Goat Care at Sancta Grotto is provided with natural holistic care for the Nubians which are raised on a healthy diet in a clean environment. We live in a specific climate with the facilities and feeds that are here; cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Each individual herd needs to look at the specifics of their own circumstances and develop management that is appropriate for them. There are many ways to care for dairy goats naturally, without chemical intervention unless necessary.
Nubian goats have great character and are friendly. They are easy to care for and are usually very healthy and hardy. However, before you run out and buy a goat, you should be ready to care for it. Educate yourself about goats. Read everything you can get your hands on, especially about birthing and illnesses. Make notebooks with the information you find so you can locate it later.
Learn as you go by offering to help a commercial producer with their work. Learn to deliver babies, feed and dehorn kid goats, give shots, build fences, trim hooves…whatever needs to be done, so you are working toward your goal. View the skeletal and surface anatomy of the goat Here.
One of the most important ways to care for a goat is to have adequate fencing. There are many types of fencing, but any fence for a large Nubian should be at least 5 feet high or higher. For keeping predators out, attach to the fence chicken wire at the bottom in some cement – turned out and into the ground outward from the fence about 18 inches. If your goat does not have horns, you can use stock fencing. Horned goats can get their heads stuck in the small mesh at the bottom of the fence, so you would have to line stock fencing with welded wire to keep them safe. When you put up your gate add some an adequate amount of cement under it to prevent any predators from digging in, and be sure your latch is goat proof. Adding an extra latch further down is extra security, plus it prevents the goats from pushing the gate out of alignment.
Nubian goats need shelter from the weather and temperature extremes and especially for the kidding pens. The shelter does not have to be elaborate. It needs to protect goats from drafts and rain. Ideally, there should be at least 6′ x 6′ space for each goat. Make sure there is an overhang on the shelter’s roof to provide protection against driving rain and shade in hot weather. If the roof height over their bed area is not tall enough for them to stand up, this will prevent the goats from urinating there. They will go outside.
Goats need to be de-wormed regularly to prevent them from being infested with the parasites living in the environment. Giving some pumpkin seeds and a little bit of red pepper in their feed on a regular basis helps control parasites. You can give diatomaceous earth food grade to all your animals in a small amount on their grain or food for your dogs or chickens on a regular basis. Prevent parasites and bugs breeding in their areas by spreading it on the ground where needed to reduce flies and mites. Be careful not to breath in the diatomaceous earth, it is not good for the lungs. You should check your goat regularly for anemia with the Famacha test. This is done by looking at their eyes, just under the lower eyelid. If it looks pink your goat is fine, but if it looks whitish you should give them de-worming medicine. Do not treat your goats with medicine without consulting with your local veterinarian first for the proper dosage for a goat, as often it will officially be for sheep. Read more Here.
Your goat’s hoofs will also need to be checked regularly for cleaning and trimming. Keeping some rocky ground in the goats area provides some hard standing and keeps their hoofs in better shape. Trim their hoofs once a month or when needed. Learn how to trim goat hoofs the right way Here.
Goats need plenty of quality alfalfa/mix hay for roughage. The feed you provide for your goats should be the highest quality. They should be fed a goat mix twice a day, about two to three ounces a time, in a small bowl. Overfeeding can lead to obesity and can cause scouring. Does need grain to maintain their weight when lactating (providing milk) and when they are pregnant so the kid will be healthy. Do not overfeed grain and none at all the last few weeks before kidding. Then after birth they can start having small portions and a regular amount after a few days.
It is very good to feed fodder (barley sprouts) to your herd. Barley grass is considered the most nutritional of the green grasses containing an abundance of nutrients unsurpassed by any other type of grass. Goats can have access to fresh green feed year around with fodder. Feeding fodder to your goats provides them with the nutrients they need, and it then becomes an option for you whether to feed processed grains of any kind. Get the details about fodder Here.
