Ten Fun Facts About Goat Kids

How much do you know about goat kids?

At Redwood Hill Farm we’ve been raising dairy goat kids since the mid 1960s, and over the years have learned much about these intelligent, cute, and cuddly young animals. Here’s our top ten list of fun facts about goat kids.

Kids most commonly arrive as twins

Sometimes just a single, but often triplets are born. Quadruplets, like the four Alpine cuties here, occur occasionally, and a few times we’ve had quintuplets!

Kids use their lips to learn about the world around them

Intelligent and curious, they love nibbling (not eating!) just about anything around them.

Some goat kids are born with “wattles”, the fleshy, dangly things on their neck

Wattles are sometimes called “bells” or “skin tags”. They serve no purpose and are believed to be a genetic trait left over from evolution.

Siblings know each other

At Redwood Hill Farm a twin who returned to the farm after being gone for nearly two years, quickly found her twin sister, and the two are best friends in the barn—browsing and resting together every day. Pictured here are LaMancha triplet kids—who naturally have distinctive and very short ears.

Kids begin climbing and jumping off tree stumps and bales of hay when they’re just a week old

At two weeks old, kids are fearlessly agile, running and leaping for fun.

Like human kids, goat kids like to snuggle

The “kid pile” is a common sight in the barn nursery, as they curl up with with each other for companionship and warmth.

When bottle-raised, kids will bond with their caregivers

Our farm staff, friends, and family members cherish these sweet, slow moments with the goat kids.

The vocal sound a goat makes is called a bleat

Mother and kid goats recognize each other’s calls soon after the mothers give birth. Goat kids also bleat when they’re excited to see their caregivers at feeding time.

For centuries, the young of a goat have been called kids

It wasn’t until the 1800’s that the word kid was extended to children.

Goat kids learn to stand within minutes of being born