Is she in heat? Should I breed her now?

[TGreenhut]

Ok, so I normally am really good at deciphering when goats come into heat (I know all the signs and how often they come into heat, etc.). But my doe Sassy, is giving me a hard time trying to tell when she is in heat. She's really quiet about it. So today we got a buck rag from the breeder we are going to bring her two (we own no bucks ourselves) to help us find out when she is in heat. We are going to do pen breeding and if it doesn't take we are going to try again because they live less then 5 min away and they aren't charging us much since they are my 4H leaders. Well, today I showed her the buck rag and she got excited, started wagging her tail a lot, sticking her nose in the rag, and following me around. Is she in heat or just excited because she has never smelled a buck before?

 

[ksalvagno]

Could be either. Is there any way they would let you keep the buck at your house or you leave the female at theirs? Then it would be easier to catch her. What I do with a female with a silent heat is expose her to the buck daily until she comes into heat and is willing to be bred. What I mean by that is that I have a pen that I put them in for a short while to determine if she is interested or not. If not, then they go back to their respective pens.

 

[Cooperkeeper]

I am having the same issue. I don't have a buck on our farm and my girls have been here since they were 5 weeks old. (Now 1.5yrs.) I got buck rag as well and was showing to the girls daily. They did seem very interested; tail wagging, squatting to pee, hollering, and I believe each had some goo on tail hairs. My plan was to recognize this first heat and count and observe in 17+ days for another. I have to drive my girls an hour for a driveway service, so hoping I can catch this. This is my first breeding and I really want kids next spring. Do you think I saw a heat cycle? Am I doing this right? Any advise is most welcome!

 

[TGreenhut]

I am having the same issue. I don't have a buck on our farm and my girls have been here since they were 5 weeks old. (Now 1.5yrs.) I got buck rag as well and was showing to the girls daily. They did seem very interested; tail wagging, squatting to pee, hollering, and I believe each had some goo on tail hairs. My plan was to recognize this first heat and count and observe in 17+ days for another. I have to drive my girls an hour for a driveway service, so hoping I can catch this. This is my first breeding and I really want kids next spring. Do you think I saw a heat cycle? Am I doing this right? Any advise is most welcome!

I think you saw a heat cycle, it definitely sounds like it. Your plan is similar to mine. Now that I've been showing the buck rag for a couple days, she has calmed down so I think she was in heat on the 11th. So now I'm expecting another heat in late Oct., early Nov.