Is this behavior normal? What does it mean?

[Mini-M Ranch]

One of our girls is...ummm...well, whenever the other girls pee, she raises her lips and sniffs. My human kids find this behavior funny, but somewhat offensive. lol. Just wondering if this might be heat behavior, as I THOUGHT she was already preggers.

 

[annanicole18]

is she the herd queen? the herd queen will sometimes "mate" with others that are in heat as a dominance thing and exibit other buck behaviors

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

She is the herd queen, but she doesn't show any other signs of mating behavior. She isn't stomping or trying to mount the other girls or anything. One of the girls she sniffed was only born in May, so I doubt that doeling was in heat. Who knows, this is all new to me. lol

 

[lilhill]

I have does that do the same thing, and even non-herd queens here will mount other does when they are in heat or the doe being mounted is. And a doe born in May is old enough to come into estrus.

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

I have does that do the same thing, and even non-herd queens here will mount other does when they are in heat or the doe being mounted is. And a doe born in May is old enough to come into estrus.

Wow! All this time, I still thought she was a baby! Obviously, I still have MUCH to learn.

So, probably I'll have to watch little Wilma more closely when we get the buck.

The pee sniffer has done this to two does. So, does that mean those two were probably in estrus or that Queen Oreo was in estrus? YOWZA! I'm so confused.

 

[trestlecreek]

To me, it doesn't mean a thing,..LOL. Goats do this. They are checking each other out.
Just like dogs sniffing butts, goats smell pee.

 

[lilhill]

To me, it doesn't mean a thing,..LOL. Goats do this. They are checking each other out.
Just like dogs sniffing butts, goats smell pee.

Trestlecreek is right. Sorry, I just lumped everything together in my post and shouldn't have put the comma where I did. The sniffing pee is just something they do.

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

sniffing pee is just something they do.

Lol! ok, now I get it. Sort of like how my dear husband stuffs his dirty socks in between the couch cushions. I don't know why he does it, he just DOES.

 

[trestlecreek]

 

[Ariel301]

My husband does the same thing!

And so do my goats...the pee sniffing, not the socks...lol...
All of them do it, bucks, does, wether. And their dominance status doesn't seem to matter either. One of my girls offended a visitor I was showing them to one day by sticking her face in another doe's pee stream and actually DRINKING a little of it! Eww!