# Nigerian Dwarf isn’t bred!



## CaramelKittey (Oct 31, 2019)

Hello fellow goat people!
I’ve been running into a lot of trouble getting my Nigerian Dwarf (Gracie) bred. We have tried at least 4-5 times to breed her and have had no success. The first couple times we attempted to breed her (Yes, we knew she was in heat) were strange. We drove her to the breeders and held her while the buck mounted her. For sure, he got her. We did it 3 times! Roughly 21 days later she went back into heat. See, the strange thing was, she was in heat at our farm, and it looks to be that the stress of the car ride knocked her out of her heat cycle. When she got to the breeders, she wouldn’t be in heat. Is this a normal thing? Does this happen a lot? I was very confused. Since then, we tried so many other times with a different buck that had stayed at our house. See, Gracie would be a FF and this buck was almost 6 years old. Even though we thought she was bred (we held her to the buck and he definitely did what he had to do!) today I noticed discharge showing she went back into heat. What should I do? Do we need to have a younger buck STAY at our house? We have a buck pen, and we have brought a buck to our farm for the past 5 years. We also noticed that the 6 year old buck (His name is SP) had trouble breeding our 5 year old doe this year. She was bred eventually. Our other do, Squeaks, was bred to a younger buck (We drove her there) and she was bred first time. Sorry for the length, and thanks in advance.


----------



## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

Hi, Sorry you're having issues getting her bred.
How old is the doe?
Is she chunky or under weight? 
what minerals do you use? 
Have you thought about having a vet test her for chlamydia? or other diseases.

Could be the buck is reaching the end of his reproductive cycle too and he's not producing healthy sperm to impregnate your doe.
I'd try leaving the younger buck with your doe for a full 30-45 days so she goes through at least two heat cycles and see if this helps after testing her. Otherwise she might be the rare exception that can't conceive.


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Sounds like she had a 5 day heat. Can you leave your girl with the male for a month?


----------



## CaramelKittey (Oct 31, 2019)

Thank you for the reply. She is about 1 year and 9 months old. We originally planned to breed her when she was about 1 1/2 years old but the breeding didn't take. I weighed her today after she ate grain (The grain is only about 3/4 of a pound.) and she was 66.2 lbs! Way heavier than I expected since she is a purebred Nigerian Dwarf. We give our goats a free-choice blend of minerals as well as baking soda. We have not had her tested for any of the diseases you mentioned. The last time a vet looked at her from a distant was for the 4-H fair in June of 2019. The vet said she looked healthy. I agree that the buck (SP) was probably reaching the end of his ability to breed. Unfortunately, Gracie appeared to be out of her heat cycle today. Her heat cycles last about 36-48 hours. The younger buck is not able to stay at our house, and we are not able to bring the the doe to the owner of the buck to stay. The only chance she has with the younger buck is about 15-30 minutes. I'm really hoping she will be able to breed since she does so well in goat shows. Next year, we plan to use another breeder who will allow us to keep a buck at our house. We will most likely try again this Spring or Summer for babies in the fall. Thanks for the help! :bighug:


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Can you find another buck that she can stay with for 30 days? She may have issues but you just may not be catching her at quite the right time.


----------



## CaramelKittey (Oct 31, 2019)

Yes we can get another buck. The same breeder that had the older buck has some younger ones we will use next time. Do you think it would be wise to breed her now, or wait until Spring comes around? If we were to breed her now the babies would be born early June. Should we breed her in March for babies in September? I would prefer to breed her before next Fall. Any tips on a good month to breed her? Thank you!


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I would breed her now. At this point you need to see if she does have a problem or if you just aren't getting the timing right. And you need her to just live with the buck.


----------

