Do goats make good pets?

[MaMight]

We are deep in family discussions about getting a pet.

dd and ds are lobbying for a goat.

Anyone have any experience?

Actually, don't answer that. I have googled and they don't.

I wonder if chickens would mash up my lawn?

Goats can be good pets. BUT they are an awful lot of responsibility - for a start, if you go on holiday, you can't just send a goat to the kennels.

Presumably you'd go for a pygmy goat, in which case you'd need two wethers (castrated males) as they need company. They are very intelligent, and great climbers, so you have to think about keeping them in an enviroment which is very secure and safe for them.

You'll need to be registered as a smallholding with DEFRA, comply with animal movement restrictions (like keeping a movement book which you record every single time they go off your premises, and if there is a foot and mouth outbreak or other disease, you can't move them at all ).

You'd need to learn to trim their feet on a regular basis, and take them to be vaccinated and wormed.

And obviously they need feeding, watering and interaction twice a day, everyday.

But I love goats, and one day hope to have them again - but as I had goats at my parents from age 8 to 18 when I left home, and dad only got rid of his last ones a couple of years back, I am well aware of the downsides

Oh, that's more positive than anything I found elsewhere on the net.

Thank you for answering!

As long as you don't think of dairy goats as your first experience, make sure you go and learn how to look after them first, and remember their intelligence, they are lovely. But the number of times my dad was asked by the vets to go and sort people out who were doing the move to the country thing, and thought that having livestock when they'd had nothing bigger than a cat before was a good idea, was huge.

Chickens are great and will eat your snails and slugs. But if you are lawn proud, prob not a good start.

Start the kids off with a nice hooded rat, and see how they look after that. Then commit to more

they like trees so make sure you have some

Gosh, I really am ignorant about goats. I didn't even realise they grew on trees. I thought they were mammals! What a wally .

CMOT - a nice hooded rat? Really?

Cmot that is fantastic advice, thankyou - we were wondering about a goat also!

In the light of that they don't sound too bad, but I think we would get banished from our rented property if we declared smallholding status

chickens it is then...

How much land do you have? They need a paddock, preferably two so you can switch over when one gets poached, and possibly a shelter unless you have natural shelter. Some people find them difficult to keep in but usually if you do the fencing properly i.e. sheep net and posts and make sure it is maintained, it should be OK. They are nice pets though.