Keeping goats can make an important contribution to the livelihoods of small and landless farmers in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries. However, the capital cost of buying a goat can be prohibitive for very poor households. An alternative entry point is to keep the goats on a share basis, with a richer neighbour providing a goat or goats to a poorer neighbour to keep. The practice is governed by a complex set of rules and norms which are not easy to set out categorically, but the principle seems to be that equal shares go to owner and keeper. For example, when does that are kept in this way kid, one of the kids is generally given to the goat raiser, while the doe and her other kids may be returned to the goat owner after weaning. The price raised by selling shared goats is generally split equally between the owner and the goat’s keeper, after deducting the initial price of the goat if it was bought in by the owner. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of this practice in the southern region of Nepal, and to estimate the contribution that share-keeping goats may make to the livelihoods of households that were unable to buy a goat for themselves.