# Triplets born this morning! Can two bucks breed same doe?



## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

AS luck would have it, my two bucks busted down the electric fence and had a goat orgy with the does for about 12 hours until I was aware of the situation. Both bucks bred several of the does and two obviously took. This was in early August and I realized this would put kidding in the middle of winter. As my luck would have it, she gave birth to triplets on the coldest snowiest day of the year. I piled hay into the bed of my pickup with a camper shell last night and wired up a small safety space heater to a support bracket on the camper shell. I loaded up the pregnant doe as all signs indicated she was going to kid soon and wanted her in a nice warm place.

I woke up to triplets this morning which didn't surprise me seeing how large she was over the past few weeks. I either figured it was two HUGE babies or triplets. I figure they will stay the next several days in the truck into it warms up some.

As for the fathers, I am not sure if all are from the same buck. One of my bucks is half lamancha and has no ears. One of the kids came out with no ears so I don't have to guess on that one. One came out looking just like the mother, a full blood Nubian. Her twin kids from the half lamancha came out looking basically the same last year. The other buck is new since then and is half Saanen and half Boer. He is pure white. The third kid is mostly white with some brown and has long ears. Is it possible for multiple bucks to breed the same doe?

I had another set of twins born a week ago and one is pure white with no ears. The other looks just like the grandpa, a lamancha, except that it has ears. I would say both of these definitely came from the one buck.

Luckily the other does weren't really in heat and didn't get pregnant from this breeding as I have enough to handle right now.

The mother is a great milk producer so I think she will be able to support triplets no problem.

Conor


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I had babies from same mother (alpine/nubian). ..only one buck (lamancha)...and all 3 kids had different looking ears. One had mancha ears, one airplane ears and the other had long nubian ears.


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## dobe627 (Oct 16, 2007)

Yes 2 bucks can father a litter. Have had several people say it happened to them. And I'm positive it happened here. Same thing bucks got out, 1 kid was identical to each father


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## Ride4ever (Aug 7, 2013)

I have never heard of it, but it might be possible. I am not sure. Make sure the doe can handle the triplets. I never leave 3 babies on a goat. I have done that before and often it results in me losing a baby or even the mother. And none of the babies or the mother have enough nutrients.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Yes. It happened to me. Verified by DNA through ADGA.


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## Ride4ever (Aug 7, 2013)

Wow! okay then. Its true.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

Yes it can happen. However, I knew someone whose pure Lamancha buck would not stay in his pen for anything and bred about half of her Nubian does on accident. Half the babies had Lamancha ears and the other half had super long Nubian ears ( longer than I have ever seen on a pure Nubian). So ear genetics can definitely be funny that way.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I am pretty sure that two are at least fathered by the same buck. One looks like the mother, a pure Nubian. The half-lamancha buck is also probably at least 1/4 Nubian himself based on his mother and I have been told that lamanchas are likely somewhat derived from Nubians. This, and the fact that one of his kids from this doe looked the same last year, make me feel this way.

The short eared one is a boy as is the white one with the brown on its face. The one that most resembles the Nubian mother is a girl. Either way, I was most concerned about the white one being from the other buck. Since I was able to sex them between these posts, I figure I will not worry about genetics too much as all the boys will be sold for sure and I won't have to worry about them breeding with my does.

I will keep an eye out for nutrition issues because of the three. I provide goat protein/nutrition blocks which are made by ADM and derived from all plant sources (I understand some use poultry byproducts), some grain, and some alfalfa along with regular grass hay. The only time I have ever had goats with issues was one that must have just been weak as she was nothing but problems and I had to put her down. I have also had minor worm issues which I have kept in check. Worms are the only thing that have caused my goats to start to lose weight and look shaggy. This mother had luckily been wormed just before the unintended breeding and she still looks sleek and healthy so I am hopeful it will all work out ok for her. In addition, this one seems to provide PLENTY of milk. She is the biggest milk producer of all my does which is a good thing.

Conor


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## Cadence (Jul 20, 2013)

Yes, you can have more than one sire for a single litter of kids.

This picture isn't the best one of the group, but you can see that mom was a Togg, we thought she was bred to the saanen... but clearly the lamancha got to her as well


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Yep! Had triplet doelings born here almost 6 years ago from my Pygerian doe Tilly... I had bred her with my Pygmy buck but 5 days later she chose to break into the buck pen and was also bred by my nigerian buck, each of the 3 doelings were very different, 2 were very pygmy and the third was a polled long legged Nigerian  My ND buck was also polled.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I have given these triplets another several good looks today and definitely feel that the white one came from my Saanen-Boer cross. This little baby looks just like him. My buck is almost pure white and has a few little speckles kinda like how pigs are spotted. One of the pictures I took of him clearly shows these speckles but the resemblance is overall a spitting image of him, minus the brown down the sides of his face. None of my other goats show this speckle/spotting pattern at all and none of the previous kids ever did.

The lamancha ears are definitely a dead giveaway on your picture. This is something that I see about 50% of the time with my other buck. Some of my females with wattles throw kids with about 50% of them having wattles. My small-eared buck must be a carrier of that gene although he doesn't have them himself. I think all the kids in your picture have them. The doe with these triplets has never produced kids with them.

Conor


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