I was wondering if there was a way i could get a better chance of my doe having does than bucks, I heard you could breed you doe at their early stage of their heat. Does this work the majority of the time, or is their a better alternative?
Thanks,
Sophia
Replies
Right! Maybe I should try Doritos next year!
Melissa Johnson said:
Diane, it was the raisins. :/
Diane Kennedy said:
Thanks for sharing! This reminds me of someone saying that they got a book on how to sex chicks, and after studying it, they sexed their chicks, and they were right on about 50% of them! :)
Diane Kennedy said:
I realized I never reported back on my results with the pep-talk-and-a-treat method. To review, I put my doe Ora on the stand every morning during her pregnancy, and said, "now, Ora, I want you to have two kids, both healthy, about two pounds each, easy kidding, both girls, OK?" and I would then give her a couple of raisins. She wolfed the raisins down, so I figured we had a deal. Results were mixed. She did have two kids, both healthy and a very quick labor and delivery (I can't say whether it was easy since I was the one holding the towels and she was the one doing all the yelling). BUT - one kid was 4 lbs and the other was 3 lbs. And they were both bucklings!
In my health classes - we had a guest speaker with crohn's disease that cured himself by keeping an eye on his ph.
He commented that drinking lemon water helped to change the bodies ph - along with food of course. There was something about the acid in lemon that adjusted ph. Now I'm confused, do we want acidic bodies or alkaline? I do know neutral is what we want for our own bodies. :/ lol
Ok, Deborah, now we are all going to have a talk with our does about how we dont like a bunch of smelly boys, and girls nurse much more nicely and we like it nice and calm like we all we have are girls. ^^
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Again, the short answer to the question is -- if it were possible, everyone would be doing it. Here is the long answer --
As someone said, it is the male that determines the gender. Females only have X chromosomes, but males have X and Y, so it depends upon which sperm fertilizes the egg that determines whether it is a male or female. Yes there are those who state that you are more likely to get females if the environment of the vagina is more acidic. However, it is not that simple to actually put this into practice. The reality is that the X chromosomes are more likely to survive a slightly acidic environment. This does not mean that all of the Y chromosomes are killed. And when you are talking about hundreds of millions of sperm -- and it only takes one to fertilize an egg -- you are not going to realistically increase the chances of a female by altering the ph of the vagina. I have never heard of anyone putting vinegar into a goat's vagina. The thing that people usually do is add vinegar to their goats' water. And I know people who put vinegar in the goat water daily for health reasons, and they have 50/50 through the years just like everyone else.
What Sophia originally posted about timing of sex is also a fairly common suggestion, even for women who want to have a son or daughter. Supposedly male sperm swim faster, but female sperm live longer, so having sex before you ovulate is more likely to result in a female because more male sperm will have died by the time that the egg pops out. Having sex after ovulation is more likely to result in a male because the male sperm swim faster. Maybe the swimming stuff is true, but making this work is another story. Again, there are hundreds of millions of sperm, and you only need ONE to fertilize the egg, so you probably are not really going to increase or decrease the odds of male or female by timing of sex. They are talking averages, not absolutes. This does not mean that every male sperm swims faster than every female sperm or that every male sperm is going to die within a couple hours. And the thing about breeding goats that we have discussed on here lots of times -- and why it can be a challenge even getting a doe pregnant if you don't own a buck -- is that you don't know how long a doe has been in heat when you first see her. If you walk into the barn in the morning and see a doe in heat, she might have been in heat already for 12 hours or more because they don't always act like they're in heat when in the early stages.
Can't wait to hear! :)
Diane Kennedy said:
I'm trying Deb's pep talk method. Every day when I put the pregnant doe on the milkstand, I say to her, "two kids, both healthy, easy births, both kids about 2 lbs each, both does. OK?" and I give her a couple of raisins (her favorite treat). She's due to kid next week, and I'll let you know if it worked. :)
Human prespective here :) I had two girls after I remarried, already had two boys. My 1st husband remarried and threw another male offspring. So I do think IMO that the male can continue to throw one sex more then the other.
I've heard, never tried, that the pH of the female vagina can affect the male / female sperm and that eating certain foods can change that pH.
I do like the pep talk idea.. :)