Polled questions

I bought my first polled doe this year. I ended up getting her at 3 days old because the breeder lives really close to me and the mother rejected the kids. At 12 weeks she is starting to have these little bumps that feel like horn buds on a newborn. I’ve heard of polled bumps but as this is my first polled goat I’m curious if that is what these are? How common is this? 

On a separate doe I am starting to question if she is polled. The thing is I would have no other reason to think she is except for slightly delayed horn growth. She was very small at birth. Under 1lb. Had to be syringe fed for a week. She is still slightly smaller than her siblings but she is close to their size and she has gained significant amounts of weight and strength since her birth. The only difference is her siblings were disbudded weeks ago and I’m yet to feel anything on her more than a slight bump on either side. She is 5 weeks old! The thing is, I do not own any polled bucks. None of my bucks have polled parents or even polled grandparents. The dam is not polled and has no polled relatives. There is no possibility she was bred by an outside buck. Is it possible she is just behind in her development on her horns as she is in everything else? What are the chances that generations of polled goats were misregistered as horned?

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Replies

  • There MUST be a polled parent for a kid to be polled. A polled aunt, uncle, grandparent, etc does not count. As Deborah mentioned above, sometimes a goat is mistakenly disbudded, but is actually polled, and then they start 'mysteriously' throwing polled kids. If you are 100% without a doubt sure that both of her parents are horned, then she is not polled. 6 weeks is still pretty late to get horns but she was very tiny and the doelings typically sprout them a later than bucklings. Horned kids have a swirl pattern in the hair at the base of where the horn comes out (like a cow lick), the skin is attached to the skull in the center of the swirl, and the tip of the bud is sort of pointy. Polled kids 'typically' do not have the defined swirl, the top of the bud is very round (like the top of a gumdrop), and you can very slightly move the skin at the center of the gumdrop as it is not attached there.

  • Sorry for the confusion. I should have separated those two questions. The 12wk old is definitely polled. The one in question who does not have polled parents is 6 weeks old. I’ve attached pictures of her. 8961704472?profile=RESIZE_710x

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  • I’ve never heard of a 12-week kid growing horns but then less than a pound at birth is really small. It is entirely possible for people to disbud polled goats and incorrectly register them as disbudded. That’s why there is a myth that polled genes can skip a generation. Can you post photos of her head?
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