Archive for the ‘Goat Basics’ Category
How to Tell if Your Goat Is in Heat
Goat Crying Diagnosis Case Study: Pasqualina
A moment of quiet
A few weeks ago, I noticed that Pasqualina wasn’t excited to get new hay (very odd), watched me intently as I moved around the garden, and would cry out whenever I was out of sight. All very odd behaviors for her. Normally fresh hay in the morning means “Whatever, maaaaa, see you later” and she buries her head in there. She’s also generally a quiet goat.
But because of the crying and not really eating her hay, I looked for signs of bloat. Her sides looked fine, but I massaged her neck just in case there was something caught in there. She burped and it gurgled (totally normal goat reactions). She was also taking pieces of a banana like nobody’s business, so she did seem to have an appetite — just not for hay. I had opened a new bale that morning, so I thought maybe she just didn’t like the hay for some reason, but Pinta didn’t seem to care and was still eating like normal.
So I was pretty sure it wasn’t bloat at this point because, well, she didn’t look bloated and didn’t really have any symptoms other than crying. But then I remembered something — the goats across the valley seem to be crying lately too. Hmm….
I mentioned something to P, and he clinched it for me. It seems our little Pasqualina was trying to hump her daughter a few days before that, and that, my friends, convinced me that she was in heat. Once I really looked, I did note she was a little swollen in the rear and was flicking her tail more than usual — and both of those also point to a doe being in heat.
So there you have it. If you have a doe that’s eight months old or older and it’s, say, October to January and you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, your crying goat just may be looking for a little love.
I’m happy to report the crying, general restlessness, and turning up nose at hay subsided after a few days — and so did the crying across the valley, no coincidence, I’m sure.
Back on hay!
What other signs of does in heat have you noticed?
Raising Goats from the Teeth Up
People who aren’t familiar with goats are sometimes afraid they’re going to bite them, which is a rather baseless fear not only because goats are generally some of the least aggressive animals around (headbutting aside) but also because they have no top front teeth.
Even Pinta's dental pad is adorable.
See those gorgeous gums? That’s all they have up there — just a dental pad.
They do have bottom teeth in the front, however.
How sweet of Pasqualina to model her teeth!
When a goat is full grown, he or she will have eight incisors (biting or cutting teeth), all permanent teeth. Just like humans, though, they start out with baby teeth, so to speak. A kid has all small, sharp teeth for about a year. When the kid is about a year old, the center two teeth go bye-bye and are replaced by two permanent teeth. Then about every year or so after that, two teeth moving away from the center teeth on either side are replaced with permanent teeth until the goat has all eight permanent incisors by about four or five years old.
At that point, the teeth start to space apart, and you can begin to tell the age of the goat by the wear and tear on the teeth as opposed to the number of permanent versus baby teeth.
So does all this mean you can’t really be harmed by a goat’s teeth? Not exactly.
They *do* have 24 molars for chewing their cud in the back of their mouths — six on each side, upper and lower. And they are sharp as all get out, so you don’t want to be sticking your fingers toward the back of a goat’s mouth.
In other words, although it’s quite cute to see and feel the lil’ baby goats gnawing on the tip of your finger between their incisors and dental pad, once they start shifting that head to get your finger to the back of their mouth, you *must* get out of there, lest you become the cud.
Just trust me on that one, mkay?
More Goat Questions Answered!
It’s time again to talk about some of the searches that have brought people to Goat Berries. Read previous entries at Answering Goat Questions: Part I and Part II.
As I mentioned before, goats and watermelons have been on a lot of goatie friends’ minds these days, but here’s what else they’ve been wondering about:
1. Goats fig leaves edible : I’m assuming this is asking whether goats can eat fig leaves. Mine have, although we were told by a an experienced goat herder here that they shouldn’t have too much, so we tend to give them to our girlies just when we’re pruning the fig trees a bit — they never get more than a few branches at a time, and that’s usually weeks or months apart.
2. Goats and pit fruit / can goats eat fruit with seeds/pits : They sure can, and many times they’ll just spit the pit out if they don’t want it. Pasqualina has spit out both apricot and plum pits. It’s *so* fun to watch them eat these as they roll them around in their mouths. That said, don’t give them too many at a time — just like our digestive systems don’t love too much of a good thing like apricots and plums, neither do theirs.
3. Can goats eat banana peelings? : Whoo boy, can they — and my girl Pasqualina *loves* them. Loves bananas too. The other does we had also loved both fruit and peel, but Pinta isn’t old enough to care yet, apparently. Again, though, everything in moderation!
