A Guide to Breeding and Birthing Goats

[my spoiled chickens]

For anyone learning about breeding goats!
(I have NDG's and Pygmys so my experience is with them)


Here's the technical goat terms:
Buck or Billy=Male goat capable of breeding.
Doe or Nanny=Female goat.
Doeling= A female goat who has not been bred or not sexually mature.
Kid=A Baby Goat.
Buckling=A Male baby goat fully intact.
Wether=A neutered male goat.
Polled=Born without horns and shall never get horns

Here's some breeds and what they are used for
The Nigerian Dwarf Goat(NDG) used for Milk,Meat and Breeding
The Pygmy Goat used for Meat,Breeding and annoying everybody
The Boer Goat used for Meat
The Nubian Goat used for Milk and Hide

#1 Enviornment and Habitat
Goats are great in areas with overgrown foliage but during storms or bad weather they should have proper cover and housing
they need plenty of room 20 square feet each roughly

#2 Buck to Doe ratio
1 buck can cover up to 40 does at 3+ years
I think 1 buck with 3-4 does should be a good backyard herd
right now we have 2 does with one buck and they are doing good but I don't recommend having 2 bucks with under 10 girls

#3 Breeding
First you want to make sure the Buck is healthy before he covers the Does up to date with his shots and wormed
You can get a stud service but I recommend having him with the does for 45 days to make sure they have been sucessfully covered
NEVER breed two polled goats together it can make a Hermaphrodite goat(a goat with both male and female parts)

#4 Pregnancy
The gestation period for goats is 5 months(153days)or whenever its inconvienent for you

#5 Birthing
If it is her first time she may need help
You can tell when a goat has gone into labor because she will be away from the other goats and will be having "birth juice(?)" coming out and her sides will be hollow
Usually they won't need help but be prepared.Do not intervene unless she looks like shes having a hard time
If she is giving birth at night,you chug some coffee and stay with her(if it is her first time)
Once the kid is delivered dip its umbilical cord in iodine and give mama some warm water to drink
There will be afterbirth pick that up with a pitchfork and put it in the woods leave mama with her baby
If the baby goat is constapated then consider giving them an enema this is a guide to how to give a baby goat an enema
Google Tennessee meat goats enema(I tried to add a link but it wouldn't let me)

#6 How to bottle feed
IF the mama wont nurse her kid(s) you are gonna need to bottle feed them
Get some GMR(goat milk replacement) use the directions that should be located on the back and heat it up until warm but not hot.Get a bottle with a teat they might have some at TSC and hold the baby goat on your lap and they should take right to the teat

A good YouTube channel for raising goats is "Weed em and reap" they are a great homestead and I have learned a lot from them

Thank you for reading please comment on anything I might have gotten wrong

 

[my spoiled chickens]

@Ecarroll

 

[Ecarroll]

@Ecarroll

Thank you!

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Thank you!

No problem,Im a seasoned veteran by now

 

[Ecarroll]

No problem,Im a seasoned veteran by now

I don’t have goats but my friend does and she is going to breed them soon so I wanted to send this to her. She has never done it before and I was talking to her, seemed like the advice of someone experienced might help.

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Last time we birthed them it was a pygmy and we were bringing them in for the night becuz it was gonna get cold then our goat March went into labor right before we brought them in so we had to drag her up to the stall and my grandfather fell down while doing it so we named the two buckling's she had Topsy and Turvey

 

[cassie]

For anyone learning about breeding goats!
(I have NDG's and Pygmys so my experience is with them)


Here's the technical goat terms:
Buck or Billy=Male goat capable of breeding.
Doe or Nanny=Female goat.
Doeling= A female goat who has not been bred or not sexually mature.
Kid=A Baby Goat.
Buckling=A Male baby goat fully intact.
Wether=A neutered male goat.
Polled=Born without horns and shall never get horns

