Talk to me about horns vs polled

[StoneWallFarmer]

I have two ND doelings, 6 weeks old. Their mother is polled and their father is unknown. I've assumed all this time that they're both polled as they haven't grown horns. Now at 6 weeks one has what seems like little horns starting to come up.

I've always been under the impression that their horns grow within days to a week after birth. And that if youre going to disbudd them its beat to do it at around 5 days old. The one little buck I had had definite horns at about 4-5 days old.

I'm confused!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I have never had a polled goat.

Hope someone will assist you.

 

[Riverside Fainters]

I am kinda interested in this too. I just had babies born from a polled doe and horned buck. One I can definitely feel little pokies while the other one is not as pronounced... Is the one with definite bumps horned and his brother not?
Sorry for hijacking...

 

[OneFineAcre]

I have a polled buck bred this past fall to 3 first freshners who were not polled. 4 kids only one was polled.

You can only feel little knots on their head when they are a week or so old. Buck kids almost from day one, does later.

6 weeks old and growing horns? You have two options. Live with horns, or call a vet to disbud. He can still burn them out at 6 weeks old, but you couldn't do it yourself. Even a vet with a sedated goat may not get it all burning at that age.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Mine all had little horn bumps at less than a week. Can't help you with the polled ones though.

 

[poorboys]

I have a polled doe, and her doeling is also polled, you do not want to breed two polled goats to each other. usually if one is polled and the other is not, you will get some polled kids, look for the swirl on top of the head, if they have a swirl they will probably get horns. dis-bud bucks with in a few days I let my girls go sometimes two weeks before I disbud them.

 

[Southern by choice]

Are the horns actually coming through? Is this a buckling or a doeling?
On polled goats there are nubs under the skin, some nubs are rather pronounced.
I have ND's. Last breeding Polled doe to Horned buck... produced triplets. H-buckling, P doeling, P buckling.
Horned buckling- horns came through in <1 week. Polled kids both have solid nubs, the bucklings is more pronounced.

Sometimes horns can come through a bit late. Normally does are at about 3 weeks, bucks <1 week. A delay can occur if the kid was a little weaker or a nutritional issue etc. At 6 weeks that would be very very unusual for a buckling, more probable for a doeling.