Alright guys...a lot of you already know the story of Miyagi who sired the monster 6 # baby that almost killed Truffle...
I have psyched myself out to sell him two or three times but can't bring myself to do it. (granted I couldn't sell him till fall or winter anyway when I can get a replacement companion for my other buck)
I think it's safe to say I will never breed him to my ND does again, here is my question: if I bought him a "mini nubian" doe, would she be big enough to handle his babies?
Do mini nubians have kidding problems from big genes? Or is that a myth? I can't quite bring myself to buy a full sized nubian either so I thought maybe the "mini" version would be more to our liking, more of the ND qualities that I love so much and closer size to my other little girls.
Just kicking around ideas of how I might be able to keep him. Thanks
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Okay, so I will scrap the ultrasound idea. The point of ultrasounding wasn't to see how big they are but how many...I was just assuming a singleton by him would be too big? These vets are not goat people, they are horse vets. For some reason, they were willing to work on both of my emergencies even though I have been told that they would turn away goats in the past.
I generally have my goats on pasture approx 12 hours a day and then in the stall overnight where they either eat o/a mix hay or branches or a little of both. They are all probably fat. I am not really sure how to tell the difference between round belly and fat.
Wonder if I did not feed them anything overnight and they lived off pasture only plus milkers would get their grain on the stand, if that would be a light enough diet to keep from producing whopper babies.
I have a 22.5" doe that gave birth to a 5# kid, and I had another one that gave birth to a kid that was a little bigger, but I can't remember the exact weight now. I do recall that it was not easy for them, and they were 4-5 year old does. And in both cases, the kids were NOT singles.
Kids do most of their growing in the last month of pregnancy, so you wouldn't really know if it's too big until it's too late. I personally think that $50 is too much to pay someone that has no experience with goat ultrasounds. Six or seven years ago, I talked a dog and cat vet into doing an ultrasound for me on a goat that I was selling as bred, and she was nice enough not to charge me because she had never done one before, and she was wrong on the number of kids. But even an experienced person can be wrong on the number of kids.
Shannon, yes he is Nigerian but unregistered so I had feared that perhaps he had some standard in there somewhere that somehow popped up causing that whopper baby. The breeder who sold him to me (as a 2 month old weanling) said he was approx 99% purebred, she is apparently not talking to me anymore because we had a little falling out over a sick goat that she sold me later.
And yes it was a singleton kid. Same buck sired twins out of my other doe last year and she birthed them & raised them fine. Despite the fact that I deliberately did not feed the doe grain during her pregnancy, grain or not my goats are very well fed.
This whole thing is extra annoying because that same doe who had his kids without incident is due to be bred again now. He is sitting there oogling her and th eonly other buck I have is 2 1/2-3 months old and super babyish. Miyagi at that same age was already kinda bucky. But Chuck Norris is just a baby looking for his baba and his mama.
I kind of just want to breed Miyagi to Penny again but hubby says no, too risky. Penny did have a singleton the kidding before she had twins here. Could a full grown Nigerian push out a 6 lb baby without a C Section? Is there any way to abort once the fetuses are big enough to see on ultrasound? (if she had only one in there) I think my vet said she had an ultrasound small enough she could do the goat for me for $50. That's a helluva lot cheaper than $400 C section where maybe everyone doesn't make it.
My first generation mini mancha kids were 6-7 pounds. Sorry I don't know anything about mini-Nubians in particular.
I will put it this way: Under the circumstances I would be considering that because I use to have and LOVE nubians and their awesome ears and had actually been THINKING of getting the minis this time but was unable to find what I wanted and am glad now that I did more research and decided on my NDs that I ADORE!
So, although I can't tell you about the kidding etc. which would concern me, especially after what you have been through. I think it is a good idea to investigate.