# polled goats genetics



## Cara Peachick (Nov 9, 2011)

Hi everyone-

I have a question about polled goat genetics.  I bred my (disbudded) girls to a (disbudded) buck who has a polled mom (and, of course, some of mom's relatives are polled).  My question is: could we possibly have polled kids?  Or sometimes is one twin or triplet polled, while the others are horned?

Thanks!


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## ksalvagno (Nov 9, 2011)

No, the buck or doe has to be polled.


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## jodief100 (Nov 10, 2011)

X2

The polled gene is dominant.  A polled goat can be either heterozygous, one polled gene and one horned gene or homozygous, 2 polled genes which is rare since the polled gene's close proximity to the hermaphrodite gene frequently causes hermaphroditism in homozygous polled goats.  The heterozygous polled goat can pass either a horned or a polled gene to their offspring.  So yes, there can be polled and horned goats in the same litter.  

Horned is recessive so all horned goats are homozygous with two horned genes.  There is no polled gene to be passed along.

The Punnet square below shows how it works.  P= polled gene, H= Horned gene.  The top row represents the polled goat that has one copy of the polled gene and one horned gene.  The left column represents a horned goat with two copies of the horned gene.  The four squares show the possible offspring between the pairing and odds.  So statistically, out of four offspring, 2 will be polled (PH)  and 2 will be horned (HH).  

	    P 	   H
H 	PH	HH
H 	PH	HH


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## Chaty (Nov 10, 2011)

Yes I have had some horned goats hat the sire or doe was polled and they have had some that were polled so you need to check before you disbud, you dont want to try to disbud a polled goat. I have had 2 out of triplets to be polled and even blue eyes. Its like a box of chocolates you dont know what you will get...


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## johnsons-r-us (Nov 11, 2011)

Is polled meaning they are born without horns?  Are there certain breeds like this?


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## jodief100 (Nov 11, 2011)

johnsons-r-us said:
			
		

> Is polled meaning they are born without horns?  Are there certain breeds like this?


Yes, polled means they are born without horns.  It is found occasionaly in most of the breeds, though more frequent in some than others.  You will not find any single breed that is polled becasue of what I stated above in regards to hermaphroditism.  Breeding one polled goat to another has a dramatically increased chance of having a hermaphrodite so it is not recomended.


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## johnsons-r-us (Nov 11, 2011)

jodief100 said:
			
		

> johnsons-r-us said:
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> 
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> ...


Thank you.  That is very interesting.


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## Cara Peachick (Nov 12, 2011)

Thank you everyone, especially Jodie.  Your answer was very clear!


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## Ms. Research (Nov 13, 2011)

*Breeding one polled goat to another has a dramatically increased chance of having a hermaphrodite so it is not recomended.
*
Amazing how similar this is to dwarf rabbits.  With two true dwarfs you get peanuts instead of hermaphrodites.  

You would think that putting two together would result in what you want (polled or dwarf) but genetics is something totally different.  There is no common sense.  It all happens with chemicals with in your bodies.  

Very interesting information on this thread.


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