I have a 3 year old doe that has put on weight the last couple of months. She freshened at a year old and then did not get bred last year. I know that not getting bred can cause a doe to become overweight, but I am not sure how to remedy it (she's never been overweight before). She has just come into heat for the third time in the the last month and a half and I put her in with our buck for the third time. The first two times appeared to be text book breedings, but obviously she did not settle. Today was the same, things looked successful, but I'm not confident she will settle this time either. She is just on grass hay and they have a nice-sized, hilly outside pen. The only way I can think to get her to lose weight is for her to get pregnant, which is hard since she's gotten chunky. Advice?
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Good grief. Yes, you're right, I was handbreeding. My brain fell out a bit today, I guess. Trying to do to many things a once. Since she's only on grass hay, I figured there wasn't much I could do as there is nothing to cut out. Well, I'll keep an eye and hope for the best come spring!
Just for clarification, in case any lurkers are confused -- What you described earlier did not sound like pen breeding. You mention putting her with a buck when she appeared to be in heat. Pen breeding means you just put her in the pen with a buck and leave her there for a month or two. What you described is what most people refer to as hand breeding. The only thing I don't like about pen breeding is that I usually don't have a firm due date because it's unlikely that I'll be out there and see an actual breeding.
It's not a good idea to put a pregnant doe on a diet, so the best you can do is to not feed her too much. I'd definitely not give her any grain at all, and if you have a grass hay, that's what I'd feed her until the last 3 weeks or so of pregnancy, and then I'd switch to a grass-alfalfa blend.
Yeah, she hasn't left a lot of room for doubt. lol I've been around dairy goats all my life and I've heard about fat goats, I've just never owned one. She was pen bred 3 times and after the last time, she did not come back in to heat. I'm hoping that means she's pregnant, but that means I'm now onto another set of worries thinking about labor and delivery. All she ever gets is a good grass hay, as well as appropriate minerals, etc. Their pen is on a hill, although it's not as big as it should be for a proper weight loss program. Her health is good otherwise. Nice pink eyelids and an obvious healthy appetite. Do I just cross my fingers for safe delivery since once she's being milked, being over weight shouldn't be a non-ssue?
Yeah, she's a chunky girl.
Have you tried pen breeding? Just leave her with a buck for a month or two? When all else fails that usually does the trick.
I haven't been able to feel her ribs for a while. It's not just her belly. You can't tell as well with her winter coat, but she's shaped like a barrel. I can't blame this on a large rumen. :) You can see her tail is pretty fatty, too. I don't know as if I would call her obese, but she's definitely taken on a cobby look. I'm not sure I"m 100% happy with how well it all shows in the photos. I need to take the video camera up because it's really noticeable when you can see her moving around. I haven't weighed her recently to see what her gain has been in pounds. I used to lift her on the scale, but she's too heavy for me to lift now! I will have to remember to take a tape measure up with me. She is 3 years old, about 19 1/2 inches tall, and freshened once as a yearling. (Tail is a bit gunky as she's had some soft stools which I am working to solve)
I'm leaving for church right now, but I will take a photo this afternoon and post it for you. :)
They say that obese does are more likely to have complications during birth. However, I am curious what you mean by overweight. Does she just have a big belly? Can you feel her ribs at all? Does the underside of her tail look like a triangle (thick at the base and narrowing to the tip) or more uniformly thick to the end like a kielbasa? A lot of people mistakenly think their doe is fat when she has simply lost her girlish figure, and those does can even be underweight because their owners are just looking at their bellies. Can you post a photo?
Well, it's been 30 days since does were last bred and no signs at all of tubby coming back into heat. My next question then is how will her weight effect her pregnancy and labor? I would assume, just like with people, that it's not ideal to be heavy when pregnant.
Doe and buck usually get left for the day or as long as I can stand the racket. ;) We live in town, well, a town sorts, and the sounds from barn travel well down the meadow... lol I guess I will know in a day or two if she settled.
There are all sorts of things that can happen with the dates. For example, if she came back into heat 5-6 days after Sept. 28, that would make the Oct. 26 heat about 23 days after the last one, which isn't that far off base. Have you left her in there with the buck all day? I typically leave them with the buck for as long as they're in heat, which can be all day or even two days -- unless I have another doe that I need to breed to that buck. I don't want his sperm count to get too low.
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