Goat age by teeth question

[SuburbanFarmChic]

So I have these new little goats and was told that they were born May of last year. I had to catch one earlier in the week and while checking her out I looked at her mouth to see if she had any abscesses, cuts, etc. She only has 1 adult tooth that is 1/2 way through the skin. When the charts say "Adult teeth at X age" how accurate is this. Should a nearly 18mo old animal only have 1/2 of 1 of her adults. I'm going to round up the others and check them out too.

The reason for my concern is that we don't want to breed them too young. I was ok with breeding at 18months to kid out around 2 yrs old. And my concern is based on most of the charts saying that they'll have both of those adult teeth by 1.5 years old.

 

[freemotion]

I'm curious as to how the other goat's teeth looked......that should give you some answers, especially if they are all supposed to be the same age.

 

[that's*satyrical]

Weird. So funny story about goat teeth. I saw my buck making his funny face the other day & as you all know I am new to goats. Well, he had no teeth on the top!!! I was freaking out thinking I got sold a bum goat with no teeth on top. Then I read online that NO goats have teeth on the top in the front...whew!! what a relief!!! lol

 

[zzGypsy]

if you look at the teeth, they get one pair adult teeth per year...
so a yearling will have 2 adult teeth in the middle, with the rest baby teeth on either side.
a 2-yr old will have 4 adult teeth in the middle....
and so on.

"yearling" is a rough estimate, the first pair of adult teeth may come in early (say 11 months) or late (say 14 months). an 18-month old should definitely have 1 pair adult teeth in the center.

so if yours doesn't, either it's closer to a year than 18 months, or there is some dental or development issue. I've had an occasional sheep, and one horse, that failed to get certain adult teeth (they just never formed at all). poor nutrition can cause development issues, although I don't know of any that apply specifically to teeth, perhaps someone else on here can provide more info on that. damage to the mouth can cause teeth to fail to develop. damage or development abnormalities may cause the teeth to develop, but not be able to emerge... that'd take a vet to diagnose.

 

[Queen Mum]

It is also sometimes breed specific. Some goats breeds get their adult teeth later than others. Either way, does can safely carry kids as young as a year old depending on their size at the time they are bred. You don't want a full size goat being bred any smaller than 80 pounds. If the mother had multiples of more than two, though, you would want to wait for her doeling to be in her second breeding cycle if you can because triplets and quadruplets are a genetic issue and are very hard for a yearling to carry.

Sara
Queen Mum