Here at Fred's Fine Fowl, we wanted goats as pets and also to help us keep up with mowing and brush clearing in the greenest possible sense.
So, goats were a natural choice... beyond deciding on goats, the breed we decided to keep is the Myotonic goat, more commonly known as Fainting Goats, or just "Fainters"... One of the truly North American Breeds... brought to this country in the 1800s.
I corresponded with several breeders over the past couple of years and in June of 2011 our first three bucklings arrived. We had to wait 8 weeks for them to complete their growth and early development at the breeder.
I decided on this breed, as they are known to be very friendly and their myotonic condition makes their muscles stiff, this translates into their inability to jump over fences, dance on cars and reduces their escape opportunities/ability. Though, while young, they do dance on Fred in the video...
Please click here to visit Kids-n-Kids Fainters which is where we purchased our goatlings.
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People often ask me it these goats actually "faint"... well, it's not a true fainting spell, but they do suffer attacks of myotonia when startled or surprised or in some cases, just for no apparent reason at all. This short video shows Fritz, Norman and little Morris "fainting". They freeze up for as long at 10 seconds and then get up on their own... at times, they don't fall down, they simply stand stiff. If they are in motion (as in this video) they topple.
This condition actually ads to their ability to build muscle tone and mass. This tensing of the muscles aids in their physical strength development. On a scale of 1-10 (ten being the most likely to faint) these four are about a 8. I walked up to Fritz with a cup of cappuccino one morning and over he went!
What do I do to get them to faint? Well, I don't yell at them, or make loud noises as demonstrated in other videos... I simply follow them around and when they feel they are being headed off or boxed in, down they go... they come right up to me afterwords just as friendly as ever.
They are often very calm about it... for example, if they are chewing grass or weeds, even when falling over, they continue to chew and look around as if disconnected from the rest of their body.
The UPS driver pulled in and did a u-turn in the drive, only to witness all four goats falling over in the grass... he was impressed and stopped to visit for a spell about goats.
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