# Toys for goats?



## Katey (Oct 1, 2007)

I have a couple of girls who are bored bored bored. They have room to run, a stall for shelter, and some fir rounds and a stump to climb on. Still, I think they'd be happier if they had something to play with, and I've seen a couple of people on here reference toys for goats. I tried a rubber ball, and they're scared of it. What else should I try?


----------



## dragonchick (Oct 10, 2007)

Goat toys consist of things to climb and jump on/off of. Electrical spools make great platforms to play king of the mountain. You can also construct a climbing platform from a couple wide boards put together like an A frame with slats nailed on so their feed don't slip. Brace the sides so they can't topple it over.


----------



## crazygoatgal (Jan 15, 2008)

I've seen lots of farms with slides and childrens plastic climb on toys that are used for baby goats and some goats. If you go to the site of Old Mountain Farm in Maine, they have all sorts of living room furniture in their fields for their Nigerians. Its too funny to see them lounging on a lazy boy or a sofa. I know my goats think the cat is a toy--the cat isn't quite so convinced of this and doesn't find much sport in being chased! lol


----------



## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

If you re-arrange their "furniture" it will be brand new to them! At least for a day or two. :bouncy:


----------



## crazygoatgal (Jan 15, 2008)

Goat Servant said:


> If you re-arrange their "furniture" it will be brand new to them! At least for a day or two. :bouncy:


Thats ingenious. Unless of course, one of them is blind. Then you are just a sick puppy!


----------



## rranch (May 19, 2006)

I discovered a large KEG on the side of my house years ago when I had teens.hmmm. Anyhoo Found out that you drill a long plank on top of it and it made a great teeter totter. I think its the goats favorite toy.


----------



## dragonchick (Oct 10, 2007)

I read a blog post about a farmer who made a teeter totter for his goats. They loved it emensly. One day he went out and found one of his baby doelings stuck under the edge with a big goat standing on top. The teeter totter was history after that. 
DC


----------



## luvzmybabz (Sep 8, 2008)

Not exactly a toy but I am working on an idea I am getting ready to enlarge my goat area so I will have the time and the goats will be penned in the smaller pen so no interference (oh excuse me "help") I am going to take a 6 foot length of landsape timber or 4x4 and bury it 2 ft in and cement it in. then take the scrub brushes that are like 6 inches long drill holes in them and screw them in to the board probably 8 on each side. Not sure how long they will take to figure it out but once they do I figure they will use it a lot as they will come running for a scratch from me.


----------



## rranch (May 19, 2006)

That's a terrible story...My goaties just spend most their time headbutting others off.
The little ones run back and forth to make it tip. Then getting excited and doing grasshopper kicks.
They are real fun to watch on a nice day.


----------



## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

My goats by far had the most fun on an old horse trailer I had here for a couple of days. They have not figured out the couches in the ditch for lack of time to haul off are play toys but I think I may take a piece of the secontional out there, its old pleather type stuff so it would be great for them, thanks for the Idea.

My goats thought climbing to the top of the hoop house was fun, now they have a crappy shelter till we can repair the hoop, silly goats, they dont learn.


----------



## AnnaS (Nov 29, 2003)

As all the previous posters mentioned, anything that can be used for a game of "king of the moutain" is beloved by goats. Goats love elevation, and will stand on a 2x4 just to have something to stand on and fight over. A straw bale to play on is a good toy.

My does and kids will make anything into toys. There's a thick chain hanging down one of the barn walls- it used to hold a heavy door- and the girls are always swinging it. There are a pair of heavy hinges formerly associated with the same door, and my does like to move the hinges back and forth. Those hinges are old and squeaky, so I can hear them over the barn monitor. 

I have a series of feeding troughs made of half-barrels, and all the goats will rock these or lay in them.

Luvzmybabz's scratcher idea is a good one! Goats love to scratch themselves. My does have rubbed streaks into the rough-sawn wood inside the barn. They also like fixed sticks or dowels to scratch their heads on.

Kids like to play a tag type game with a long piece of paper or a broken branch. One kid will pick it up and run with it, and the other kids will try to take it away... and then run with it. Eating doesn't seem to be the object. Taco Bell wrappers are a favored object for this game.


----------



## BethW (May 3, 2007)

AnnaS said:


> My does and kids will make anything into toys.


Yup! Every night that I put the boys in the barn, they have to take a few minutes to play with the stall door, pushing it back and forth. It's usually latched open, but let them hear me unlatch it, and they're all over it. 


AnnaS said:


> They also like fixed sticks or dowels to scratch their heads on.


LOL. Peanut is obsessed with scratching his head on the pitchfork handle...while I'm using it. Makes fluffing up their bedding a challenge. 

Goats are such funny creatures. I adore them.


----------



## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Mine like to play on cars. Keeps unwanted visitors to a minimum  Their favorite game is Race To The Barn!!!!!!!!


----------



## Jubel (May 13, 2008)

We have a HUGE pile of red clay dirt they run up and down on.... FREE. We also have a truck bed.


----------



## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

We have the Big electrical spools in each of the pen's but also an old wooden kids picnic table that the neighbors were putting to the road for the garbage man, set's of stairs with the landings like to go up to a front door that a contractor friend gave us, plus DH made a big platform in one pen with a wooden ramp up to it that they like to climb on, the roofs of their houses (the houses that aren't too tall) and a big dirt pile.


----------

