Ok so I have decided I'm going to breed my Nigerian Dwarf Irena in November or December. She will be One year 9months by then and will be a first time mother. This will also be my first breeding and I have all these pros and cons, well the cons are taking over. My friend has the buck I will be using, and she is also worried about what might happen to, and she has been raiseing goats her whole life just about. She is getting a Nigerian buck for her doe and mine. We were planing on using him for her first kidding, but Irena was a triplite and so is Jackson (the buck). So my friend said "She could have a chance of having 4 kids in her first kidding and that might possible kill her". Well that scared me!!! So we then decided to use one of her dwarf sized fainters, that way she might have one or two and she would stretch back there. But someone told me if she had one kid, it might be too big and that could kill her. Now I have no clue what to do! And to make things worse, my friend's (the same friend as above and who's buck I will be using) Nigerian she just got, died giving birth too twins and only one kid servived. So now both her and I are terrified to breed Irena! But I also don't know who to breed her too, the ND or the fainter???? Please help me! I have no clue what to do, but I do want to breed Irena!
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Thast what I was thinking. It sounded wrong. :/ I'm wondering is she gave me the wrong buck's info? She is gone so I won't hear from her for a week.
That does not sound like a purebred Nigerian, if he is only six months old. There are mature bucks that big!
Payton Larson said:
I was too lazy to start a new post. I got info on the buck.
Jackson 66 pounds and 22 inchs tall at 6months of age.
Irena 46lbs and 20inches tall at 1 yr and 6months.
Does this sound like a good match? I don't have pics of him
It is hard to know if Irena is in heat. When I was at my friends house to clip her for the fair, she had one of her baby bucks out and Irena went into instant heat. She did the same thing at fair when she had to walk by the big boar bucks. I looked at her -_- and was like "Irena really"? So I hope I can catch her in heat in one of the two months. She can be a little stinker.
Well that's good to know about the grain when she is pregnant. Lol and yes she is "well loved", I will cut back on her grain. You guys have help me soo much and made me feel better about breeding her. Her kids might have a possibility of having moon spots! My mom is going to let me keep one of her doe's. The hay we have is sort of a mix of grass, alfalfa and clover.
The really is not a right or wrong answer about which month to breed her. Personally I do not like summer kiddings, and since you might not catch her in heat right away, I'd breed her in November if you see her in heat. When I was new, I wanted to have everyone kid in a certain month, and I would not breed a doe if I saw her in heat in one month if I wanted her to kid a month later. Well, a month later, I'd miss her heat! So, I'd wind up with does having kids a lot later than I wanted.
There really is not a buck that makes kids that are easier/harder to birth provided he is within the ND standard for height. The most important thing about big kids is how you feed the doe during pregnancy. If she is well conditioned, and you are giving her a rich diet with grain and alfalfa throughout her pregnancy, she will have bigger kids. I don't feed any grain to my pregnant does until the last week or two of pregnancy, and then it's only a cup or two a day, depending upon the doe's condition. If she is on the chubby side, it's just a cup a day to basically get her system back into the habit of digesting grain. A couple of years ago, my daughter misunderstood my feeding directions for does in the kidding barn, and we wound up with kids 3-5 pounds rather than 2-3 pounds! I don't want to do that again.
Payton Larson said:
A dry doe of Irena's age really does not need grain unless she is milking. It will just make her fat, and then it could be hard to get her pregnant. She really doesn't even need alfalfa. Grass hay would be better, but if she's on pasture most of the day, a little alfalfa is not a big deal. I thought she looked "well loved" in that picture! :)
Payton Larson said:
I am in northern MN. I had my does with the bucks from December 1 to 21. The does kidded between April 23 and May 2. It was still cold then, and we had to use heat lamps and a space heater for the first day or so after each doe kidded. We made SURE we used them safely, but still I wish I hadn't had to use them. It made me nervous! I also had to make little coats for the smaller kids for when I brought them outside because the wind chilled them quickly. All went well though!
I know Deborah's right about the parasites being less when things are frozen though. I did have to deal with cocci in a few of the kids, but the others never had a problem. I also have had quite a bit of parasite trouble beginning after the kiddings, but we had a very wet spring/summer.
Any way, that's my experience. I plan to breed the same this winter even though the parasite trouble is a real issue. I just feel too nervous about dealing with the possibility of really cold weather. Sometimes April here is still very much winter. Some years there's even still snow on the ground in May.
Most of our hay is clover and alfalfa. My goats have free choice minerals all the time! I need to add baking soda too it but we never have some and keep forgetting to get some. Irena does get grain, but I keep forgetting to give it to her. Thank you all for the help and support!!! I was really starting to panic.
Well I think I'm going to breed her. I have to get more info about Jackson, my friend keeps telling me that he has champion bloodlines and beautiful udder blood lines. I want to know if his kids he produces, birth out easy or difficult. Even though she doesn't have him yet and he is still young, I don't know. I also have to convince my friend that this is what I want to do. So should I go ahead and breed her in November or December? If so which month?
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