Is she close?

[SaanenMom]

She looks like a single to me. I find it strange that she would come into milk this early in the year if she wasn't bred. My Saanens come into heat in mid Aug but I hold off until Sept to breed. They will breed in Feb without using hormones. She could have come in heat anytime in August, so you need to be watching her closely starting Dec 28. As you look at her from the back, the babies are on the right side. Most does come into milk between 2 to 4 weeks. Some of them come in later. I've had one come in the day after kidding. I had other goats so had frozen colostrum. A baby needs 1oz for each pound of body weight. She may have enough.

Do I think she will go that early? No, but it won't be terribly long. Mine that don't get bred will come into milk about March and I can get them up to almost where they were before.

 

[Ridgetop]

Let us know if she has kids. Sure doesn't look very big or very pregnant. A fourth set of kids for a Nubian should be twins at least.

Does the breeder have any kids on the ground now? Can you call the breeder and check if she has any kids born during the time period she gave you as due dates? How many kids has this doe produced in previous kiddings? All this information is something you should know so you can decide is the doe was bred. If she was sold as a bred doe with a guarantee of kids, and doesn't produce any kids, you should be entitled to a rebreeding.

If the breeder told you she was due August 25-28, your doe would have to have been been bred around April 4-6 and standard Nubians would not be breeding at that time. Even if she was with the buck for the 4 months from April through August, it would have been during the summer when Nubians do not normally breed. Since the breeder removed her August 25, just as standard Nubian goats are coming into rut and beginning to cycle, you would be lucky if she got bred in the few days or weeks she was with the buck. If the breeder was removing her from the buck on August 25, she may not have cycled yet or the buck might not have come into rut.

If you are sure that her udder is filling up, you might have gotten lucky. Next time you will know that she should be exposed to the buck between the end of August and December. Be sure to breed her then.

I am not trying to disappoint you or upset you by being pessimistic about your doe being pregnant. If you don't know the seasons when to breed though, you will never get her settled. Have you read any books on dairy goats? If you want to breed year round you can try Boer goats. They have a reputation for breeding out of season. However, even Boers have fallen victim to show breeders who breed for specific kidding dates in order to enter shows with certain age kids. This means that they will no longer be choosing genetics to produce kids year round.

What is the month of your doe's birth? When choosing breeding animals from year round breeding species or breeds, buy animals born in the month you want to have kids. Breeding from fall born does will be more certain to produce out of season born offspring. Normally most breeds of sheep and goats produce spring born offspring. This is seasonal to correspond with the first flush of grass/forage after the winter months, providing enough food for the mama to produce milk to raise the babies.