I am a newbie to goats with a doe and a doeling. I purchased the doe bred, or "probably bred". The breeder's exact words were "I hope it took". Were proceeding under the assumption that it did. When I saw the doe I immediately thought she must be VERY pregnant, but the breeder said "No, that's just her rumen." I had read that a wide goat is a healthy goat, but nothing ever said whether there was such a thing as too wide. My girl is a average ND, about 18" at the shoulder and around 75 lbs. She is 2 ft. wide at a minimum. I have yet to run across any photo of another ND this wide. Should I be worried?
You need to be a member of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats to add comments!
Replies
The width of a doe is really nothing to "worry" about. Like humans, some does lose their girlish figure after kidding a few times, especially if they tend to have triplets or quads. The goat's rumen is on the left side, so if you stand in front or in back of them and you only see the left side sticking out, that's just because the rumen is full. If the two sides are sticking out equally, or if the right side is sticking out more, then it's probably babies. If a goat just has a big belly, you usually see a concave area between the ribs and the hips. When they're pregnant, that area fills in, so they're pretty flat for the full length of their body, and the belly is totally convex, basically pushing out like a big beach ball.
Did your doe actually measure 18"? That is really short. Most does are 20-22" and around 60-70 pounds. If she is that short and really weighs 75#, that's probably overweight, but pregnancy is not the time to put a goat on a diet.