This morning my doe was "ready", so much so that she wasn't interested in breakfast only in the boys. I put her in with them and since my mature buck, Earl, was carrying on so much, I thought he wouldn't let my bucklings near her. Not so. My most precocious buckling, Leo, was the first to take charge and immediately mounted her and did the big thrust, AND she scooted her bottom under. Well, if I'd been smart I would have taken her out of there at that point but no I didn't :( Earl mounted her within 2 minutes or so after her encouragement and he also completed his mission. SO, my question is, what should I do if she is pregnant? Should I DNA test one of the boys to then test the kids to see who is daddy? Also, is it possible to have kids from each of them if she had twins?
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Yes, I did the test, and it turned out that her dad was the same as her brother. And now three of my bucks have their DNA on file, so if they break through another fence, at least I don't have to test them again.
Phebe said:
I only have 2 buck, and they are unrelated to each other. Both are horned, and brown eyes, so that won't help me with paternity.
I'm excited for my first kidding this February! I just hope my milking doe stays in milk long enough to carry us through until I can use the milk from my first fresheners.
Rachel's comment jogged my memory. I was also able to avoid testing in the past because when I had a question, the doeling popped out with blue eyes or was polled, and since I only had one buck that was blue eyed or polled, that meant he was the daddy because the doe was brown eyed and genetically horned (disbudded). My luck finally ran out two years ago though. The doeling brother was polled, but she was not. I knew that my polled buck had bred the doe, which was why the buckling was polled, but with three bucks in there, the doe could have been bred by all three, and then it was just a matter of which sperm was swimming the fastest to fertilize the different eggs. She could have had triplets all sired by different bucks!
GO TEAM BOY ;-)
I had this happen last year. One of my bucks was blue eyed, and my doe was not. Thankfully, she kidded with a blue eyed baby, so that answered the Q of who the baby daddy was!
If there is more than one buck that could have bred her, then there is the chance of kids from both bucks so you would have to test all of them. If you don't want to register them, you could sell the girls without papers though and not test them.
I avoided doing this for years -- and I was able to because the doe always had bucks, so I just wethered them and sold them as pets. But two years ago a doe gave birth to a doeling! Assuming your goats are registered with ADGA, you contact them and tell them how many goats you want to have DNA tested, and they will tell you the price and send you the paperwork to fill out on each goat to be typed.
It's around $25 per goat tested, so if you have a doe, two bucks, and a kid, that's four goats or about $100, but once the goats are typed, you will never have to do that again because they'll have their DNA on record. You have to pull hair for the test -- and you have to be sure to get the roots because that's what they really need for the DNA. The bucks didn't seem to care at all, and the doe not much, but the doeling was pretty upset with us! I think you have to get about 25-30 hairs. Once all of the results are in, they will tell you who's the daddy.
I'm not sure this will be a big issue. I can sell the offspring as unregistered if I don't know who the dad is. This is my first year having goats, so I'm not having high expectations for this breeding season since I don't really know what I'm doing yet...
Thank you for the info!
I had to look back at my records! My young doe came back into heat in 3 weeks and was bred to one of my bucks... so it wasn't an issue. I don't think the test is very expensive and Bio-tracking or Waddl can both do it. Haven't looked up how to do it because I didn't have to. Wonder if someone else would chime in on instructions?
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