So, while you shouldn’t ignore severe rain and adverse weather conditions, you don’t have to worry too much about it as long as all their basic needs are met.
Continuous, very heavy rain, in a situation where your goat has no shelter, could be a problem.
Let’s look further into this.
Are goats okay in rain?
For the most part, yes.
Goats typically don’t like rain, and yours will probably head for shelter at the first sign of rain.
This isn’t always true, but it’s the first thing you should know since it gives you an idea of what their knee-jerk reaction is.
In terms of their health, though, you won’t have a problem, again, as long as you provide adequate shelter.
For a healthy goat, a bit of rain isn’t likely to cause any serious problems.
They will just get out of it, and it will annoy them.
That said, though, for a goat that wasn’t entirely healthy, rain could be more of a problem.
If the goat was at all undernourished or in any way sickly, then the rain could cause a more serious injury under long exposure.
Again, though, as long as your goats are happy, healthy, and have access to shelter, even continuous rain should not be a problem for them.
If it is excessively wet where you live, you may want to consider making the goat’s shelter more appealing to stay in for long periods of time.
But can rain actually kill goats?
Can rain kill goats?
Again, under the right circumstances, it certainly could.
If there was continuous rainfall of, say 24 hours, then that could well be enough to cause a fatal condition in even a healthy goat if it did not have access to adequate shelter.
The simple answer is that if you are properly caring for your goats, rain should never kill them.
That said, part of caring for them is also making sure they are not displaying signs of any illness.
For a serious illness, a few hours of rain might be all it took.
So, while the risk from rain is virtually zero for healthy goats, you still need to be vigilant at all times.
Don’t take any chances, however hardy you might think your goats are.
Do goats need protection from rain?
Yes, if that wasn’t already clear.
While many might say that goats do not need shelter because they survived, and still survive, in the wild without them—these goats also have the choice to go where they please.
Your goats are confined to their pasture, and if they cannot find adequate natural protection under trees or rocks, then they will have to endure the rain in a way they otherwise would not.
Wild goats, it is true, do not have bespoke ‘shelters’ as such, but they are able to take shelter nonetheless.
So, yes, goats need protection from rain.
You should have individual space for each of them to occupy, both when sleeping and sheltering from rain, and communal space for them to share.
As I said, if you are living in a place where the rainfall is very high, you’ll want to consider how you can make the shelter more appealing to stay in for long periods of time.
If you live somewhere very dry, your goats will likely spend most of their time outside, and only come inside at night.
Do goats hate rain?
You might be wondering, then, how we think goats feel about rain.
The simple answer is that there is no universal answer—they often feel very differently about it, depending on the individual goat.
For the most part, however, we may say that goats do seem to dislike rain to a large degree.
This makes sense for hairy animals such as this who can take a long time to dry out after becoming wet.
This is another reason you need to provide them a shelter.
Most of the time, as most goat owners will tell you, all of your goats will pretty much immediately retreat into the shelter when it rains.
So, we can say with enough certainty that goats don’t like rain that you should definitely not leave them to stand out in it.
Goats are usually pretty good at taking care of themselves, once you’ve provided adequate food and shelter.
But that doesn’t mean you should simply leave them to their own devices.
Heavy rain for a long period of time could well be enough to do fatal harm to your goat, so there is no point in taking that chance.
Make sure your goats have adequate shelter at all times, and access to it at all hours of the day.
Whether your goats love or hate rain, it isn’t entirely safe for them.