# breeding a mini Saanen



## Pipit (Jul 29, 2009)

My mini Saanen, Molly, is almost 3 months.  I know she's way too young to breed, but I was wondering when the earliest, safest age for her breed would be?  I want milk for our family of 3.  The breeder said her breed is a seasonal breeder, in the fall.  Would this December or January be too early to breed her?  Also, she has cluster teats, One normal and one smaller on each side.  Does this trait mean I should not ever breed her?  She's perfect in every other respect and has the sweetest disposition!  I think she'd make a wonderful mother.


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## helmstead (Jul 29, 2009)

This year will be too early IMO.  She will come into season in the spring...try then.  Aim for a year old.

The extramammaries are hereditable.  If the kids inherit them, they are less valuable.  Usually emtramammaries are just a visual blemish, but sometimes they are functional which makes the does harder to milk.


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## cmjust0 (Jul 30, 2009)

Someone told me a while back that there's a particular Boer goat outfit in Texas that's breeding for four teats...like cows.


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## Aped (Jul 30, 2009)

As soon as the read the first reply, I thought, why doesn't anyone try breeding for 4 teats then?! That's pretty much a biological gift you're being given haha Well only if you were one of those people that liked to see what would come of it, which I happen to be one of those people.


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## cmjust0 (Jul 30, 2009)

Aped said:
			
		

> As soon as the read the first reply, I thought, why doesn't anyone try breeding for 4 teats then?! That's pretty much a biological gift you're being given haha Well only if you were one of those people that liked to see what would come of it, which I happen to be one of those people.


Well..four teats is different from four _chambers_..  I've never heard of a doe with four chambers, which means the two teats on each side pull from the same chamber -- assuming one isn't a "blind" teat, of course, which a lot of them are.

If you put four kids under a doe with four working teats, the only thing that's going to happen is that she'll run out of milk twice as quickly.  To my thinking, the best case scenario is that the milk would be distributed more evenly among the kids, as would the wear on each teat...but they're still not going to be getting any more milk on average than if they were nursing a doe with correct udders.

Worst case scenario is that a newborn latches on to a blind teat and starves to death.

Suffice it to say that we don't currently have any extra teats in the primary herd, nor do we want any.


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## Pipit (Jul 30, 2009)

The extra teats are small and attached at the top to the regular teat.  One of the extras is very small.  The other is half the length of the normal one and smaller in diameter.  I would be surprised if the small ones are not blind.  Can the extraneous ones be removed?


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## Farmer Kitty (Jul 30, 2009)

I found this on www.merckvetmanual.com

Common problems in does are extra teats, double teats, and fish-tail teats with double orifices. In cattle, extra teats can be removed with impunity, but in dairy goats there is often a functional milk gland behind the spare teat.


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## landis1659 (Aug 24, 2009)

Can I ask you how you found a mini Saanen. Do you know what breeds were used to make her breed. Never heard of this breed.  I have one male 9 mos. and one female 6mos. that I'm keeping separate for the time being. I was told the best the to breed them would be when she was atleast 8 mos - year. I 've also been told that they will only go into a heat cycle in the fall and early winter.  But I live in Alabama and a neighbor has babies that are just now 2 mos. So they must have been breed in Jan.  Again I was told the best time for breeding is between Sept-Dec.  I learned all this from a goat farm in Huntsville. They have over 150 goats for more than 20 years now. All Saanens. She says she never heard of a Mini Saanen either.  I would love to get my hands on a pair.


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## Pipit (Aug 31, 2009)

Sorry it's taken so long to reply.  Had a death in the family and a neighbor's dog attacked my chickens and killed my pet turkey hen.  

The mini Saanens are a cross between a Saanen and a Nigerian dwarf.  We got ours from a local goat breeder who has many different breeds.  These are like 3rd or 4th generation.  There is a web site about mini Saanens, if you Google it.

They aren't really small, but are in between a full size and a dwarf.


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