Determining Good Weight of Pygmy Goat

14 years ago

I went to a pumpkin patch/petting zoo today and while petting the goats with my GD I couldn't help but feel the protruding backbone on 3 of the goats and I could easily feel every rib. It was so bad I could grasp the spine with my hand and my fingers wrapped under it.

So, what is normal weight for these goats? I know some animals can appear thin yet be perfectly healthy and wonder if this is typical of the breed, or are they being starved.

Other than being skin and bones, they were alert and bright eyed and waiting for every morsel of food that came their way!

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Comments (3)

jennybog
14 years ago
The average weight of a pygmy is about 35 pounds. They sound very under fed. I would call someone. Better safe trhan sorry
annzgw
Original Author
14 years ago
Yeah........those were my thoughts also jenny. I'll leave it in the hands of the humane society to determine if they're not being fed correctly.

I'm hoping they rescued these goats and they just haven't had time to put weight on them. The owners take in a lot of animals that have been cast-off/neglected.
kudzu2
14 years ago
I have two pygmy goats. I know I not suppose to do this, but I have large automatic gog feeder that hangs and I keep it full of feed all the time plus three bowls. I have them in with one small sheep. They are over a year old now and fat and happy. Don't really know what a healthy weight is for a pygmy is, but mine seem happy and very active. The billy is probably about 60 pounds and the nanny is about 55. The little sheep girl that I have I think was stunted because she was sick when I bought her and didn't know it. She is about 75 pounds but the size of the goats. They play together all the time and love to be petted or for you to run with them. I would call the humane society on the petting zoo people. They seem really underfed to me. I sure most of those places do not feed their animals, only what they get from the people that are visiting.