# Ram (sheep) mating goats - is this a problem?



## detnol (Feb 17, 2011)

hello, our goats born this spring share the pasture with our sheep and our ram. I cannot yet put them with the other goats since they are with their father and actually our sheep are on much better pasture which is good for the young goaties...
In 15 days their father will be swapped and I will bring them to the goat-field. They start to get their first heat. Is it a problem that our ram is mating them? I hope nothing will come out of this and next heat they can be mated by our new billy goat. Does anybody have experience with this?


----------



## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

yes it can be a danger -- you may get some geep  not many pregnancies will develop into actual geep - there is a higher chance of aborting early then going to full term.


----------



## Burns Branch Boers (Apr 11, 2011)

Wow I never knew there were Geeps :laugh: I googled them--they ARE cute!


----------



## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

wow.. I too had no idea there were "geeps". Online it says that some can actually be fertile and only breed back to either a buck or ram... for more geeps.


----------



## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

I would get them seperated. It could be asking for trouble. A geep is possible from what i've read, but not likely. Lambs are generally thicker built than goat kids...I would worry about kidding issues if the pregnancy went full term or abortions.


----------



## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

:laugh: GEEP what a cute name...never heard of it..till now of course


----------



## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

I knew that deer and goats can breed...but sheep and goats? That's a new one!


----------



## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

Looks like it is pretty rare to have a sheep-goat hybrid. The thing called a geep is something made in a lab apparently. At least that is what Wikipedia says. There doesn't appear to be much that is very authoritative about it on the web. The natural sheep-goat hybrids look to be so rare that they say things like "There was one in New Zealand". Usually they abort, if conception occurs. Sheep and goats are pretty different.

Jan


----------



## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

Jessaba said:


> :laugh: GEEP what a cute name...never heard of it..till now of course


I was thinking the same thing


----------



## Sunny Daze (May 18, 2010)

They will most likely abort but in the mean time you will miss out on breeding them to your buck when the time comes. It can definitely throw a wrench in your breeding plans...definitely a good idea to separate.


----------



## detnol (Feb 17, 2011)

> They will most likely abort


 i just hope that most likely they wont conceive .... geeps are too rare to expect from what i have been reading but i wonder how big the chances are of conception and aborting versus not conceiving at all.
http://farm-in-slovakia.blogspot.com/


----------



## Randi (Apr 22, 2011)

I thought a Geep was Popeye's magical pet :laugh:


----------



## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Lost Prairie has a Gabbit in her avatar!


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Itchysmom said:


> Lost Prairie has a Gabbit in her avatar!


 :ROFL: That she does!! :laugh:


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I remember reading about this many years ago in Dairy Goat Guide. There was
a woman who insisted her doe had not been near a buck, only a ram, and had
conceived and delivered. At that time (the 80's) the *experts* said it was impossible.
Goats and sheep have a different number of chromosomes.
I do not know if this has ever been documented.


----------



## detnol (Feb 17, 2011)

Just an (late) update on progress with our geeps 
Our ram served several of our goats but they all got back in heat +/- 21 days later - so we are lucky not to get any problems from our goats sharing the sheep pasture. Our billy goat finally got home from a holiday at another farm and did his job :lovey:


----------



## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

I just found this! lol From what I have learned about goat reproduction, goats and sheep maintain their pregnancy different. Goats have a Corpus Luteum that releases progeseterone to maintain the pregnancy. Sheep do not have a Corpus Luteum but release progesterone in a different way. I just looked up sheep goat crosses and found that a geep was/is a laboratory experiment where a sheep embryo was fused with a goat embryo. It says the animal was a mismatch of goat and sheep parts with the sheep parts being wooly and the goat parts having goat hair. It also says that sheep have 54 chromosomes and goats have 60 which is probably why the embryo does not last as the chromosomes can not match up into a number that would create a viable being. Mules/hinnies have an odd number of chromosomes, but theirs are easier to match because the horse has 62 and the donkey has 64 giving the mule/hinny 63. 


I would think they would not be able to produce a live animal (no matter what can be found on the internet about it!) because they are so different. Horses and donkeys at least share the same genus (Equus) where as sheep and goats do not (sheep: ovus goat:capra). They may be members of the same family, but that is the closest the relation goes. I can see the does being at risk for possible infections if they are being bred every month by the ram, but if it only happened once then they should be fine.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Wow...that is sure something.... :shocked: :wink:


----------



## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

There's lots of info on the web and it all saids what everyone has been saying. Sterility is common in the males born of this, the females have a higher possibility of fertility. They look very cute from the pictures though, the general body of a sheep but with strong goat back legs and color. It also says the same about what you guys have been saying about the pregnancy taking.

I'd want one.


----------



## bratanya (May 25, 2017)

*ram to doe mating*

I have just had a Dorper ram mating with a feral doe and started investigating online and ended up here. 
Very interesting.
I do not have a buck so if it eventuates into a live birth it would definitely end up a 'Geep'. I suspect it may not as dorper have large lambs and this doe is very small framed.
Looking further online it is apparently quite rare. And yet talking to my neighbour, apparently it has also happened to another farmer in our area. Maybe our Aussie feral goats are unique!!
Gina


----------



## Robinsonfarm (Jul 17, 2015)

The chance of them actually mating is slim, we run out goats and sheep together including rams and bucks and have never had a problem. Of course there are the rare instances, but it is slim. For us it is much easier to run everyone together during breeding.


----------

