Short heat cycles?

[chandasue]

Is it "normal" for a doe (nigerian dwarf) to only be in heat for maybe 8 hours? I'm trying to get her bred but keep missing it since one day she's in heat so I call the place that has the bucks that I breed them to, make an appointment to bring her over the next day and then the next she's not showing any signs of heat, until 19 days later, which is normal... She's done this to me 3 cycles in a row. Driving me crazy!

Wondering if a short cycle is symptomatic of some other problem? She's otherwise in good health.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the average standing heat is only 24 hours long. She should cycle approximately every 21 days or so.

What you can do is pasture her with the buck for a month, then you can almost bet that she will be bred when she comes into heat. You'll have a harder time pinning down an exact kidding date, but the deed will be done.

 

[chandasue]

Yeah I'd be ok with that, even just bringing her there for the week that I know she'll be in heat, but unfortunately it's not an option. She's not set up with the right fencing and such to offer that as a service. I'm not set up or in a position to keep my own buck here either. It's a dilemma...

 

[freemotion]

One of my does drove me nuts last fall by coming into heat late at night, and she was done by morning. I finally caught a late season heat and got her bred. It takes a lot of watching to catch her in heat, and the watching has begun again. Now I am taking her by the buck's pen for a chat twice a day. I could still miss it. If I don't see one in the next couple of weeks, she is going into his pen for a month to get all stinky (and she is my most huggable doe! )

I did a bunch of online reading and found that this can be normal for some does. Everyone else here is a major hussy. My years spent working on a horse breeding farm helped me not worry about my doe, as mares can have silent heats, too, especially early in the season. For the mares, the heats become stronger and the hussy behavior more obvious later in the season. So worry not, your doe is most likely perfectly normal, just a pain in the tuckus. As you know, goats live to drive us nuts.

Of course, we all became certifiably nuts the moment we first thought, "Hmm, maybe I'll get a goat or two....wouldn't that be nice and easy...."

ETA: Spacing between heats can be 18-21 days, ON AVERAGE. Individual results may vary. Goats are liars.

 

[chandasue]

Well that's comforting to know she's just being a normal pain in the a** and here to make me more nutty than I already am.