AUGH! Four teats where once there were two???

[Jillis]

I was feeding some green weeds to the three ND doelings I have. They are just so beautiful and healthy! One is silver with markings, one is brown with markings, and one is white with a gold shimmer to her. The white one, Pearl, is the pick of the litter. They are all beautiful keepers, but she was much larger than the other 2 at birth, and is still bigger than them. She has beautiful conformation, and I really feel she will be an excellant breeder and milker. She has a very calm, very sweet personality, while the other 2 are more hyper and skittish.

Today, when she stretched up and stood against the fencing, I clearly saw 2 smaller teats growing right in front of her regular teats!!! She is four months old. I KNOW she had 2 teats at birth and for a long time afterwards...I don't know how or when these appeared, but I regularly observe them and this is the first time I noticed them.

Do these little extra teats grow AFTER the goats are past newborn???

I checked all those girls! She did NOT have four teats at birth and for quite a while after!

[KSALguy]

its not COMMON but its not unheard of, if they are the really small pointy ones like a mole kinda thing then i wouldnt worry about it, if they are a good size they could be functional, but eather way all you really need to do is snip them off if it bothers you that they are there, the smaller they are the less tramatic, if it bleeds much you can use corn starch to stop the bleeding, or a bandaid with some triple antibiotic ointment, and the problem is solved

[goatedintoit]

If you snip off extra teats and there are extra/additional udders, you'll end up with an udder with no exit. An udder without an exit can make for a miserable goat.

Be careful.

[moonspinner]

It is very common for extra teats to grow well after birth, even months down the line.

[KimM]

I was getting ready to post the same thing. I have 3 doelings, almost 2 months old and when they were born, I checked teats and they each had only 2 teats. Last week I was handling their udder areas (training to accept touch) and on one I found another two more tiny teats in front of the other, another doe developed a third tiny teat and the last one still only has two teats. Next time, I will look much closer to see if I can see any hint of extra teats.....not that it'll make a difference because I'll leave the extra teats alone. Weird, huh??

[goatkid]

My goat mentor says never cut off the small teats. You could wind up with a doe who has an udder that leaks. One of my does has four teats and is still easy to milk. Only the two main teats give milk. Of the 9 babies she has had, only one had an extra teat. I think that only happened because I line bred her the one time.

[Helena]

I have "heard" that boar goats have this tendency to have more than the usual 2 teats...might be really wrong here so let me know if I am boar goat breeders...but that is why I have always hesitated in breeding my nubian goats with the boar goats in "fear" of having the extra teats. But..then again..if you are only using your girls for home milking I surely wouldn't get too upset over it at all. You'll love them anyways !!. I'm sure it won't stop them from being wonderful companions and milking does too !!

[mammawof3]

You just never know-we found out in a rather embarresing way once,with a doe kid-in the ring-at the fair-judge moved her too the rear, then explained too my son, that she had an extra teat coming on,and that was the reason for the placing!!It was like "THANKS ALOT MOM!!"

[Jillis]

I don't think they are attached to an udder. I'd be more likely to think that if she had been born with them. These are smaller than the "regular" ones and sort of point forward at a little angle from the existing ones.

I have an Alpine that had an extra teat on only one of her udders, and I had the vet snip it off when she gave her the rabies shot.

I will probably have to snip these off. {{{shudder}}}

[KSALguy]

yes Boers have good possiblilitys of haveing extra teats, and alot of times they are functional and just as good as the normal ones, some breeders WANT them, some dont, its all a matter of tast, i personally dont mind and dont see anything wrong with it,
the little non functional ones are ok to snip to make things "look" ok, but your right if its functional you dont want to snip them, just in case they are connected to a differint udder, but they also more likely will be attached to the main udder,
you wont end up with a leaky uder eather way, it will scar over and no problems, infact i saw a goat come through a sale barn that had one of her main teats snipped and that side was no longer functional at all

[ozark_jewels]

One of my best yearling Nubian milkers has two tiny teats in front of the two main teats. She is not a cull, she stays! I left the two teats on, so that I don't forget about that trait and so that anybody down the line who might buy her knows what they are getting. Of course she cannot be registered or shown, but she milks up a storm. Her kids will not be registered for a few generations of clean two-teaters so that I know the trait is dispersing. Its unfortunate, but as long as it doesn't interfere with home milking and your honest when selling her kids.....I don't see that its a huge deal.
They "can" grow after birth....but most times they were there at birth but so miniscule that they weren't seen. They can be just tiny bumps on the skin and extremely easy to overlook. I check all teats at birth, but the tiny extras are VERY easy to miss.

[Jillis]

Thanks for the reassurance, Emily. This doeling is a keeper. She is just an exceptional animal in so many ways and I have high expectation of her as a milker. I don't show any of my goats and have no intentions of doing so, I just want good milkers to make cheese with. And to love.