Hi all -
My 2nd doe kidded today - triplets. 2 gorgeous strong doelings and a smaller adorable buckling. I'm happy they are healthy and hearty. One has ears that point forward - I'm unsure what that is all about.
All my goats are first fresheners. First goat had her twins in about 2o minutes. This doe had her triplets in 20 minutes or less. Vet told me normally the whole process can often be 2 hours. I don't know if my heart could handle 2 hours of birthing! I count "active labor" as the time the mucus long extension thing comes out - serious contractions start, goat screaming - dilation occurs, head,etc appears - until the birth of the last kid. I don't count waiting for placenta OR the light contractions/pre-birth behaviors.
Good babies - found nipples, drinking, got dried - it was great and now I have 5 days to recover until the last goat births.
Ali (mother) is a gold doe - daughter of a light gold crème doe. Don't know what color the father was. I bred Ali - the gold doe - to a mahogany buckskin with broken white - who was from a tri-color doe bred to a black buck.
SO...how did I get 3 gold babies? I was expecting a few other colors because of all the other color on the fathers side even though moms side was mostly golds. I know gold is dominant - does it over-shadow all other colors? Not that I'm complaining - they are gorgeous and I can't wait to see them all shining in the sun in a couple days!
I love this color thing but I'm still learning ALOT. I'm unsure I'm breeding this fall at all - so that I can focus on developing my bigger plan but the following fall - I'll likely be breeding - so I'm trying to have fun getting a handle on the color game - just a little.
I know in many breeds of animals - focusing on color and individual characteristics leads one down dangerous routes creating problems in function and form. BUT - if one takes 3 "specimens" - all who fit fabulous structural and functional (dairy) characteristics - then the fun of having a color preference can be the final deciding factor - all other factors equal.
I want to know this for my own benefit since I like certain colors and looks. Gold is beautiful but I like other colors more.
So any websites that discuss colors - please point me to - I know there was one I found from this website in the past. Any tips or ideas or whatnot - let me know. I especially like black/white goats and the really lovely blue roans/roan type colors. How to I go there?
If you look at the Dragonfly Nigerian Dwarf website - you'll see pretty spectacular colors. But looking at the parents - you'd never guess they'd produce those kids. This is the fun of breeding. Isn't it funny - Nigerians are like guinea pigs with the incredible variety of colors and combos.
Can't wait to see my babies and all tomorrow!
Judy
Replies
All very interesting. The reason I'm trying to learn about colors is that I can only keep x-number of goats. And I also like to know who I'm looking at and enjoy a bit of variety. It is one of the really wonderful things about Nigerians is all the variety so I'm trying to plan for years ahead - not that we can ever predict. Thanks to everyone and great pictures!
Looking forward to my last doe kidding - crème doe bred to a chamoisee buck with possible roaning on him.
Judy
Thanks Deborah for the great information! Funny, the colors I look for and value are the ones that help me SEE my goats out there in the wooded pasture. I can't see the buckskins at all and the blacks and whites I can spot easily. That's my reason for wanting those! I like to be able to look out of the window and see all of my goats!
I have never seen any big studies on color in ND goats. I saw one study years ago that said frosting is a dominant trait. Only kids who had a parent with frosting had frosting themselves. Dominant means that if a goat has that gene, it is expressed. (Many people mistakenly use that word to mean that it happens a lot, but that is not what it means.) Genes for polled, blue eyes, and moonspots are dominant. That black-n-white spotted pattern that so many people like is recessive. The very first milk goat I ever bought was black-n-white, but she rarely threw kids that looked like her. However, her great great granddaughter has that pattern. Buckskin is also recessive. I have a black buck that throws a lot of buckskin kids. I actually can't think of any color in NDs that is a simple dominant, which means that it gets complicated.
Keep in mind that the value of color is subjective and varies from person to person. Also, your own tastes may change with time. I used to think the spotted goats were ugly, and the only reason I bought that first goat was because her seller said she was the best milker she had for sale. I figured I could overlook her ugly spots! It didn't take me long to pretty much ignore her spots because of the great milk she was giving us, and now my only color preference is that I don't like to have too many goats that look the same simply because I like to know who I'm looking at across the pasture. Other than that, I really don't care what color they are.
I think your best bet for black and white is black and white parents ;) My black doe Surrey was bred last year to a white buck and all the kids were bold black and white (3). I kept one buckling and he will be a herd sire this fall-- he's bold spotted black and white with blue eyes. My red buck was bred to all three of my does last fall. So far I have triplets from my broken buckskin doe who are 1) solid buckskin, 2) red and white big spots with black legs, and 3) tan and white. This is the fun part don't you think? Seeing what you get ;)
I wish I knew more about color genetics, too. I find them so interesting and fun as well. I could never have one of the breeds that only come in one color! ;)
The few things I do know are that moonspots, blue eyes, and polled require a parent with that trait in order to be passed to offspring. From totally non-scientific personal experience, it seems that buckskin may be a dominant pattern. My second kidding season, seven of eight kids were various shades of buckskin. Six of the seven were from buckskin mothers, one was from a solid chocolate doe. The sire of all of them was a black and tan sungau. One of the babies had roaning, which none of the parents had. Nigerian Dwarfs are like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to get. ;)
This website lists all of the different colors and patterns, though it doesn't go into the genetics much: http://nigeriandwarfcolors.weebly.com/coat-patterns.html
To my knowledge... patterns can carry over... and some markings, but other than that, the colors you get are a complete crap shoot.
I bred the doe on your right:
To this buck