Genetics question

[AlleysChicks]

I’ve put a deposit on a gorgeous blue eyed dehorned buck kid.

I’ve found a doe that I like the color of but she is brown eyed and potentially polled. Her mother is polled but father is not.

If I were to purchase this doe what is the chance that I will have blue eyed polled kids from the pairing?

Thanks!

 

[goatboy1973]

Maybe 12.5% or 1 in 8 I would think if I remember correctly from genetics class a couple of decades ago. If you linebred strategically you might have a significantly higher chance of getting the desired blue-eyed/ polled offspring.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Yes, you could.

I had a blue eyed buck and used him over my one doe (polled) twice.
One time resulted in twins, the next year triplets.
The twins were both brown eyed and horned (disbudded)
The triplets- 2 were polled, 1 horned. 1 Brown eyed, 2 blue eyed.

I personally could care less about polled or blue eyes, but I see a lot of folks are crazy about it

 

[AlleysChicks]

Yes, you could.

I had a blue eyed buck and used him over my one doe (polled) twice.
One time resulted in twins, the next year triplets.
The twins were both brown eyed and horned (disbudded)
The triplets- 2 were polled, 1 horned. 1 Brown eyed, 2 blue eyed.

I personally could care less about polled or blue eyes, but I see a lot of folks are crazy about it

Thanks for the help. I plan to have 2 bucks to trade out in case I like a doeling. But I want a blue eyed, polled, tri color buck as the backup. That way they are a bit different. My girls are solid colors and I like flashy things lol

I love the blue eyes, I had only ever had brown until last year. With polled I wouldn’t have to worry about scurs, which one of my does has.
I’ve never dehorned a goat but I worry about the dehorning process.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Oh, polled goats can get scurs. It is often referred to as “poll scurs”.
They can still have some growth that breaks through the skin. So far it seems to happen only in the bucks, though the does still can get the “giraffe nubs”.

We often times end up burning our polled bucks to prevent this from happening.

From what I’ve seen cattle and sheep also deal with this.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Oh no! I had polled pygmy goats about 15 years ago. I had no idea they could get scurs!

 

[Bunnylady]

Blue eyes and polled are dominant traits. Since the doe has only one polled parent, if the doe turns out to be polled, each of her offspring would have a 50/50 chance of getting the polled gene from her and being polled (if she isn't polled, then none of her offspring will be, since she doesn't have the polled gene to pass on, and neither does he). Whether the kids would have blue eyes or not depends on the buck - if he is homozygous for blue eyes, all of his offspring will be blue eyed. If he only got the blue eyed gene from one parent, then his offspring have a 50/50 chance of those baby blues. So, with this cross, you would have either a 1 in 2 or 1 in 4 chance of getting a blue-eyed, polled kid - or zero chance, if the doe turns out to be horned.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Blue eyes and polled are dominant traits. Since the doe has only one polled parent, if the doe turns out to be polled, each of her offspring would have a 50/50 chance of getting the polled gene from her and being polled (if she isn't polled, then none of her offspring will be, since she doesn't have the polled gene to pass on, and neither does he). Whether the kids would have blue eyes or not depends on the buck - if he is homozygous for blue eyes, all of his offspring will be blue eyed. If he only got the blue eyed gene from one parent, then his offspring have a 50/50 chance of those baby blues. So, with this cross, you would have either a 1 in 2 or 1 in 4 chance of getting a blue-eyed, polled kid - or zero chance, if the doe turns out to be horned.

I talked to the lady today and she said the doe is polled and her sister is not. As for the buck how do I know if he’s homozygous for blue eyes? His breeder said both parents are blue eyed.

 

[Bunnylady]

It's hard to be sure about whether an animal is homozygous for a dominant trait. If both parents come from long lines of nothing but blue-eyed goats, and/or both parents have a lot of offspring that have all been blue eyed (even when bred to brown-eyed animals), then the odds get better, but without a genetic test (and I'm not sure there is one for this trait), you can't be 100% sure. If either parent has ever had a brown-eyed kid, then that parent is heterozygous, and there's always a chance of that parent passing on the brown-eyed gene, even to a blue-eyed baby that was born to another blue-eyed goat.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Very interesting. I’ll keep track of offspring in the future. I’m hoping to have babies next year. Maybe I can figure it out. I have one blue eyed doe and the rest are brown eyed.