# What age do Nigerians go into rut?



## Carmen_SanDiego (Sep 13, 2013)

I've been holding off on banding 3 of my soon to be wethers for a few reasons, one I heard 12 weeks of age and older is the best time to band because their urinary tract will have enough time to develop and reduce the chance of stones. Anyway I'm also waiting on my bander, it should be here this week from Caprine, but it seems in the short weeks from 12-14 my bucklings might be well on their way to rut... I think they have been peeing on themselves and each other?? I've seen them stick their nose in each other's urine... They are definitely blubbering. They absolutely getting banded as soon as possible, just curious how close I'm cutting it.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

you are probably still ok. I noticed my little boys "riding" everything when they were just a few days old! :shock: I think...think...I read somewhere that they are not "potent" at this age...but not sure I would take that to heart. hehe


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

They can start as early as 8 weeks. But your fine to band them as soon as you get the bander.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

We had our Nubian wether surgically castrated at 13 weeks, I believe. He wasn't really showing any bucky tendencies by then. However, at 13 weeks my Nubian buckling that I sold intact was already mounting and "tasting" his own urine.


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## Carmen_SanDiego (Sep 13, 2013)

Yeah they were playing from a young age mounting each other.. boys will be boys. These past two weeks have been different... they have been smelling their lips and all about each other's pee and it's a blubber fest in the morning, luckily it's not a terrible smell yet but the bander can't come soon enough. They have been really going after the wethers while blubbering too.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

From my own limited experience with _breeding_, if they're in with females that you don't want bred, waiting until the bucklings are 3 months old will be waiting too long. But I have no experience yet of _banding_, so can't speak to that.


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## Padynrae (Jan 8, 2014)

This doesn't have much to do with the question but I thought I'd share. The "smelling their lips" you mentioned is actually called the Flehmen reaction or Flehmen response. It causes the nostrils to constrict, pulling the urine into Vomeronasal organ. It helps identify if a doe is in heat or not by analyzing the urine's hormonal products. Does will do this to their kids to determine the health of said kids. Other things trigger the Flehmen reaction too, like feces and cigarette smoke.


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Are they in with females? If not, there's probably no rush to band them.....
And even if they are, the does have to be of breeding age and in heat. It should be fine to wait.....


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## Carmen_SanDiego (Sep 13, 2013)

Okay, so I banded the boys yesterday. Two of them were no problem, but the third had really big (or should I say long??) er..testicles, so the band kept rolling up toward the teats. The band is definitely not ON the teats, but right above, is this going to be okay? with the others I had enough room in the scrotum to leave a little space in between. I cut the first band off and tried twice to make sure that the band placement wasn't something I did, but even when placed a little lower it ends up right where it was before... I am thinking that maybe it will roll a little bit the other way once they shrink a little?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

As long as the band is not on the teats you are fine.


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