G is for goat

Meet the New Auburn Fritz goats, Jasmine and Jamal. Notice that in the winter, goats get thick, fuzzy coats. They live in a little shed, so they need that extra fur to keep warm, because there is no heat in the barn.

Goats eat goat food. It is made of oats and corn and other healthy things mixed with a little molasses, which makes it taste sweet. Did you know that animals like sweet things a lot, too? (Not cats, though. But that is another subject) Goats also eat grass or hay. Like cows, they are animals that chew their cud, so they have extra stomachs to store the grass or hay until they want to chew it again. Because they have these extra stomachs, they can eat a lot of hay in one day. They finish that garbage can of hay in about three days. The hay is put into the manger so they can eat it whenever they want to.

Goats are very curious. When we go into their shed, they climb up and see if we are there to feed them or to clean out their stall or to bring them water. They are happiest when we are there to feed them. One of their favorite things is for us to bring them apple cores. They are like candy to goats!

The reason we like goats is that they are very curious and playful and they seem to like the company of people. If we are working on something in the shed, they follow us and seem to watch what we are doing. They are also vocal, which means they “talk” a lot. If we go outside when it is warm, they baaaa to us from the barn. Sometimes it gets annoying, but it is nice to know that they know we are around.

Goat babies are also very, very cute. They are about the cutest baby animal there is! The breed of goats that we prefer is Nubians. Some goats are from mountain regions and some from deserts. The Nubians are from the desert regions. The main advantage is that they don’t like to climb quite as much. All goats are very good escape artists, though, and they will climb through or around or over something if they know that is the way to get out! Jasmine is a Nubian goat and Jamal is half Nubian. Notice that he has “airplane ears,” which means that they stick out to the side, rather than hang down like Jasmine’s. That is because Jamal’s father was a mountain type goat and had ears that stick up, rather than hang down. So Jamal’s ears are right in the middle!