So I already have my thoughts on this but am wondering what others think.
I have a doe who I purchased that was suppose to be bred when I picked her up and due on March 8th. The plan was to keep her there long enough to be bred if she came back into heat. But we got in a rush and picked her up just a couple weeks after she was bred. Sure enough shortly after bringing her home she came back into heat right on time. But at the time I didn't have a buck to breed her to so she went un bred till I could find a nice buck. I did find a buck and planned to pick him up the day said doe was suppose to come back into heat again. Sure enough upon my arrival back home with the buck she was in obvious heat, right on time. I put her and the buck together hoping I wasn't too late but she wasn't having it. I didn't see how I could be late as just the night before she was not in heat and I got home fairly early in the afternoon the next day. So I left them together overnight hoping she would come into a stronger heat over night. The next day they still had no interest in each other so I just split them up. She never really came into a strong heat and to my knowledge never got bred. But 21 days later she never came back into heat so thought some way she got bred overnight when I wasn't around. So she now had a due date of April 17th.
Over the past couple weeks I have noticed her to really be getting big. I had her ultra sounded and was confirmed bred with at least one. But it was just by a friend that has a machine, not a professional, so I wouldn't be surprised if we missed some. I decided to see if I could feel some babies in her and I definitely felt some babies kicking around in there! Which again I thought was a little surprising because she is just over a couple months pregnant.. Supposedly.
So what do you think? Is she bred by her first breeding at the breeder I purchased her? Or is she bred by my buck in November?
If she is pregnant from her first breeding I don't understand why she would come into heat 2X after being bred exactly on time each heat. I know I have heard of cases where does come into heat after being bred successfully and kid on time, But I don't understand it.
Replies
She has to be at least 28 days pregnant. Milk supply doesn't matter. Here is the info:
http://dairyone.com/analytical-services/pregnancy-testing/
He gets 4 grams of COWP every 3-4 Months and has access to loose minerals free-choice.
The weird part was that he was super interested when my tiny does (too small to be bred) a week ago and was blubbering like a fool over them, but this week he wasn't interested in the other doe at all. There are so many variables with goats! Is there home test I can purchase to test her milk? She's still in milk but drying up (her 5 month old daughter is still nursing) so I could do it that way if it's cheaper and still accurate.
Sounds like she was in heat. The only time I ever had a buck act disinterested in a doe that was in heat was years ago when we had a problem with copper deficiency.
I gotta say I LOVE being able to get a preg test done on our monthly milk samples!
I don't want to high-jack Nicholas' post, but this is kind of along the same lines as his post.
Can pregnant does be "in love" with the bucks, similar to the way they are when they are in heat? I have a doe who I thought was pregnant (she would be 48 days in right now if she is) and she acts like my buck is the greatest thing since sliced bread. She wasn't showing any signs of going back into heat (no flagging, no swollen vulva etc.) the way she did when I bred her the first time. She was yelling at my buck though and watching him all starry-eyed so I put her in the pen with him to see what would happen, and he completely ignored her. She was rubbing herself against him, backing up to him and waving her lady-parts in his face. All he would do was sniff her and go back to eating his hay, which was NOTHING like he acted when I put them together the first time (He went wild, yodeling, snorting, pawing and chasing her around). I had to pen-breed them the first time because I had to be gone for several hours and I never saw a successful breeding. I plan to do a pregnancy test this month to check for sure.
Are bucks sometimes picky about their mates like does can be? Usually if there is a doe in heat and he gets a wiff of it he goes crazy and starts mounting my wether and yelling at the top of his lungs, but he showed NO interest in her whatsoever.
If she isn't pregnant then I need to cut her alfalfa rations back because she's starting to get rounder. I can't tell if it's pregnancy round or just fat at this point. I really need to send off for a pregnancy test to make sure.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
I don't know which breeding got her pregnant or even if she is pregnant at all. Nature isn't perfect, so things don't always happen like the textbook says. Personally I think it's pretty amazing that it goes perfectly 95% of the time. If it were my doe I would be watching for an udder to start forming so that you don't walk out and get an ugly surprise one day. If you left a buck and doe together overnight and she seemed to be in heat, she very well could have been bred. But that does not mean she wasn't already pregnant. I had two does come into heat on schedule and stand for a buck, even though they were pregnant. So, it's not common, but it does happen.
The movement you felt in her belly may or may not be kids, but if it is kids, they are from the earlier breeding.
Like the article says, if you really want to know if a goat is pregnant, you need to get a test.
Although it is possible for a doe to have false heats when she is pregnant, it is not possible to feel a two-month-old fetus. There is a video in this post that shows how a goat's belly can show a lot of movement, even though she is not pregnant.
http://www.homegrownandhandmadethebook.com/2015/01/is-my-goat-pregn...