Goats love to rub on things because it feels good. Especially during spring shedding, your goats will appreciate having a scratching post so that they can scratch that itch. Here are the instructions for building an affordable scratching post your goats will love!
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If you don’t have a scratching post for your goats they probably lean on fences, trees, or you to quell their itches!
You can help save your farm infrastructure and enrich your livestock’s daily experience by adding a scratching post to their enclosure. It’s cheaper and easier than you might think!
Here’s how we made ours:
Materials Needed for Making a Scratching Post for Goats
- Fence post
- Shovel or post-hole diggers
- Angle grinder
- Scrub brushes, broom heads, horse brushes, or other items
- Cordless drill
- 3-inch deck screws
- Washers
In our buck pen, we buried a 6.5-foot fence post to make the stand-alone scratching post you see in the pictures. In our doe enclosure, we screwed brushes to their wooden play structure. In the barn, we attached items to the side of the stall wall. Use what you have, and you might not need to buy or bury anything!
We used an angle grinder to cut pieces off the brushes that we purchased so that they could be mounted flush. Depending on what you buy, this may not be necessary.
We made our scratching post with different brushes, but the options for items that your goat would enjoy rubbing on are endless! A scrub brush, broom head, horse brush, or rubber mat work well. You can be creative and mix textures and materials to give your animals the ultimate scratching experience.
The brushes pictured are inexpensive ones from Amazon and the dollar store and probably will need to be replaced later this year. You can find longer-lasting, better-quality items at the hardware store or online if you are willing to invest a little bit.
Our post features synthetic materials: plastic, nylon, and rubber for the goats to rub on. If you prefer natural fibers, wooden horsehair brushes are an option.
The brushes, or other items, can be affixed to a post or other structure with a drill and screws. We drilled pilot holes in the items and used 3-inch deck screws with a washer to fit to keep them from pulling through.
Directions for Making a Scratching Post for Goats
- 1. Determine where you want your scratching post and dig a hole with a shovel or post-hole diggers. Bury the post and make sure to tamp down thoroughly.
- 2. With an angle grinder, remove any projections on your brushes that would make them difficult to mount
- 3. Drill pilot holes in your brushes with the drill
- 4. Fit a washer to the head of your deck screws and put the screw into the pilot hole in your brush
- 5. Screw tightly to the scratching post
- 6. Repeat the procedure for additional brushes/items
- 7. Introduce the post to your goats and let them scratch away!
Closing Note on Scratching Posts for Goats
If your goats are scratching excessively, losing hair, or seem to have a skin condition please seek veterinary care. External parasites like lice and mites can make your goats very itchy and a scratching post will not take care of the problem.
Mother, farmer, author, and teacher by trade… She loves tending to things and watching them grow!