I have two pet does. I sometimes have bizarre questions! My girls just turned three this month. They have never been pregnant. The teats on both goats are growing longer and they seem to have a little softness (udder) surrounding them. I've tried to research a little and see this can be considered a precocious udder. Has anyone had this experience with "older" never pregnant does? Also, we may breed this winter for babies next spring 2014. Are there special considerations for four year old first time moms? If we decide not to breed we may try to spay our girls. Their heats are driving us - and them nuts! That's another discussion, as I understand this can be a tricky surgery for ruminants.
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Thanks for your comments, ladies. I don't have a picture but it could be described as a very small "pooch". The teat growth just surprised me. Our goats are truly our treasured pets. We would not be breeding for milk. I would like to give my human daughters the experience of being a part of birthing kids. I've been a little on the fence because so much can go wrong and to lose one of our goats would be devastating. We could not breed this year because we will be away for the month of June. I'd like to breed for June arrivals because I am a teacher and June begins summer vacation when I would be home. Perhaps I have lost my window for breeding. This is also ok. Thanks again.
I agree with Deborah! I know even Deborah has had an FF at 3, but I would go ahead and breed them right away IF possible! I would think that 4 would really be harder than 3 and if I remember we have had some people talk about it getting harder to get them pregnant if they are older and have not had kids already too. That may have not been on here but I think it was!
"They" say that the older a doe is before being bred the first time, the greater the risk of complications. If you want to breed them, why wait any longer?
Do you have pictures? I have an "older" doe that doesn't have an udder, but another doe that had a small pooch. It was not the same as what a developing udder looks like. It is more like a "space saver" where you can see where their udder WILL be...
I don't know about specific considerations for breeding older does, but I do think that it can be harder on does that have not freshened at a younger age. I'm not sure if 3 is *that* age or not. Might be older.