No cause for worry

Goats can exhibit a lot of strange behaviors... some of them might scare you, especially if you are a new owner and haven't before seen or heard them in the midst of their antics.

Here are some things that a goat will commonly do:

Rolling their head & neck- To a new goat owner, this could look like they have some sort of problem in their neck. No need to worry. Even goats that have been disbudded will make this action in an attempt to scratch that nagging itchy spot on the back of their neck or in between their shoulder blades. Occassionally they are rolling their head up and around to see above or behind themself. Some will even do this after pooping.. not entirely sure why on that one.

Screaming out of nowhere- Some goats will do this because they were unintentionally trained by their owner to it. How? At some point the goat learned that if it cried out nice and loud, as if something was wrong, their owner would come running and hold them, scritch them, or give them a treat. They really are a lot like children in this respect.
Others will cry out simply to see how you will react, then laugh at you when you come to see if they are okay... if you have one of these crazy goats, you know what I mean by them laughing at you.

Ramming each other- This is the most common, and potentially scary looking, goat behavior. Goats ram each other primarily to keep or gain herd status. When the oldest in the group is sick or just old and getting feeble, the younger goats will duke it out to determine who will take the king or queen's place. The occurance of a goat doing any real damage to the one they are ramming is rare, as typically both goats are rearing up and bashing heads together or charging head first at each other.
Note: a goat that is severely aggressive either towards other goats(causing punctures or broken bones) or towards people, should be culled, in the best interests of your herd & your family.

Bucks peeing on themselves- this is one of the grossest things that goats do, but necessary. A buck will pee on himself to enhance his natural cologne(secretions from certain glands during rut) and make himself more desirable to the does. Often they will pee directly on their face.. which will cause them to have a flehmen response(curling up of the upper lip).

Smelling or licking pee from another goat- this is usually done by a buck housed with does(one of his ways of knowing if they are ready for breeding or not), and a dam with her kids(it is believed that she is able to discern their level of health by doing this). Gross by human standards, but nothing to worry about.

Please write a little about the "Doe Code of Honor". My goats pretend they are in labor and then laugh when I get all frazzled.

LOL Can-Do!