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03/06/12, 10:38 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Central Missouri
Posts: 2,028
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Tell me about wattles
My buck has wattles and so far both babies have them. I have read about them and it's primarily a dairy goat trait but I look at all the new baby goat pics that people post and almost all of them don't have wattles. Are they cutting them off? I considered it on my doeling cause one is on her ear and one on her neck....didn't do it though.
Are they a bad thing? What do you all do about them?
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03/06/12, 10:45 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kansas
Posts: 6,143
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Most people love wattles. They are inherited trait from what I understand. I rather like them.
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03/06/12, 10:53 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Redding California
Posts: 1,967
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Not all goats have wattles.
Some people do cut them off... I do not... I love wattles! In fact my new pack prospect has wattles that resemble Christmas tree balls! They are just absolutely FUZZY!!!! lol
They are not a bad thing. Some people say they originated to help in a predator attack... If something grabs for the neck the wattles may get grabbed first and get ripped off instead of it going for the rest of the throat. I have heard a couple of other things about the origination, but I don't remember them right now.
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03/06/12, 10:56 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: kansas
Posts: 1,851
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I love wattles.
__________________
Judy
Oat Bucket Farm
Central Kansas
The past is valuable as a guidepost, but not so if used as a hitching post.
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03/06/12, 11:14 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Northernmost Arkansas
Posts: 1,010
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Here is my wattles sidebar from The Backyard Goat (I love wattles!).
Sue
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Wattle It Be
What are those globs of skin dangling on that goat’s neck? They’re wattles. Or, if you prefer waddles, toggles, tassels, waggles, lassies, or cutaneous cervical appendices. Not all goats have them and they serve no physiological purpose at all.
According to Mary C. Smith and David M. Sherman (Goat Medicine; see Resources) wattles “contain a central cartilaginous core, smooth muscles, connective tissue, nerves, and blood vessels.” They’re usually an inch to two inches or so in length.
Pairs of wattles generally dangle from their wearer’s throats but they can crop up anywhere, particularly on the head or neck. They are found on both sexes and nearly all breeds but they’re especially common on Swiss dairy goats like Alpines, Saanens, and Toggenburgs.
Wattles are thought to be inherited as a single dominant gene (bucks and does with wattles are likely to produce kids with wattles) and wattles can be a good thing; according to a study conducted in 1980, Saanen does with wattles produced 13 percent more milk than those without.
However, cute as they are, many breeders remove their goats’ wattles. This is because kids sometimes suck on their peers’ wattles, wattles are somewhat discouraged in the show ring, and they sometimes interfere with goats’ collars. Another reason: wattle cysts occasionally develop at the base of a wattle. Though wattle cysts fill with clear fluid and are often mistaken for caseous lymphadenitis abscesses, they are harmless.
Those who remove them usually wrap a snug rubber band around newborn kids’ wattles; with circulation restricted by the rubber band, the wattles fall off in a week or so.
Other people simply snip them off. If you think you must remove your goat’s wattles, restrain him, disinfect a pair of sharp scissors and the area at the base of the wattle, then holding it out away from your goat, snip the wattle off at the thin spot where it attaches to his body. Usually there isn’t any bleeding.
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03/06/12, 03:08 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,984
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Huge wattle fan here. 
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03/06/12, 04:11 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: ohio
Posts: 1,068
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I don't like them, but I wouldn't cut them off!
(I have nubians, so wattles don't seem to be an issue)
It seems like they would make it harder to trim for show?
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03/06/12, 04:24 PM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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I love wattles!!
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Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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03/06/12, 04:37 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Northwestern, WI
Posts: 1,792
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Both of my origional ND's have them, and pass them on to about 60% of their kids. I love them too! Goat jewelry!
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03/06/12, 04:43 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Ozark Mountains
Posts: 1,116
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I don't have wattles on any of my goats but have been tempted to buy one just because she had wattles and I am fascinated by them. 
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03/06/12, 05:04 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Iowa
Posts: 1,701
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Love them wattles!! My old Saanen girl Louise has them. I'd say less than 50% of her kids had them.
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03/06/12, 05:06 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 4,724
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The only thing I know about waddles is that they have to be the cutest stinking things EVER!
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03/06/12, 07:02 PM
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An Ozark Engineer
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Powhatan, AR
Posts: 9,412
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I like 'em myself, but none of my goats have 'em.
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03/06/12, 07:19 PM
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Caprice Acres
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: MI
Posts: 11,232
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I have a doe with them. Last year she gave me a buck kid with a wattle and a half.
If they had one in a wierd spot it would probably 'bother' me, so I may choose to remove them at that point... but if they're in a 'normal' spot, I love them and will just leave 'em. No use, just cute.
__________________
Dona Barski
"Breed the best, eat the rest"
Caprice Acres
French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.
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03/06/12, 07:41 PM
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My kids have hooves
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Central Virginia
Posts: 2,224
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I adore wattles! My ND, Tango, has them. He loves to lean his head into my chest and close his eyes while I scratch his wattles. They're very cute 
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Beth ~ Old Church, VA
3 Nigerian Dwarf goats, 4 cats, 3 Pekin ducks and 7 chickens. One very patient husband~
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03/06/12, 08:13 PM
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Farming with a Heart
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Huntington WV
Posts: 1,864
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One of my Saanen does has only one wattle - lol
__________________
Saanens, Nubian & Nigerian Goats, Silver Fox Rabbits, Mini Jerseys, BLR SL Wyandottes, hatching eggs and more!
Find us on facebook here
or our website here
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03/06/12, 09:31 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: SE Kansas
Posts: 288
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My Saanen buck has wattles & three of his five kids born so far this year have wattles! I think they're cute ...by the way anyone wanting an elf-eared/wattled 1/2 Saanen 1/2 Lamancha buckling I have one of the cutest ever!! Meet Bear
and his half sister by a Nubian/Lamancha doe. this little gal, Daphne, could be Bear's twin by looks
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03/06/12, 09:57 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 424
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Shadowfax I think you stole our kid... he looks JUST like that! He's a pure LaMancha, though.
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03/07/12, 06:05 AM
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aka RamblinRoseRanc :)
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Morristown, TN
Posts: 5,066
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I love Bear! If only you were closer....I have two Saanen does (and hopefully a doeling coming from one of them) who'll need a handsome husband next year!
__________________
" It's better to ride even if you get thrown, than to wind up just wishin' ya had."
Chris Ledoux 
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03/07/12, 08:30 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Central Missouri
Posts: 2,028
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The black doeling has a wattle on her right ear and one normally place on her neck, her brother has them in the normal location.
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