Goats and triangle collars

Hi all - I am a newbie living on a lifestyle block. Dream come true for an animal lover such as myself!
My first animals are 2 gorgeous wee goats 5 months and 3 months (boer and a boer x with something). They have their own small paddock which is perfect for them, until the second evening i look up from cooking dinner and there is one of the little fellas on my balcony!
After running round the 5 acres i finally got them back to where they should be and now we have the wooden triangles around their necks. It's definitely working which is awesome, but it looks horrible and i feel like it's cruel! They seem happy like normal and the triangles seem to just be annoying more than anything else. Guess i am looking for some assurance or advice that this is ok.?? Thanks everyone!!!

From the point of view of their safety, then what you have done is nearly perfect. It might also teach them that they should not try to escape through fences. We have about 80 Boer goats at the moment, and I really loathe them because they are so good at escaping, and they need a huge amount of work to keep them healthy. To keep goats in, your fences should be "pig netting" which has a smaller gap than sheep netting. I replaced all my 8 wire sheep fences with sheep netting, but they push their heads through then can't get back because the horns catch on the netting.

you can change the wood to alkathene piope which is nicer on their necks

Electric outriggers will also keep them off the fences. Good luck with your new goaty friends!

katieb;507019 wrote: you can change the wood to alkathene pipe which is nicer on their necks

On average one of our kids a year has to wear a collar of shame but we too make them out of black alkathene pipe

katieb;507019 wrote: you can change the wood to alkathene piope which is nicer on their necks

Agreed about the pipe, but wood works too and don't feel bad - it's not cruel if they are eating well and looking good (in all other aspects) !

Thanks everyone! They are becoming more and more friendly each day and they don't seem to be too upset They certainly have personalities dont they! They cry and cry when they cant see us, and happy as larry as soon as we appear - even if we just sit with them. Funny wee boys! Even getting jealous when we go see the horse! Will definitely look into the pipe!

Thanks! How long do your naughty wee kids have to wear it for?

I have just tried putting one on one of our kids who has no horns, so finds going through the fence easily, however it does not seem to stop him. I only used 13mm pipe as I thought for a youngster it would be strong enough, obviously not. I have some thicker pipe and also some fairly rigid white conduit pipe to use for mach 2. What did you use to join the corners together with. I used cable ties which was fine for the thinner stuff, but I doubt would keep thicker stuff together for long.

I would suggest 20mm alkathene as a good minimum size for this purpose and bolt fix the joints. Use engineer's bolts (hexagonal or square head) rather than coach bolts (round head) so you can get them undone easily when it is time for the goat to move to a larger size collar. If you only have coach bolts then hammer the heads on an anvil to create two flat sides so you can get a spanner on them. Make sure that you have a spanner that fits well.

Winged nuts on the bolts makes it even easier to get the collar off when the goat gets caught on something.
Holly, until they stop pushing through fences, either because they have learnt or because their horns have got big enough. With wooden or polythene triangles, if they have been made with long enough lengths it is easy to make the collar a bit bigger by using the same bolts in new holes.

the little blighter has still managed to get through the fence even with the 20mm rigid conduit pipe, going to have to go for mach 3 with even longer sticky out bits.

I'll have to say, the wooden ones are going really well. They definitely aren't heavy and the goats are happy Not one single escape in the 3 weeks we've had them wearing them! Can't wait to take them off, not sure if i trust them not to get out just yet!

Kai, check that you fence is tight. If the fence was tightened last autumn, then during winter the wire shrinks, and because it was tight it will have stretched. Then when the weather warms up, the wire expands which makes the fence loser than it was the previous autumn.