Goat breeding - buck behavior?

[EmilyMArkansas]

I have a goat that I picked up the beginning of October. She had a kid with her - the lady that I bought her from couldn't remember when she was born, but thought August. I know it was before June because when I first started looking around there was a picture of the kid on her website. I think the doe kidded in May because the kid is the same size as my other one that had records of his birth.

So if you followed that... When I picked up the doe, the bucks started trying to hump her when we started trying to catch her. I bought her as probably being bred, but after I saw that I decided she probably wasn't pregnant if the bucks were acting like that around her. Well it has now been a month and a week since I got her and this doe is getting really big so now I don't know what to think. If the bucks had just bred her the beginning of October, she wouldn't be getting huge, would she? I know she gets fed better at my place so I expected weight gain, but this is a really big belly... Her udder is not getting larger yet either.

So will bucks start acting up when they get stressed? We were chasing them to catch the few we wanted.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[DixyDoodle]

Well, I put my 2 does in with one of the bucks this morning, and the WETHER in the pen there started going to town! LOL I think some bucks will go after everyone anyhow, doesn't always matter if they are ready to be bred or not. My one buck will mount everyone, including the aforementioned wether.

Those bucks might have just been worked up because she was running around, but I would suspect if she's been kept with bucks since her kid was born in May, she was likely already bred when you went to pick her up.

Or maybe her belly is big from worms or just from gas. A few of my goats get really huge in the belly (pregger look) after eating. Are you giving her a lot of grain, maybe? Or other foods besides hay? My does' udders didn't start to look bigger til maybe 2 months or later before giving birth. My one nubian didn't bag up until after birthing, we didn't even expect a baby from her, but we got one!


That must be confusing, to keep more than one buck in with the does. I keep mine separate, so I know who is bred to who, and when to start watching them for birthing signs.

[DQ]

a doe bred in october would not be showing. the baby and fluid would be about the size of a golf ball tops. many bucks will try to mount anything that stands still long enough. the key is whether the doe stands there and lets him do it. its pretty obvious when they get bred . they tuck their butts up under them and scoot forward and often hold that position for a few minutes. if the bucks only tried to mount her when you tried to catch her they probably were just trying to take advantage of her being restrained . She is probably already bred or just has a nicely developed rumen capacity. I would pull blood and find out.