Female goat drinking her pee?

[WallabyOfChaos]

Is there any chance that she could have a salt or mineral deficiency?

 

[vicareyous]

I have a Nigerian with her three female babies, which are all half Nigerian, half Pygmy. My Nigerian has been drinking pee since I got her (she was about 2 years old). Her three female children, who are about five years old at this point, have all started drinking their pee now and I believe it is something they learned from their mother. They have a salt lick in their yard and still do this. They all also hump each other whenever one of them goes into heat. I personally believe it's because there are no male goats around. Also, my full blood Nigerian hasn't given birth in 5 years, yet has a full utter almost year round. I think this behavior is just something these small goats do. I haven't seen full sized goats behave this way, but I have only been around one breed.

 

[cassie]

The humping is normal. Drinking the pee is not. It really sounds like they have a mineral deficiency of some sort. Get some loose minerals and see if that helps.

 

[ShannonR]

She has came in to heat before. So this means she's okay?

Hermaphrositism is pretty rare in goats. Not sure why someone would immediately jump to that conclusion, but I suppose it's a remote possibility.

Are you sure she is actually drinking her pee? My goats(male AND female) pee on their beards. It's a scent marking thing, bucks especially will do this to make the females more attracted to them. Yuck, I know. I have a doe who does it regularly, and she is certainly not a hermaphrodite and she is not homosexual. She has babies every year, for 4 years now.

I wouldn't worry much about this behavior

 

[cassie]

Hermaphrositism is pretty rare in goats. Not sure why someone would immediately jump to that conclusion, but I suppose it's a remote possibility.

Are you sure she is actually drinking her pee? My goats(male AND female) pee on their beards. It's a scent marking thing, bucks especially will do this to make the females more attracted to them. Yuck, I know. I have a doe who does it regularly, and she is certainly not a hermaphrodite and she is not homosexual. She has babies every year, for 4 years now.

I wouldn't worry much about this behavior

I wouldn't worry about the behavior either but the reason people would jump to the conclusion that the goat might be a hermaphrodite is because that condition, as well as other intersexes, are not at all rare in goats. They aren't real common, meaning you don't see them every day, but they aren't exactly rare either. You are most likely to run into hermaphrodites if you breed polled goats to polled goats.

 

[ShannonR]

I wouldn't worry about the behavior either but the reason people would jump to the conclusion that the goat might be a hermaphrodite is because that condition, as well as other intersexes, are not at all rare in goats. They aren't real common, meaning you don't see them every day, but they aren't exactly rare either. You are most likely to run into hermaphrodites if you breed polled goats to polled goats.

Are you referring to this study? I do remember reading it. Homozygous polled tend to produce a higher percentage of hermaphrodite.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0j0KCsJk3I2CuCfdfTu380

 

[cassie]

Are you referring to this study? I do remember reading it. Homozygous polled tend to produce a higher percentage of hermaphrodite.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0j0KCsJk3I2CuCfdfTu380

No, I wasn't. In this case my opinion was based on personal experience. I will check out the link you posted later though.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

What are you feeding your goats and do you provide free choice minerals?

Goats are even known to harass humans for sweat and urine in order to satisfy their need for minerals.

According to Holistic Goat Care, intersex and other such conditions are not uncommon.
I wouldn't necessarily jump right to that conclusion however.

 

[ShannonR]

The last buckling I held back for breeding had an udder when he was a youngster. I don't see an obvious udder now that he's grown, but I don't want to be butted or peed on, and don't look under him to see or anything. I originally thought hermaphrodite also (which is when I found the study linked above). Then later I discovered that this udder on males trait happens fairly often with heavy producing dairy breeds, especially Nubians. Knowing he likely carried a high milk production trait from his dam, I decided to keep him.
This spring all the does he serviced kidded within one week and all does kidded twins or trips. I don't question his sex anymore.

 

[cassie]

The last buckling I held back for breeding had an udder when he was a youngster. I don't see an obvious udder now that he's grown, but I don't want to be butted or peed on, and don't look under him to see or anything. I originally thought hermaphrodite also (which is when I found the study linked above). Then later I discovered that this udder on males trait happens fairly often with heavy producing dairy breeds, especially Nubians. Knowing he likely carried a high milk production trait from his dam, I decided to keep him.
This spring all the does he serviced kidded within one week and all does kidded twins or trips. I don't question his sex anymore.

I have seen several milking bucks and I have owned one or two. On a whim I sent one buck's milk to the lab with the rest of the milk samples. Came back 3.2% BF, CMT negative. There are a couple things to watch out for in milking bucks. One, periodically they may need to be milked out. Failure to do so can result in mastitis. In fact, I know of at least two bucks that died of mastitis. The other thing is that because the udder is in close proximity to the scrotum, it can keep the testicles too warm and cause fertility problems. Keeping the udder milked out will help prevent this. My milking bucks were Alpines, but I have also seen it in Toggenburgs, Nubians, and Saanens.

By the way, hermaphrodites are female, not male. You would never confuse a hermaphrodite with a buck.