She still wants out!

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I have a 6 month female goat. We had her on a rope and she kept tangling herself so we made her a pen area about 200 ft wide and 100 ft. long. It's pretty big. She has tons to eat -- all the poison ivy and multi flora up there. The fence is a tensile type fence. She is still insistent on trying to get out and has gotten her head stuck in the gate door between the wood and the wire. The holes in the fence are big enought right now for her to get her head through and back out . I am so afraid she's going to hurt herself. We don't want electric fence because my three year old loves to visit her all the time. I am thinking if we had another goat, she wouldn't try so hard to get out. Should I be thinking of this or what have we done wrong. The guys that sold the fence sell to cattle farmers and said it should work just as good for goats. I am sure when her head gets bigger we won't have to worry so much.

-- Wendy Hodorowski (wendy@express-graphics.com), July 09, 2002

Answers

We use web wire and pannels with barbed wire on top. Every now and then we have to unstick a goat. We keep a close eye on them. We have one girl that could climb any fence we have. She can't stand to be by herself.

-- bergy (bbergbower@hotmail.com), July 09, 2002.

Hi Wendy, goats are herd animals and are more satisfied when they have companionship. When we got our 1st Nubian, I sat outside in her pen with her for several days because when she was alone she cried so much I couldn't stand it.So we went back and bought 3 more! Altho only getting one would have been sufficient, I just couldn't resist. You just gotta love a goat!

-- Judy Corwin in Va. (corwinsusa@netscape.net), July 11, 2002.

I agree with the previous posters. Goats are herd animals and prefer to be with other goats...or at the very least, with other animals for companionship. My goats are perfectly content to stay within my two-strand electric tape even when the power goes off...as long as they're all together!! BTW...when my granddaughter was old enough to wander around the pasture with my goats, she learned quicky that the fence was "hot". No, not by touching it, but just from me showing her and tellng her that it was hot :-)!! They learn fast! Now that she's almost five, she knows how to crawl under it if I'm not there to open the gate for her.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), July 11, 2002.

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