At what age or weight is it safe to breed my doe goat?

[Farmgirl0422]

Hello! I'm 11 years old and have my first dairy goat. She is a nigerian dwarf saanen cross and was born 3/10/15. I was wanting to breed her as soon as its safe for her. I have read online that 80 pounds is a good weight to breed but wanted to see if anyone had suggestions since she's crossed with a nigerian dwarf and may turn out smaller than a Saanen overall. I don't have a scale to weigh her yet but she will be 4 months old on July 10th.
Thanks for any helpful replies!

 

[H Diamond]

She needs to be no less than 8 months old, but going off weight is much better. They need to be big enough to support themselves plus grow babies. Also big enough to have babies without complications. It will depend on if she takes after the big or the little side. If you can get an idea on her weight, we might be able to help more. You need to have a way to weigh your goats. Not only for breeding, but also for medication administration, etc.

 

[GitaBooks]

We had Nigerian Dwarfs for a while, and we bred them! Sounds like a lot of fun.

A lot of people breed their does at around a year of age, but it is healthier for them to wait until a year and a half, since it gives them time to finish growing. Wait until they are around 75% their adult weight before you breed them. If she is healthy and a good weight then she should make a good mother.

Best of luck!

This is Ethel with her new kid, Buckeye. She had to have a C-section because she couldn't give birth to him. He was so cute as a baby!

 

[Stacykins]

Hello! I'm 11 years old and have my first dairy goat. She is a nigerian dwarf saanen cross and was born 3/10/15. I was wanting to breed her as soon as its safe for her. I have read online that 80 pounds is a good weight to breed but wanted to see if anyone had suggestions since she's crossed with a nigerian dwarf and may turn out smaller than a Saanen overall. I don't have a scale to weigh her yet but she will be 4 months old on July 10th.
Thanks for any helpful replies!

The 80lbs minimum is for a full sized goat. Since she is a cross with a large breed of goat (Saanen) and a small breed of goat, that changes things a little bit. The bare minimum weight to breed a Nigerian Dwarf goat is 40lbs. So, aim for 60lbs bare minimum. Do not breed her before them. How big is the sire going to be? Do not plan on breeding her to a full sized goat, go only her size or smaller. Dwarf x Full sized crosses should always have the sire be the smaller goat.

She has to reach a minimum age, not just a weight. Do not breed any sooner than eight months old. If she is eight months old, but not 60lbs, don't breed. If she is 50lbs but 10 months old...don't breed.

You want her to be as healthy as possible for pregnancy, labor, and lactation. Pregnancy and lactation take a lot of energy. If a doe is bred too young, the kid/s will deprive her immature body of valuable nutrients she needs to grow. It could lead to her being stunted, since once their growth plates fuze at a certain age, there is no more bone growth. If her body is too small when she reaches labor, well, you're look at an emergency Cesarian section. Those are expensive. And often result in a goat needing one for each pregnancy for the rest of their lives, because of the high risk of uterine rupture where the incision happened.

 

[Farmgirl0422]

Thank you! That was really helpful. That makes sense about the sire being same or smaller. Her mother was the full size saanen and sire was the ND. Seems like it's better to wait rather than rush to make sure it's safe for her. 60 pounds or more seems like a good guideline and maybe breeding her with a ND would be good for 1st time. Thanks again!

 

[Stacykins]

Thank you! That was really helpful. That makes sense about the sire being same or smaller. Her mother was the full size saanen and sire was the ND. Seems like it's better to wait rather than rush to make sure it's safe for her. 60 pounds or more seems like a good guideline and maybe breeding her with a ND would be good for 1st time. Thanks again!

Actually, breeding her to a Nigerian Dwarf sire for her first go is definitely a fabulous idea. Most "mini" mixes are quite popular. I bet she will be a fabulous milker when she does kid, since Saanens can be quite heavy milkers.

 

[Farmgirl0422]

She needs to be no less than 8 months old, but going off weight is much better. They need to be big enough to support themselves plus grow babies. Also big enough to have babies without complications. It will depend on if she takes after the big or the little side. If you can get an idea on her weight, we might be able to help more. You need to have a way to weigh your goats. Not only for breeding, but also for medication administration, etc.

Do you have a suggestion for the best way to weigh goats that doesn't cost too much? Can I pick her up on a home scale and then subtract my weight from it?

 

[H Diamond]

Do you have a suggestion for the best way to weigh goats that doesn't cost too much? Can I pick her up on a home scale and then subtract my weight from it?

For sure, as long as you can lift her and it doesn't max out the scale. (Lol, I did that with some of my big kids who weighed a lot more than I thought)
They also make weight tapes for dairy goat's that you just measure around the heart girth. I'm not sure if the mini part would skew that result or not. http://www.jefferspet.com/products/goat weight tape

 

[Stacykins]

Since I only have Nigerian Dwarves, I use a scale for dogs. Set me back about $100, but it is incredibly valuable when it comes to getting an accurate weight.

With a weight tape, maybe tape using the Nigerian Dwarf calculation. Then tape again using the full sized dairy goat calculation. See the difference between the numbers. It won't be exact, but should give you a close idea, more than likely.

 

[Farmgirl0422]

Thank you for all the help! And yes i will try to get a scale or weight tape soon!