How Much Does a Goat Cost? 2024 Price Guide

When you’re trying to answer the question of how much do baby goats cost, it comes down to more than the price of purchasing one. There are tons of other factors to consider, from the cost of their enclosure to the monthly expense of keeping them alive. In short, purchasing the goat can be as cheap as $50 or as expensive as $800 with monthly costs ranging from $20 to $150.

Since there’s so much that you need to purchase to care for your goats, it’s best to use a comprehensive guide like this one to ensure that you don’t miss anything.

We walk you through each expense so you know exactly what to expect and precisely what you’re getting yourself into — before you bring your goat home.

Bringing Home a New Goat: One-Time Costs

While there are plenty of expenses that come with purchasing and owning a goat, the truth is that most of them are one-time costs. But when you’re trying to figure out how much it will cost to own a goat, it comes down to more than the purchase price.

We broke down all the different one-time costs here.

Free

If you know somebody giving away a goat for free, you’re in luck. But the truth is that finding a free goat is a rare occurrence.

Also, chances are that it’s going to be an older goat, and it might have preexisting medical conditions that you will need to deal with. You can check out local farm animal shelters, but these are hard to find too.

Adoption

If you’re not overly particular about the type of goat that you get, there are plenty of options out there to purchase. While these might not be the “most desirable” goat breeds, they can still make great pets and companions.

These goat breeds might not technically be “up for adoption,” but they’re a far cry from the super expensive designer breed goats out there.

Breeder

If you’re looking for a specific designer breed goat out there, the price can quickly skyrocket.

Goats with a pedigree lineage cost far more, but if you’re looking at breeding them, then they’re the better value even if they cost more up front.

Initial Setup and Supplies

While you likely won’t have to spend a ton up front on your goat, that’s not where most of the upfront cost of acquiring a goat comes from. There are tons of other expenses that you need to account for when setting everything up.

Of course, if you’re simply adding goats to your collection, then many of the initial setup and supply costs are significantly reduced. Here, we highlighted everything that you’ll need if you’re adding a goat to your home.

List of Goat Care Supplies and Costs

How Much Does a Goat Cost Per Month?

While acquiring a goat and everything that you need to care for them is a bit expensive, the month-to-month cost is quite low. Besides their food and bedding, you don’t need much else to care for them, and neither of those things is that expensive!

We break down everything that you regularly need to care for a goat.

Health Care

Compared to most other pets out there, a pet goat isn’t that expensive. They have relatively few health issues, and when they do get sick, it typically clears up on its own.

However, since a single vet bill can cost a couple of hundred dollars, it’s best to save a bit each month to cover future expenses. $10 to $25 a month should be more than enough for most goats.

Food

One expense that you can’t get around no matter what type of pet you own is food. But considering that 90% of a goat’s diet consists of hay and pasture, they have one of the most cost-effective diets in the animal world.

The remainder of their diet should consist of grains and the occasional treats, but neither of these is overly expensive. Feeding your goat doesn’t cost much, and it’s a huge perk of owning a goat compared to other pets!

Grooming

As far as grooming, the only thing that you need to do to care for your goat is trim their hooves about once a month. A set of hoof trimmers costs about $20, and once you own them, you won’t need to spend any more money!

However, if you would prefer a vet to take care of it for you, expect to spend about $50 each month for them to trim a goat’s hooves.

Medications and Vet Visits

Most goats don’t require any monthly medications or vet visits, but you should put them on a deworming medication to ensure that they don’t catch anything when they’re outside.

These medications generally cost about $15 to $20, but you only need to use them about once every 4 months. From there, you should save a bit of money each month to help cover future vet visits and potential medications.

Pet Insurance

While you can’t find typical pet insurance for a goat, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t protection plans out there. However, pet insurance plans for goats don’t typically cover vet bills; instead, they cover loss of life from various disasters.

So, while this insurance is only about $30 a month, it has limited applications to how you can use it.

Environment Maintenance

About the only thing that you need to keep up with environmental maintenance for your goat is their bedding. You need to swap it about once every 2 weeks, but it’s a low-cost item to replace.

If you buy their bedding in bulk, you can get enough to last for around 2 years for $40 to $50, or about $1.50 to $2.00 a month.

Entertainment

While you don’t need to invest in any sort of entertainment for your goats, they’d appreciate it if you did! One of a goat’s favorite pastimes is climbing, so the more things that you can add to their pen for them to climb, the happier they’ll be.

You don’t need to spend a ton of money each month on new things for them to climb on, but a new addition every once in a while would be a nice touch!

Total Monthly Cost of Owning a Goats

While the initial cost of owning a goat is relatively expensive, once you have everything that they need, the month-to-month cost is quite reasonable.

The low monthly cost is one of the perks of owning a goat, and if you’re willing to put in the hard work yourself, there’s no reason that you need to spend more than $20 to $25 a month caring for them.

Additional Costs to Factor In

While goats aren’t overly expensive creatures, there are a few other factors that you need to consider before bringing one home. Chief among these is who’s going to care for them while you’re away.

While goats don’t need a ton of attention if you’re just making a short trip, for longer vacations, you’ll need someone to stop by and check in on them.

Another expense that you need to consider is any potential damage that they can cause to your property if you’re not careful. Goats are notorious for knocking down fences and destroying lawns, but it comes down to how much space your goats have to roam and the quality of your fencing.

Just be ready for the occasional repair bill to crop up when your goats get a little rowdy! Finally, if you live far out in the countryside, you need to prepare yourself for what you’re going to do if foxes or other wild animals show up to attack your goats.

You might need to invest in additional security, or you might need to set traps to catch the wild animals before they can go after your goats!

Owning a Goat on a Budget

Once your purchase your goat and get everything set up, they are not expensive to own month to month. If you’re trying to save money and own goats on a budget, it’s definitely possible.

The most expensive part of owning a goat is setting up the pen, but if you’re willing to be creative, there are plenty of objects that you can repurpose. Otherwise, you can build the fence yourself and save a few bucks.

Just ensure that it’s at least 5 feet tall; otherwise, your goat can find a way to climb it and escape!

Saving Money on Goat Care

Since you can care for a goat for as little as $20 to $25 a month, there’s not much you need to do to save money on their care. You should buy things in bulk to drive down costs, but besides that, the main thing is simply not buying extras that you don’t need.

If you’re on a tight budget, that is relatively easy to do!

Final Thoughts

Before you head out and purchase your new baby goat, ensure that you have everything that you need to care for them, both in terms of physical possessions and financial means.

For all their upfront costs, including the price of the goat, you can expect to spend anywhere from $700 to $7,000, and that doesn’t account for the month-to-month costs that come with owning a goat.

While these costs are much more manageable at between $20 and $150 a month, that’s still something that you need to consider when setting up your budget and caring for your new pet!

Featured Image Credit: Barilo_Picture, Shutterstock