FOR the past two years a stud in the Wheatbelt has been breeding special miniature goats and has recently started to sell them as pets.
Constance Pribac owns and runs the Xsilence stud located in Nungarin and said the miniature goats make ideal pets.
Miniature goats are genetically small animals that are a ‘designer breed’ with impeccable temperaments that come in all colours and combinations.
Constance Pribac said the breed is still relatively new and not many people know miniature goats exist.
“There have only been about nine or 10 generations of miniature goats in Australia,” Ms Pribac said.
“There are only three registered miniature goat studs in WA and breeders in the state have only been operating and breeding miniature goats for about five years.”
In Queensland miniature goat studs have now been in operation for 10 years.
“At the moment we still get a few throwbacks like when the goats grow taller than expected, but this is to be expected at such an early stage in the development,” Ms Pribac said.
“I think in another five years time the breeding will become more consistent.”
Ms Pribac has been running the stud for two years as a hobby and works as a technical writer for an archaeology company from home.
Last year six kids were born and this year the Xsilence stud welcomed 12 kids.
“All of the goats have strong personalities and they are also friendly, curious and outgoing and make great companions,” Ms Pribac said.
Miniature goats start selling for $150 and the higher the grade the more expensive it is.
Ms Pribac said 50 per cent of customers wanted to keep the miniature goats as pets and the other half were new breeders.
Xsilence is located on Dave Attard’s property in Nugarin where he operates a sandalwood farm.
Mr Attard said miniature goats made great companions for sandalwood farmers as the goats ate sandalwood and everything the farm produced which balanced the two out.
All the goats for breeding were sourced locally, mostly from Foure Island near Exmouth.
“It is led to believe that a long time ago unusually small goats arrived on Foure Island as a result from a shipwreck and the goats interbred on the island and continued to produce smaller and smaller offspring,” Ms Pribac said.
“We were able to track down these unusually small goats and start a breeding program.”
It is hard for WA breeders to source miniature goats from Queensland because of the tough quarantine restrictions which make the costs extremely expensive.
Ms Pribac said goats had a bad reputation for not behaving and eating into everything, but insists with the right training, health care and affection they made great low-maintenance pets which were safe around children.
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