Pygmy

The imports ran from about 1930 to 1960: small goats of the West African Dwarf group, brought for zoos and research. By the 1970s American breeders had drawn two types out of that stock, one broad, compact and solid like the original African goats, the other a dairy goat in miniature. The compact type became the American Pygmy; the dairy type became the Nigerian Dwarf.

The National Pygmy Goat Association and its herd book date to 1975.

Compact and heavy boned: about 16 to 20 inches at the shoulder and 50 to 86 pounds, with both sexes horned. The standard recognizes seven color variations, spanning caramel patterns, brown, gray and black agouti, black with white markings, and solid black.

They are prolific. Gestation runs 145 to 153 days, does bear one to four kids every nine to twelve months, and kids can be sexually mature at two months, which is worth remembering before you house bucklings with does.

Hardy, alert and animated, good-natured and gregarious: that is the breed association's own description, and a fair one for a goat kept mostly as a pet. They are sociable animals, happier in a herd or with at least one other goat.

They were a meat goat in West Africa and remain genuinely muscular, but in North America they are kept almost entirely as pets and companion animals, and they are good at it.

Does can be milked and the milk is high in butterfat, though the quantity is small and the udder is low to the ground. They also earn their keep as effective browsers.

Modest housing does it: a draft-free 8 by 10 foot shed with raised sleeping and feeding places will accommodate four adults, with an outside enclosure fenced at least four feet high. They adapt to virtually all climates.

The trade is what people forget when buying a pet. A Pygmy is still a herd animal that needs another goat, still needs hoof trimming and worming, and will still get into anything it can reach.

The National Pygmy Goat Association sets the breed standard and keeps the pedigree registry. Papers matter most if you want to show or breed; they are also what separates an American Pygmy from a small crossbred goat, so ask for them either way.

Plan the purchase as a pair or as an addition to an existing herd, and ask the seller about hoof care and worming history, the routine work that comes with the pet.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.