Of course, sometimes courting behaviors do slip over into everyday behavior, and you may see your goats spitting at one another from time to time when they aren’t mating.
Primarily, though, if you notice one of your male goats spitting at a female (or even you!), the goat is trying to woo them.
Once your goats have heard others spitting, it may even spread among the herd and become a common behavior.
Essentially, though, it will start as courting behavior.
Do goats spit when angry?
Spitting, and indeed loud noise making in general, is a staple of goat existence as I’m sure you know.
They bleat, yell, scream and spit during all hours of the day.
As herd animals, communicating with noises is essential as it allows individuals to send messages very quickly.
One of the things they might be trying to communicate with a spit is simple, strong emotion.
Goats are highly expressive creatures, and also highly protective of personal space at times.
If you notice your goat spitting at or getting frustrated with other members of the herd, it may be because its angry.
However, the likelihood is it simply felt like making some noise and expressing itself.
Goats will make a variety of noises simply in order to stay in regular contact with other members of the herd.
Spitting is a good, loud, fast noise that gets the attention of the herd.
Equally, though, they are probably more likely to resort to a simple bleat or yell most of the time.
As I’ve said, Spitting is primarily a courting behavior, so they prefer to preserve its use for that purpose alone.
Your goats have no reason to be angry if they have ample space and food, so don’t start worrying that your goat is upset if you hear it spitting.
If it seems to do it a lot while also distancing itself from the herd, there may be something else going on.
Why do goats yell like humans?
Goats, as I mentioned and as you know if you own any, make a lot of very distinctive noises.
Their close relationship to sheep gives them a lot of the same vocal range, but they also make a much greater variety of noises on top of that.
Possibly the most well-known is their tendency to yell like humans.
It leaves a great impression if you’ve never heard it before.
You might be forgiven for hearing it in a field or two away and thinking it actually was a human yelling.
This is a more basic type of vocalization than spitting, and serves any number of purposes.
As I mentioned, herd animals need to have reasonably robust means of communicating.
They rely on shared knowledge and senses to be able to get along in the wild.
They might simply vocalize if they’re hungry.
An individual might vocalize if it is hurt, injured or in pain; a simple expression of raw emotion and call for help from the herd.
One of the most practical applications for yelling is to signal incoming danger from predators.
Herd animals are typically hyper-aware of their surroundings for best protection, so when they hear an unexpected scream, the whole herd will look up.
Screaming, yelling, or bleating is a much more basic and ubiquitous noise made by goats.
It serves a much wider range of purposes than spitting, although there is obviously some overlap.
When it comes to warning the herd of imminent danger, any noise will do.
How do you tell if a goat is stressed?
Goats express themselves primarily through vocalization, and so you can expect to find that noises being made could mean a number of things.
Excessively spitting or bleating could be an indication of stress.
If it is making lots of noise where the others in the herd are not, it could have something wrong with it that needs to be examined.
If your herd is large enough, you may notice other goats bullying the stressed goat.
They may need to be separated if you see this.
Temperature extremes can also cause stress.
Goats generally do not like rain, and in excessive rainy weather they may become stressed or irritated.
The weather is really the only thing which could cause stress over which you have no control.
Unless it has developed an injury or illness, there’s no real reason for your goat to be stressed.
Make sure it has plenty of space and food and exercise and eat with the rest of the herd.
Spitting is not normally an indication of stress, in fact the opposite.
So, do not worry too much if your goat is spitting a lot.
To wrap up, then, spitting does serve a number of purposes.
But it is most commonly a courting behavior more or less exclusive to males.
Goats simply play by different social rules than you and I. I don’t think we would be very successful using this method to try and court in the human world.
But for goats, it’s perhaps an indication of vocal prowess to potential mates.