The only routine maintenance goats really need is hoof trimming.
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I’m ready for my pedicure!
Depending on how fast a particular goat’s hooves grow, and what surfaces the goat is walking on, its hooves need to be trimmed every month or two. We’ve found our goats need trimming about every month. Harley built us a pretty awesome milkstand to use for this event.
Ash standing on the milkstand getting his hooves trimmed
The front of the stand holds a feed bucket that you should fill with feed to keep the goat busy during the trimming. You can see in the photo we tried to use hay- that didn’t work. Hay is not as yummy, I guess. Under the hay is goat feed, and that was the real ticket. Goats will put up with anything if they’re getting feed!
On the corner of the milkstand you may notice a little plastic jar; it has stypic wipes that would help stop bleeding if I accidentally cut the quick. To avoid that, I’ve been told to stop cutting when the hoof starts to look pink instead of white. That’s worked for me so far!
Ash’s hoof, almost done being trimmed
There are several resources (such as this one) that detail how to trim hooves, so I won’t rehash all the details here once more. The basics of it are you cut around the foot, where the goat’s “nail” has become overgrown. We bought our trimmers from Amazon, and they’re working great. I would note that it’s IMPORTANT to wear gloves- those are sharp clippers, and sometimes the goats yank their feet. I’ve noticed our goats are fine with us trimming their front hooves, but they yank quite a bit when I pick up a back foot. For our goats, the key is to grab the back foot and hold on tight for a minute. The goat gives up fighting, and I’m able to trim the rear hoof just as easily as a front hoof at that point.
It takes less than 10 minutes to trim the feet once you get the hang of it. You don’t want to take too long to do it or the goat will run out of feed. If you think you’re going to take a while, I’d recommend doing a couple of feet one day and finishing up another day.
Trimming your goat’s hooves is an important task. Fortunately, it’s easy to do with just a few tools and a little know-how!
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