messege that I'm bigger and stronger than her and that I will ALWAYS win a confrontation.

And if she's alone I'd be getting her a suitable companion ASAP. She obviously thinks she's a goat in charge so you'll not want to put her with a goat that's smaller than her.

Again, I'm fairly new at this so I could be way off - just some thoughts to think about.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

She needs a friend.