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Goats will gaze affectionately into your eyes, too. It's a bit disconcerting when you first get them, because you don't know how to figure out where they're looking. I have a few old ladies that will come and stand by me as long as I'm there, even lay down in a semi circle just to be near. They will even talk to you. They're incredibly smart and they do have extremely individual personalities. Even if you get one that is older and isn't friendly to humans, spending time around them they eventually decide they'd like pets, too. The hard earned ones are really rewarding.
Owning goats is very difficult at first. If I had known what I learned by the first year before the first goat, I wouldn't have ever gotten them. By the second, I wouldn't give them up for anything.
Can you recommend any resources to learn about raising a goat?
A forum like backyardherds.com, thegoatspot.net, or Facebook 911 goat emergency if you do Facebook. I only recommend an account with fb for emergency help for the goats, wouldn't do any socializing with it. If you don't have a small ruminant vet near you (I don't) they're basically the only advice you can get that is sound in an emergency. You can also read all the other people's emergencies and learn a lot from there. I've become the equivalent of a vet tech, at the least. I do my own worming, stool samples for worms, trimming hooves, disbudding, delivery assistance a few times when the kids were stuck, treating for mastitis, treating for poisoning (camellias, azaleas, will kill them)wound care, etc. With goats, life comes at you fast. There's a saying about goats and sheep: It's a thing that lays in a field looking for ways to die.
My favorite book hands down is Holistic Goat Care: A Comprehensive Guide to Raising Healthy Animals, Preventing Common Ailments, and Troubleshooting Problems. It gives both the natural as well as the chemical approach to treating goats.
With goats, prevention is key. By the time they are showing signs of illness, it's often too late. I lost two to listeria two years ago, it was a very damp, warm spring, it naturally exists in our environment and becomes prolific during that kind of weather. I bought a herd from a woman who hadn't been feeding them or giving them minerals properly(both of her parents had died in the prior six months while living with her) and I believe that if she had, they would have had the ability to fight it off. So, minerals available all the time, even though they knock it over and waste a lot, long stem, high quality horse hay available all the time, and browse if possible. If not, a good dairy mix or alfalfa, depending on bucks or does. Bucks you want to be really careful with grain because they can get urinary calculi, which is like a kidney stone that blocks their urinary tract, and it will kill them. Very painful death.
Anyway this is probably more than you wanted to know. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. If you get them, do not skimp on fencing. You'll spend more in the long run.
Thank you for taking the time to give so much detail! I assumed it was far easier. When I finally make the leap, I will have done my research.
You are lucky to get to have goats
I'm indeed very blessed. May you one day soon have two or more of your own!
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