Goats need clean drinking water available at all times. Warm water can be given when the weather is especially cold and they really like it. Goats also enjoy chopped up fruit and vegetables. Do Not give tomatoes, potatoes, or kale. They are toxic to goats. Here is a list of plants edible and poisonous to goats.
The first step in producing healthy, rapidly growing kids is to have healthy does and bucks. Adults should be kept at a healthy weight – not 
too fat and certainly not too thin. You can keep kelp, baking soda, minerals and rock salt available as a free-choice for the goats. A salt/mineral block should be placed in the goat feed area where they can all reach it. They will use it if they need to. Make sure it is suitable for goats.
It is good to offer green vegetable leaves, brewers yeast and beet pulp at certain times of the year (the last six weeks of gestation, early lactation and during the breeding season, for example). Clean fresh well water is given at all times, and the water containers are kept very clean. For people considering alternate health treatments for their goat, it is my belief that an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure, and that is the basis for all natural health treatments, especially for goats!
When to breed does for the first time is better after they are at least 7 months of age or more than 80 lbs. We usually wait until the doe is a yearling, but does can easily freshen at 12 to 16 months of age. Bucklings can settle or mate does easily by the time they are 5 to 7 months old. So, they need to be separated from any doelings or does before that time. We prefer to breed our does for longevity, and may wait to breed a doe until she is a yearling or so, depending on the doe. Does live a longer and healthier life if they freshen only once a year. Healthy does can live as long as 20 years. Older does continue to go into heat their whole life, but it is better to retire them from having kids at around the age of 10. Heat cycles of goats are usually in full swing from September to January/Febuary. Read more Here.
At Sancta Grotto we practice holistic husbandry, and maintain a closed herd. Our herd is TB, Brucellosis, CAE and CL Negative. Any new additions we bring into the herd from the outside are healthy and have been tested negative for CAE (Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis). We also keep the new goat in a separate area first to deworm them and make sure they are healthy before adding them to the herd. We do this because we do not wish to bring in any illness to the herd. We do not test for CAE on a yearly basis, but we are aware of what the symptoms are. If any of our goats were to ever start showing signs, meaning they actually had the disease, and not just the antibodies, we would act according and separate the goat from the rest of the herd. There is no known cure in Western Medicine for CAE and we would treat the goat in natural and alternative ways to try to cure the illness. If that did not work and if the goat were in pain and was suffering, we would humanly relieve that goat from his/her suffering. If we had a doe that showed symptoms of CAE, we would never breed them because we would not want to risk them infecting their kids. Here are the clinical signs of CAE. Learn exactly what is CAE – Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Here.
The Goat’s Natural Diet and Feeding Habits (goatdairylibrary.org)
-Goats require 12-14% protein in their diets, with the higher percentages going to high producing does or growing kids. (Coffey, DG, 17)
-Goats don’t like dusty feed, and they dislike feeds that fall apart ( also called “fines”.)
-Goats get listeriosis very easily and may die from being fed moldy feed. Silage and haylage that is held in silos should not be fed to goats, as all silos have mold in them. You can use baleage that is wrapped individually or bagged in tunnels, as long as you have sufficient numbers of animals to eat off the face of that feed every day. This is difficult as most goat herds are not large enough to eat that much in a day. Wrapped square or round bales are better than tunnels, because there is less surface area to mold. Open only what your animals can eat each day, and if you find mold, don’t feed it. (Van Saun, Feeding for Two.)
-Goats do not adapt as easily to high concentrate (grain) diets as cattle and sheep. They are more likely to get acidosis, founder, urinary calculi and enterotoxemia. (Van Saun, Feeding For Two: The Goat and Her Rumen)
-Older does may have sore teeth, which keep them from eating. You can float the teeth to enable them to eat again. (see Medical S-Z under “Teeth”)
-Goats have trouble adjusting to a new diet. If you buy new goats, buy some feed from the previous owner and feed it at first, gradually reducing the amount of it, while increasing the amount of your own feed, until they are eating your feed exclusively.