16. Et-epimeletic, Epimeletic behaviors and horns?

Since your goats are young do they look to you for their et-epimeletic behavior for everything? Sorry if I explain this wrong. So, they do treat us like members of the heard and as their mothers sometimes, but they did know who their real mother was, Laverne. She was so sweet and gentle with them, even when they began to get on her nerves by nibbling on her ears and beard. Though she didn't nurse them we took them to her a lot. They'd follow her around and everything. We had to be careful with them being around her because Shirly got very jealous and would attempt to stomp on them or butt them away. So they didn't visit her a lot at first, but then as Shirly got used to them, they lived with momma. They do look to see how we react to things though. If we get freaked out by something, they can tell and get nervous as well. But, for the most part, I think they learned from Laverne a lot and a little from us. Did that make any sense? Oh well.

 Since you took on many of the epimeletic behaviors when the goats where young, do they look to you as their parent?  I kind of explained this above. I think they do more now that their mom is gone. They love attention and will not leave us alone when we're in their pen. They give us kisses and sometimes butt or nudge us. If they feel they are being ignored, they'll stand up and give us a good slam with their hooves and start eating our hair. They love playing and running with us, and really treat us like part of their herd.

And do all goats get horns? Yes, they do. Females and males are born with horn buds, unless they are bred to be hornless, which is really complicated(I'll talk about that later). We disbud them though which means(I know this is going to sound awful, but it's not) that we burn the buds out when they're young. I actually had the breeder do it for me since I don't have the right tools for it. It only takes about 30 seconds and they scream more about being held still then being burned. Afterwards, they just get a warm bottle and forget about the whole thing.

P.S. Thanks for clarifying what epimeletic means. Haha! I hope my answers worked. It's kind of hard to explain.

kk