# play ideas for baby pygmy goats?



## longhorngal (Aug 4, 2005)

What are some good things I could put in the pen to keep my baby goat busy? Are taped up boxes to climb on ok? Is there any danger of jumping off of them to their legs (growth plates)? She's such an active little thing I would like to give her something to do besides jump on her mom!
Thanks
Cara


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## BrahmaMama (Nov 12, 2005)

Good idea to post this question! I have a bored pigmy too and he's getting fat! 
I was thinking of hanging an inner tube or something in a tree for him to "but". But they are hard to find now with everyone having radial tires.
I look forward to more suggestions too!


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## Ramblin Acres (Sep 25, 2005)

What we have found for our pygmies is those electric spools.You can usually get these from your utility company.They come in different sizes too.We also have used an old wooden swing set.They really love that.You could also build a multi level play yard for them too.(use 2x4's and plywood).This is what we will be working on for the buck pasture in the spring,even as your kids become adults they will still want to climb and jump all over everything.

You kids little legs will not be hurt from jumping and playing,There could be an occasional accident,where they may jump just the wrong way but you will have that with anything, and Goats just love to play.


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## goatkid (Nov 20, 2005)

My friend cuts the circle part off the electrical spool and nails it to a small section of railroad tie for her kids to play on as a teeter totter. At my place we have a small goat house in the middle of the goat pen. It has a sloping roof. The babies play king of the mountain on it. Does your baby pygmy have any goat friends to play with. Goats are herd animals and need other caprine companions.


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## travis91 (Jul 26, 2005)

dont do the teeter totter kids can get killed by walking under it


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

mine have an old truck cap and two of those boxes that the cheerleaders stood on at homecoming to play on. I am going to get some of those electricall spools soon too. make sure you nail a board over the holes in the spools. 
I have heard of a teeter totter for them too. We're planning to make one. I don't think the kids would stay under them long enough to get hurt, but I could be wrong.


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

We have an electric spool on it's side with the hole in the middle covered with a board. All the goats love this. We also have a chair with the back off, sort of like a square stool. Sometimes we put them close together and they go from one to the other. We are blessed to have a giant rock in our goat pen, and this is a favorite place to play "Queen of the Mountain". It also keeps their feet worn down and decreases the need to trim hooves. Before we got our babies, we had a very low teeter-totter. The big goats had a lot of fun with this. It was a board on a low log. They couldn't fit under it. But now that we have babies who squish themselves into every small space, I would be afraid to use it. Some people actually put low slides in their goat pens. I have seen 2 electric spools with a connecting board and a wood ramp going down one end...
Basically anything they can jump on is good...
Oh yeah! I also saw pictures on a goat website of a person who takes used couches and so forth and puts them in her pen. The goats jump all over them, and site on them, and when winter sets in she takes them to the dump. Then in the spring, she finds a new one on the side of the road and puts it in her pen...
HTH!
Blessings, Jillis!


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## lgslgs (May 30, 2005)

Don't make anything that can come down on a goat and crush them. One of our neighbors had a heavy plank between two concrete blocks and lost a kid when it got knocked loose and crushed the baby. His set up was actually more stable than a teeter totter and it was anchored in a way that it should not have come loose. But it did.

You really don't ever want to be the person to find one of your goat kids crushed under a toy you made for them. Don't think it can't happen to you.

We have a play area for ours with very large stump sections that they can climb on. We set them in the ground so they don't tip, and have them spaced far enough apart that nobody can get anything pinched as they jump around on them. They also have a few big downed oak trees to play on.

Lynda


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## Goat Freak (Jul 6, 2005)

We just use old spilled concrete, the kind that sorta forms concrete rocks, and then I set them up with a LOT of different toys, rock piles, bridges, jumping areas, and they LOVE it. Hopefully my grandpa will keep his word and bring us some more rocks, mine got thrown away so right now the babies are playing on chopped down tree trunks and such.


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