Extra teats

[Pamela]

What is the best way to deal with extra teats? When is the best time to deal with extra teats? My daughter and I each have a doe with extra nubbins. Her doe is currently in milk, having kidded last Saturday. Her extra nubbins is confusing to her kids and makes milking tricky. My doe is either open or only a couple of months into pregnancy. She has multiple nubbins. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[Southern by choice]

Cull.

Not to be harsh but extra teats are recessive. EVERY buckling produced should be wethered.

If that is what you mean by nubbins.

 

[Pamela]

Thanks. Our two does that have them are proving to be rather useless. My daughter's doe has become quite aggressive since kidding and rejected her doeling. We think she fatally injured it, since she died overnight. She is good with her buckling, but neither of us is thrilled with keeping this knothead mother. My doe with nubbins can't seem to conceive, so there won't be any perpetuating of those genetics.

 

[Southern by choice]

Generally goats with extra teats are poor producers and are more prone to mastitis. Sorry you are dealing with this.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I do agree with Southern, generally extra teats are a problem and the animals should be culled.

However, having said that, I have boers with extra teats, and I don't plan on culling them, but I am selecting for 1x1 (or 2x2 if that is my best option). If your goats happen to boers, the breed standard does allow more than 2 teats, but I agree that more than and including 2x2 (in other words, more than 1x1) can be difficult to milk and can make nursing difficult for kids. In my dairy goats I would cull hard, never allowing any extra teats. I was hoping to start my boers with only 1x1 but those can be hard to come by in my market, so I am working with what I have.

I am afraid I don't have any practical advice to help you with the here and now. Maybe you could tape the extra teats up so they don't confuse the kids? Or could you milk and bottle feed so you don't have to worry about anyone not getting fed?

 

[Southern by choice]

However, having said that, I have boers with extra teats, and I don't plan on culling them, but I am selecting for 1x1 (or 2x2 if that is my best option). If your goats happen to boers, the breed standard does allow more than 2 teats,

LOL I almost mentioned meat goats...

This is a common issue in meatgoats this basically came from when they were first brought in and goats were not culled... at the time the thought was they could nurse larger litters.

Wow were they wrong.

If this is a dairy goat I would cull.

@ragdollcatlady - with the link to mastitis and poor production I wonder if this is why so many Boers cannot raise their kids or struggle with twins. Boers are big here... as if they are the only meat goat and there are no others LOL but we see this all the time. Just makes me wonder.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I would not be surprised if it had something to do with it. Bailey, my really big boer has what amount to double fused teats. So they are extra wide. For being big goats, boers actually have pretty small mouths, so if the kids were smallish or weak, they may have a really hard time getting those double teats in there to nurse. Also, their "drive" behind the "eating machine" part of their brain might have something to do with it too. Seems like they don't care about much but food when it is meal time, or any other time snacks might be involved in something, or any time they can convince you to give them just one little bite.... If you get a mom that is less maternal and give her a drive to eat rather than protect and care for her babies, you might be asking for trouble. Hand raising kids and not letting them learn to be goats from other goats could be part of it too.

I LOVE Bailey , she happens to be one that was gifted to me and I couldn't be happier. She has the sweetest personality, loves people, is taking great care of her kids and is pretty to look at to boot! When I brought her home last year, she fed one of my nigerian kids, let me milk her both for her benefit and for milk to supplement some of my other kids, so she has earned her keep here. This is one situation where you don't want to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'. She has some really good qualities, it looks like one of her girls has 1x1 and one has 2x2. Hopefully she will serve us well as a pet with benefits and we can use her better qualities and improve on her less appealing ones, like her teats, in her kids.

 

[babsbag]

I never had a Boer kid have a problem sorting out too many teats but I can see where a fused teat could be a problem. Glad Bailey had big kids. Many of the Boers can't raise twins as they just don't make enough milk...period

 

[Pamela]

These 'nubby' does are both Nubians. Our buck is a pure bred Boer, who actually throws pretty nice kids. I don't think any of his does has extra teats.

On another front, I don't think my kinder doe is making enough milk for her twins. She is getting extra feed, minerals, and of course, water. But yesterday we left her go into the pasture for several hours without her kids (too cold for them) and when they were reunited she didn't want to let them nurse. So we tried to milk her, just out of curiosity, and got about three squirts total. The kids have decent energy, but seem to be more maintaining than growing. What more should I be doing to increase my doe's milk?