Erda resident adds to family of pygmy goats with rare quadruplets

Linda Carter originally had the idea to buy pygmy goats for her five-acre Erda lot so they would eat the pasture and enable her children to help raise them. As it turned out, the pygmies became less of a farm animal and more of a pet.

“They really don’t make that much of a difference out there,” Carter said, referring to how little the pygmies mowed the lawn.

Carter and her family moved to Erda from Centerville two and a half years ago. They purchased their first set of pygmies — three does and a buck — two years ago. One of those does, Ruby, had a litter two weeks ago. It’s typical for a pygmy goat to give birth to multiple kids, but Ruby had quadruplets, something Carter said is rare in the breed.

“We suspected [Ruby] had three in there because she was gigantic,” Carter said. “Pygmies tend to be rather fat, short, stocky goats. They carry a little weight even when they’re not pregnant. But she was as wide as she was tall.”

Four-year-old Ruby had triplets before Carter bought her from West Son Pygmies in Clearfield. They assumed she would have another litter of three kids, but four can take a toll on the mother and the kids.

‘[Ruby’s] thinned down a lot,” Carter said. “When they’re feeding that many kids they get almost skeletal for awhile.”

That’s why Carter tried to get one of the family’s other does, Jolene, to adopt one of Ruby’s kids. Jolene gave birth to only one kid just a week before Ruby did and Carter thought it would be an easy transition.

“I would have had to start bottle feeding that little goat once a day,” she added.

Although they’ve had pygmies as pets for a few years, Carter hadn’t been around when any of them gave birth.

“This was the first time I had kidded a goat,” Carter said. “By the end of it [Ruby] was so tired that she didn’t bond with the last ones very well. [Jolene’s] kid, who is a week older, has bonded well with the last baby. I feel bad for the little goat.

“I think we can all learn something from little goats. Even when her mother (Ruby) was butting her, she was happy and she would eat and nothing seemed to bother her. I think we could all learn a lesson from that.”

Jolene’s older daughter, Moonlight, has a wilder spirit, but that’s something Carter hopes won’t rub off on the five kids.

“We’re around them all the time,” she said. “I think they’ll be tamer than this little girl was.”

Carter believes that Ruby has given birth to some very pretty goats. Two of them look like their dad, Carter’s buck.

“The buck and one of the does looks like the daddy — white with black markings. One doe looks like Ruby, she’s caramel-colored and one is black. The black one I’m trying to bond with Jolene,” Carter said.

At a little more than 2 weeks old, the kids are between 3 and 4 pounds, but they’ll grow very quickly. The kid Jolene gave birth to three weeks ago is almost 7 pounds.

Now with four adults and five kids, Carter is determined she’ll probably sell off a few of the kids and will raise the others and possibly show them.

“Pygmies are considered more of a pet animal,” she said. “You can raise them for meat and you can milk a pygmy but you may get a half to full cup. Most people raise them as pets. Some, if they live in Tooele, like Centerville, where they allow them, they get them to eat their weeds. In a small lot it makes a difference.”

After moving to Erda, Carter, her husband and two of five children — those who still live at home — considered getting a few goats. Her 10-year-old daughter wanted to get pygmies. She also looked into the pygmy breed and Tennessee Fainting goats.

“They actually fall over if you startle them [Tennessee Fainting Goats],” Carter said. “It’s quite comical looking. It’s a necessary part of the breed if you want to register it, it has to faint. There are very few breeders in Utah that have them.”

Pygmy goats seem to be a popular choice for a pet recently and Carter believes it’s because they’re cute and friendly.

“They tend to be a more people-friendly animal,” she said, adding that their small stature is also a selling point. “I think mainly it’s the cute factor. It’s a nice alternative to a dog or cat, it’s something different. They’re pretty easy to care for because you don’t have to house break them. They also seem to whether the weather better.”

Carter believes pygmy goats are better off being raised as pets, however, they’re not like dogs.

“As far as pets go, and what you can do with them, is show them,” she said. “The ones I have are purebreds. I have them registered as babies. We haven’t shown them but have those intentions. You can develop a relationship with them. I’ve read articles where people try to make them a house pet. Goats aren’t clean animals; you can’t train them to go in a litter box.”

Nine pygmies is plenty for Carter right now. The place where she purchased her first goats in Clearfield has a herd of 40. That’s way too many for Carter to take care of.

Carter has always had small animals for her children to help raise. In addition to raising pygmy goats, she also breeds Yorkshire terriers.

“I actually had my first litter [of Yorkies] in the fall,” she said. “I show them so I’m watching them right now to see which ones will go to the show.”

Pygmy goats get to be about 50 pounds and only 16 to 23 inches tall, so they carry a lot of weight around with them.

“If you like farm animals and like goats, pygmies are a wonderful choice,” Carter said. “They don’t require constant attention but obviously you need to pay attention to them some. You can’t teach them tricks like a dog. They don’t require a lot of feed either.”

For now, Carter is going to enjoy having the little kids running around her Erda property before selling some of them.

“Goat kids are very cute and make cute sounds,” Carter said. “They leap around as kids. They jump on their mom’s back. Their favorite game is playing king of the mountain. They’re always jumping on to things and then jumping off.”

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com