# Horn Growth



## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

We added two new babies to our growing herd this spring (if six goats can be called a "herd"). The new boys are currently 3 months old and un-neutered. They are brothers, and are 1/2 Saanen, 1/4 Alpine, and 1/4 Nubian. They also have their horns ... sort of.

At the same age our purebred Saanen wethers had very noticeable horn growth, probably a good 3 inches or more sticking out of their heads. But these new guys barely show any horn growth at all, in fact their horns have barely broken through the skin. They seem very healthy and active, and their weight is on track for their age (about 50 pounds).

Does anyone know any secrets to stimulating or accelerating horn growth in young goats?


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

wow, at 3 months of age they really should be looking at 4-6 inches of horn growth. The only thing I can tell you for sure is, testosterone is a key factor in horn growth and they are coming up on the age where they are about to start making it in spades  Other then that and maybe some calcium, I dont know what you would do to help out their horn growth. Where they fed milk or replacer?


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

They couldn't be a throwback to a polled goat somewhere in their ancestry could they? But you say the horns are just breaking through the skin, so I guess not.


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## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

We have held off on castrating them specifically to allow their urinary tract to fully develop and to give them a chance to develop good, large bases for future horn growth.

We have been bottle feeding them twice daily with milk replacer, and planned to continue doing so until they were four months old. We feed them grass hay and supplement it with alfalfa pellets (less waste) and a sweetened grain mix. 

As I said, they look and act very healthy, they just don't have any horns! Some people would consider this a blessing, but as our other goats are horned I think it's important for the babies to develop horns so they don't end up getting their heads bashed in when they start having the inevitable butting contests with the big guys.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

if you can take a pic and post it, that would be great.


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

That is a new one? How certain are you as to the breeding you listed? Those three goats should all have good horn growth. I suspect that there is some other breed mixed in?


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## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

Unfortunately we didn't verify the breeding. We bought the kids from the "friend-of-a-friend". We did see the mother, that we were told was 1/2 Nubian and 1/2 Alpine. She had been dehorned, but her appearance seemed consistent with this description. The sire was, allegedly, pure Saanen.

Just out of curiosity, are there goat breeds that are naturally hornless?

I will take some photos of the kids tomorrow so everyone can see them and take their best guess.

Ken


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

There is no breed that I know of but there are pulled genetics as mentioned above. Can you see the actual horns breaking through or just kinda rounded bumps?


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

Yeah, if they're rounded bumps then the goats are polled. I believe most breeds can have polled individuals in their genetics can't they? Lilly is polled and has cute little nubs on her head instead of being flat like Nibbles, who was de-horned.


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## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

Here are the photos I promised. As you can see, Zeke (the dark one) has what looks like a small "scur" on one side, but otherwise no horn growth. Bart, on the other hand, has small, scab-like "bumps" on his head, but not even anything that would be called a scur.

30 minutes later... 

Sorry, solving a Rubik's Cube would be easier than trying to figure out how to upload photos to accompany a post on this site. Well done computer nerds, you've done it again!


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

well if you wanna email em to me ill post em. [email protected]


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

Just click the "Manage Attachments" link and it will let you upload the photos. They will appear after you submit your post.


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## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

Thanks Nano, I had already tried that procedure 4 or 5 times without success. It would let me select the files, but then it wouldn't post them when I hit "submit". It wasn't because the files were too large either; they were only about 300K each.

I'm going to take Dave up on his offer and email them to him and see if he has any better luck.


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

Huh. That's odd. Works great for me. You should send a message to Austin and see if something is broken for you or if you're missing a step or using the wrong type of files. That shouldn't happen.


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## Bwana Ken (May 9, 2011)

Dave, I emailed you the photos last night and got this error message in return. If I were the paranoid type I'd think the computer nerds were plotting against me....

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
[email protected]
Your message wasn't delivered due to a permission or security issue. It may have been rejected by a moderator, the address may only accept e-mail from certain senders, or another restriction may be preventing delivery.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

wth??? Ok next option. Go to photobucket.com and make a quick account and load the photos there and then paste the links here. Oh and I did a search for some pictures of pulled kids and all I got was misc pics of mostly pulled goat meat... carts and some horrific incident where someone pulled the horns off a goat! And just about anything else you can pull from a goat... babies... hair... THEN I figured I spell it correctly and the search for a pic got much closer to what I was looking for


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Ok so far this is the best pick I could find that looks like an adult goat with pulled horns.

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4685505405586440&pid=15.1

But I guess an easy way to describe it is, horns will come up through and part the hair. On most polled goats, there is no sign of horns and the hair covers the entire top of their heads with what looks like rounded bumps in place of the horns.


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