Here's some breeds and what they are used for
The Nigerian Dwarf Goat(NDG) used for Milk,Meat and Breeding
The Pygmy Goat used for Meat,Breeding and annoying everybody
The Boer Goat used for Meat
The Nubian Goat used for Meat and Hide

#1 Enviornment and Habitat
Goats are great in areas with overgrown foliage but during storms or bad weather they should have proper cover and housing
they need plenty of room 20 square feet each roughly

#2 Buck to Doe ratio
1 buck can cover up to 40 does at 3+ years
I think 1 buck with 3-4 does should be a good backyard herd
right now we have 2 does with one buck and they are doing good but I don't recommend having 2 bucks with under 10 girls

#3 Breeding
First you want to make sure the Buck is healthy before he covers the Does up to date with his shots and wormed
You can get a stud service but I recommend having him with the does for 45 days to make sure they have been sucessfully covered
NEVER breed two polled goats together it can make a Hermaphrodite goat(a goat with both male and female parts)

#4 Pregnancy
The gestation period for goats is 5 months(153days)or whenever its inconvienent for you

#5 Birthing
If it is her first time she may need help
You can tell when a goat has gone into labor because she will be away from the other goats and will be having "birth juice(?)" coming out and her sides will be hollow
Usually they won't need help but be prepared.Do not intervene unless she looks like shes having a hard time
If she is giving birth at night,you chug some coffee and stay with her(if it is her first time)
Once the kid is delivered dip its umbilical cord in iodine and give mama some warm water to drink
There will be afterbirth pick that up with a pitchfork and put it in the woods leave mama with her baby
If the baby goat is constapated then consider giving them an enema this is a guide to how to give a baby goat an enema
Google Tennessee meat goats enema(I tried to add a link but it wouldn't let me)

#6 How to bottle feed
IF the mama wont nurse her kid(s) you are gonna need to bottle feed them
Get some GMR(goat milk replacement) use the directions that should be located on the back and heat it up until warm but not hot.Get a bottle with a teat they might have some at TSC and hold the baby goat on your lap and they should take right to the teat

A good YouTube channel for raising goats is "Weed em and reap" they are a great homestead and I have learned a lot from them

Thank you for reading please comment on anything I might have gotten wrong

Nubians are dairy goats. They are raised for milk not meat. I am curious as to why you listed them as meat goats. When bottle raising baby goats do not use replacer. I can tell you from years of experience that plain old cow milk from the store works better than any replacer ever made, including the replacers made for kids. Some kids do fine on replacer, but others cannot tolerate it. They get the scours or worse, blow up and die.

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Nubians are dairy goats. They are raised for milk not meat. I am curious as to why you listed them as meat goats. When bottle raising baby goats do not use replacer. I can tell you from years of experience that plain old cow milk from the store works better than any replacer ever made, including the replacers made for kids. Some kids do fine on replacer, but others cannot tolerate it. They get the scours or worse, blow up and die.

The Nubian goat thing was a typo I thought I edited it out already as for the GMR when we used it (very rarely) it worked for us but not everyone's experiences are the same.You could also milk the goats and then put it in a bottle for the babies/baby

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Nubians are dairy goats. They are raised for milk not meat. I am curious as to why you listed them as meat goats. When bottle raising baby goats do not use replacer. I can tell you from years of experience that plain old cow milk from the store works better than any replacer ever made, including the replacers made for kids. Some kids do fine on replacer, but others cannot tolerate it. They get the scours or worse, blow up and die.

Also for some reason when I looked up what Anglo-Nubians are used for it says "Milk,Meat,and Hide"

 

[cassie]

Also for some reason when I looked up what Anglo-Nubians are used for it says "Milk,Meat,and Hide"

Just a comment. Even if you intend to leave the kids on the mother it is a good idea to introduce them to a nipple right after they are born. That way if it later becomes necessary to bottle feed them you can do so. If you don't, some kids will starve themselves to death rather than accept a bottle.