posted 9 years ago
I did a lot more googling last night (and a bit this morning), e-mailed a few people, and it seems there aren't any Nigerian Dwarfs around here - maybe a few in the UK, but the way they're advertised makes me suspect that they're just some other breed of dwarf goats being marketed as Nigerians.
I've been reading a lot about different types of goats, but not sure what to do now. At this moment, I see 3 options:
- Most (sheep) shepherds around here usually have a few goats in their herds as well, and I'm sure they must have kids from time to time. I could ask one of them to sell me a few kids, and voila, easiest way to get goats at this point. However, those are quite big and as we're new at this, I'm not sure we should start with big goats as most of them seem to be a bit more difficult to handle? Also, I just assume they eat twice as much as a dwarf goat usually?
- A lady not too far from here has several pregnant dwarf goats. She doesn't milk her goats though, so no idea if the kids will turn out to be milkable (is that a word?)
- I keep searching for a breed that suits our needs and that is available in Europe
My husband would prefer to get goats and pigs at the same time, but I'm not sure about this; does any of you have experience with introducing pigs and goats to each other? We would like to be able to rotate pasture them in the same areas, so the pigs would graze, eat acorns and fallen fruit - and the goats would clear out bushes and eat young shoots from trees and stuff.
I would appreciate any opinions and ideas about this at this moment!
Sandrine Ferwerda-Coosemans
www.sunnysimpleliving.com