I've had a couple of questions about our goats, so I'll give everyone the answers! 

Jimmie didn't know you could allow goats in your home as she thought they were stinky.  Jimmie has a fascinating blog by the way, she homeschools in CHINA! 

Back to the question/thought at hand.  If you are a nut, you can allow goats in your home.  The video in my sidebar, Baby Goat Frisk, was taken when our first set of kids were just a few days old.  We brought them in the house as the temperatures were very, very cold outside and goat owners all over our area were having problems with baby goats freezing to the ground after they were born. 

As for the stink.... baby goats have no smell for several weeks (if kept clean and not in yucky muck).  Just as many other wild animals have no smell when they are newborn, to protect themselves from predators.  You can't hunt what you can't smell.  As they grow, buck goats will begin to stink!  Their glands are secreting disgusting smell everywhere, and bucks have the disgusting habit of urinating all over themselves. 

Interestingly enough, does find all of this highly attractive!  A doe will not "stink" if a buck is nowhere around to stink her up.  She might smell like a barnyard, but she won't stink.  The smell of a buck is what people associate with all goats, that "goaty" smell.  It's hard to get rid of, if by chance you should get it on your clothes or hands. 

So far our baby bucks are still sweet to smell, if you smell their backs.  I wouldn't stick my nose to the underside! 

JeanaG asked if our goats are just pets or do we milk them?

They are pets that we milk.  We love our goaties, but our purpose in getting them was for milking. 

If goat milk is clean, then it will have no odor or unpleasant taste.  I have had visitors do a blind taste test, asking them to choose the goat milk from the cow's milk.  They could not tell a difference at all!  If you have never had goats milk, don't run out and buy some from the store.  Store bought goat milk is pasturized and pasturization will make goat milk taste like a buck!  EWWWWW! 

If you have had fresh goats milk and you detected an unpleasant taste there could be several reasons for this. 

- Cleanliness in milking matters!  All milking equipment must be kept clean, and you don't want the goat stepping into your milk bucket, or have hair and bits dropping into it.  Once the you've milked, get that milk into the house and strain it through a milk filter.  Then get the milk into the refrigerator. 

- Milk will pick up strong odors, so if there is a buck nearby, it will taint the milk.

- If a goat is fed garbage then what it produces may taste bad.  If your goat is working for you by producing milk, then give it quality hay and grain.  The goat will produce more milk on a better diet and it will taste better . 

- If  a doe has recently kidded her hormone levels will affect the taste of the milk.  Wait two to four weeks before tasting milk from a doe that has kidded.

By the way, a goat will NOT eat anything.  I have a whole pile of alfalfa stems that my goats refuse to eat.  If a goat is eating alfalfa stems or other odd items on a regular basis, then that

goat is starving, really truly. 

Many people have seen pictures of goats eating tin cans.  The goat is eating the paper off the can, which is made from trees and goats eat trees.  Goats have ingested some strange things, just as cows have, but noone runs around saying a cow will eat anything.  Usually wire, rocks and other strange items are ingested by accident.  Goats do like to taste things, just like a baby does, so it will put quite a bit into it's mouth to figure out if it's palatable. 

We have had meat goats in the past.  Every country but the U.S. eats goat on a regular basis.  Goat meat is called Chevon.  It tastes really good and is actually better for you than many other meats. 

Let's see if this brings up more questions about goats!