4. Kid goat cries all the time / why does my goat cry : Dig if you will the pic-ture. Oh wait, that’s When Doves Cry. Anyway, this is a tough one and requires that you know your kid pretty well. Some kids are just loud and cry when they want attention or food or milk or all of the above. Generally it’s not a problem unless it sounds like the kid’s in pain.
Of course, my kid cries like she’s in pain when she’s bored, so even that’s not a reliable measure. Who her?
In short, I think the answer to the question is most likely the age-old one: because s/he can. But if the crying seems abnormal to you, do look for other signs of illness such as lack of appetite, bloating, and just otherwise not doing goat-like things.
5. Milky sticky discharge coming out of nanny goat before kidding : Gross, but totally normal. We noticed it on two of ours about 24 hours before kidding. The other one didn’t show anything, or maybe we just weren’t looking (she was the first to go). I actually have a photo of this, but I think you get the idea; if you want to see it though, please feel free to contact me. In any event, you’ll be having a kid or more *very* soon. Congratulations!
Remember if you have any goat questions that aren’t answered somewhere in the blog, don’t be afraid to ask! I can’t promise to know the answer, but I will be happy to put it out there to other goatie lovers if I don’t.
And please feel free to add your bleats of wisdom on the above questions as well!
Buon weekend!
Reader Question: Double or Y-Shaped Teats
Questions? by Valerie Everett on Flickr
I got an email yesterday from a reader who has recently agreed to take on two kids (male and female) with the hopes of perhaps getting into small scale cheesemaking and soapmaking someday.
The rub is that they just discovered the little doe has Y-shaped teats. As there isn’t a whole lot of useful information out there on the Internet about this situation, I was wondering whether any of you with more goatie experience has some advice or info to share? The reader really wants to know whether it would still be a good idea to keep the little ones — perhaps pros and cons?
Any and all responses welcome! Thaaaaaaaanks!
Also, if you have a goatie question they’d like to post to Goat Berries readers, please feel free to contact me!
Goat Veterinarians, Herbal Wormers, and Anti-Parasitic Washes
A question I get a lot is whether there are veterinarians in this rural part of southern Italy; there definitely are, and clients probably use their services just as much if not more for goats, sheep, and horses as for cats and dogs. In that sense, we’re probably luckier than many in, say, America, who may have a more difficult time finding an experienced goat vet.
Indeed, our veterinarian regularly makes house calls, even for dogs and cats. We prefer that our animals live rather naturally with as many herbal/holistic remedies and as few doctor’s visits as possible, but our goats suddenly developed an issue with pidocchi (lice) and Pinta had a bit of a cough that I thought may have been related to lungworms, so the doc came the other day and gave them each an Ivomec shot, which should take care of all their internal and external parasite issues.
Indeed the girls seemed brighter-eyed and more playful just an hour or so after the meds, so hopefully that means they were working. Or, you know, they got high. Hey, happy goats are a good thing!
Anyway, I really would much prefer to try herbal wormers, but I haven’t found any in Italy; if you happen to know of any, please let me know.
Also, the vet recommended a spray-on anti-parasitic treatment for cleaning the pen, but it sounds pretty chemically powerful. I’m wondering if any of you have suggestions on more natural methods so we can keep our goaties from doing a lot of this in the future?
What types of wormers and anti-parasitics do you use?
What’s New on Pasqualina’s Plate?
Last summer was our first summer with goats, and my first experience with goats, so I wasn’t very adventurous in what to feed them. They were only between five to seven months old at that point, so I was nervous I’d give them something that would upset their digestive tracts. We stuck to feed, fresh grasses, and hay.
Now that lots of fruits and veggies are coming into season, though, and we have a big strong Mamma goat, I feel like it’s time to test Pasqualina’s palate. Besides, there are also a lot more peels and shavings and even the errant strawberry that’s going off, so it’s a great way to recycle the food, so to speak (if the goats don’t eat it, it goes to the chickens).
So after making sure the food is not poisonous for goats, I’ve been trying new samples with Pasqualina, always a little at a time as you never want to give goats large amounts of any new food as it can, indeed, upset their digestive systems.
You’ve already seen some results of our new experimenting with pea pods and cantaloupe; Pinta hasn’t shown interest in anything but the pea pods and prickly pear cactus so far, but we’ll keep an eye on that too.
One huge surprise for me has been the strawberry. Pasqualina won’t even take one! How can you not like this fresh from the garden?
It’s been a fun experience for me, so I’m now keeping track of what Pasqualina (and eventually Pinta) likes and doesn’t like to eat on a page called “Goat Eats,” which you can always find in the upper right corner of every page.
Please feel free to tell me what your goats like and don’t like in the comments!
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