My first timer Selah has had two heat cycles in the last couple months. She was put in with one of my bucks but she wouldn't let him anywhere near her. I kept her with him for 2 days and nights but she didn't get pregnant. This time i tried my other buck. He is more proactive and will chase her. She wanted nothing to do with him. She tried ramming herself into walls trying to get away from him. She is not scared of the bucks, she sees them yearround through a fence. I tried holding her still so bucks could do their thing but every time they aproached her, she would freak out. I don't want to wait a year because I got told if a doe is a certain age and it's her first time kidding, she wont have the right hormones and will die of exhaustion. Selah is over 18 months but is still petite. I don't know what to do. All my other does got pregnant but Selah is being stubborn. Should I wait it out or try to find her a new home where she can just be a pet? I don't want to sell her because I've had her since she was 3 months old but I can't really keep her because I have limited space and need goats that will give milk and produce kids. Any ideas?
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If she is seriously only a foot tall, I would NOT breed her. I have one like that. She's six years old, and I never sold her because I was afraid someone would try to make teacup goats or something crazy. She actually makes the BEST quarantine goat because she's small and doesn't challenge anyone, so she has a job here to be a companion to any goat that needs company. For example, I put her in with a goat that was paralyzed from meningeal worm. I used to use a wether as a companion animal but they're always challenging other animals when they first get put in a pen with them because they want to establish who's the boss, which is not what you want if you have an animal that's sick. But that's not a problem with Lil. Her registered name was going to be Little Dipper because she was born a tiny triplet -- half the size of her sisters, one of whom was named Big Dipper.
And she is quite a chunk too. She always looks pregnant, even though she gets nothing but hay and pasture.
Ok I know she didn't get pregnant the first time because she came back into heat 3 weeks later. At this point, I am seriously considering selling her as a pet because of her small size. She weighs about 40 lbs but is a chunk. She is about a foot tall and is a foot long. I don't know. If she doesn't get pregnant this time, i'll have to make the hard decision whether to wait a year, or sell her as a pet. What would you do?
What you describe is a doe that is not in "standing heat." Even if you were able to hold her, and a buck bred her, she would not get pregnant. Plenty of people have tried, and it just doesn't work because there are no eggs available to be fertilized. Catching junior does in heat is a challenge, and about half the time I wind up just pen breeding them -- and I've been doing this for 13 years. If you left her with a buck for two days, she very well could be pregnant. I assume you were not there watching for 48 hours. :) A few years ago, a woman bought two does from me, and she kept emailing and complaining that they weren't coming into heat. Then one day she called me in a panic because one of them was in labor! At that time, I learn that she had left them with the buck for 15 minutes one time and went in the house.
When you say this doe is petite, I'm wondering if you should even be breeding her. If she is not at least 40 pounds, then she could have kidding difficulties, especially if she only has one kid, which will be bigger than if she were to have twins or more.
" if a doe is a certain age and it's her first time kidding, she wont have the right hormones and will die of exhaustion." -- I have never heard this before, and it's just plain ridiculous. I can't even imagine where someone would come up with something like that. Perhaps they had an older FF that had problems kidding? It sounds like the kids were too big or malpresented, and she just couldn't give birth to them, in which case, she will die without veterinary assistance. But that has nothing to do with age at first freshening. There is no reason for any doe to "die of exhaustion" when giving birth. There is no such thing.