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Tuesday, 28th October 2014
We made a tough decision at the weekend. As you know, Marmite has been a major star and as none of our pygmy goat girls have come back into season, we are hopeful that they are ALL now pregnant. Our plan always was to keep Marmite until at least next year BUT we have a problem... We have not managed to sell Satin, Parsley's kid from this year, and this has meant we have not been able to allow Marmite to mix with all the other goats just in case he mates with her. It is not usually recommended to allow pygmy goats to have their first kids until they are at least 18 months old as by that time they should be fully grown. However, they can start to have seasons as early as four months and so this means they should NEVER be left in the same paddocks/stalls with a pygmy goat male.
We don't like any of our animals to live on their own all the time and during the winter we don't really have enough space in the barn for another separate stall, and so with great reluctance, we decided we should advertise Marmite for sale. The really GOOD news however, is that his original breeder decided she would quite like him back!!! To us this was a perfect solution and so on Sunday we said our goodbyes and Marmite went home!!!
Selling Satin was always going to be difficult as she was born much later than the rest of the kids we had this year and so by the time she was old enough to leave her mum (at the end of September), all the other kids were long gone. Selling ONE goat can be problematic as even though she would have to go to a home with other goats, going with a companion would be far less stressful for her. We had one person who seemed keen and as she was an experienced pygmy goat owner we felt quite hopeful but unfortunately, it did not work out.
Satin is a very sweet kid and we are more than happy that she is still with us even though it has meant we have had to sell Marmite. We will probably now keep her as part of the herd and then next year she WILL be old enough to mate with a billy (whoever that might be...).
