# Split Teat



## moosemountaingoats

When I first got my doelings, everything appeared normal with their teats and their mother's udder seemed fine to my unexperienced eye. As Becky matured, I noticed that one of her teats has a minor split in it near the top. Will this be a problem since I plan to milk her?


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## freedomstarfarm

Kinda hard to tell from that photo but it looks like a teat spur to me. 
In a dairy goat for show it would be a disqualifying trait. It is inheritable and
I personally would not breed her or breed those two parents together again. I might not be correct but I believe both parents have to carry a specific gene to produce teat issues like this and double teats. 
Some not all can raise kids fine but will pass the gene onto kids from what I understand even if not visibly.


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## moosemountaingoats

It does look like a little spur near the top and I will try to post a better pic of it now that she's matured a little more. I don't own her parents, but will pass the info along to the breeder I got her from for her future reference. 

So, you wouldn't breed her at all? What about her sister? She's not shown any signs of deformations, but would carry the identical genes as her twin I assume.


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## nancy d

It is kinda hard to see on her. :wink: 

I have a Boer/Nubian cross with a spur/split high on one teat. She is easy to milk & has been shown. Matter of fact made Gr Ch a couple weeks ago in a Boer goat show.
As for breeding I guess it all depends on what your goals & personal preferences are. If you breed her to a clean teated buck with no known traits in his line it most likely wont be passed down.
She did not pass it to her own kids.
There are minor flaws in the gene pool that most of us just work with.


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## moosemountaingoats

Better pic obtained:


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## freedomstarfarm

Yes that looks like a teat spur.

From what I have gathered info wise a dairy goat will be disqualed with it but it is ok for meat goats. 
It is a flaw that the gene is very common. If you breed the same 2 clean teated (carrying the gene) goats together 10 times and get 25 offspring maybe only 1 will have it maybe 25 you kinda never know.

I have also heard that twins each get their own dan strand and just because they were born of the same parents at the same litter there is not a definate if they both would have the gene.

I do think there may be a DNA test for the gene. Not sure and if there is not sure on the cost.

Dairy goats with double teats and teat spurs should not and can't honestly be registered as far as I know.

To each his own. _If it were me_ I might breed the sister and try and find a pet home for the girl with it (making sure the people were aware of it). I would never want to add a flaw like that into the gene pool.

Hopefully others chime in here and tell what they know or have heard.


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## liz

Thats a teat spur and it is genetic...if you do breed her for your own milk use, I'd sell her kids as pets and wether her boys. Even her sister having clean teats can pass this to her kids...kids from this doe may be clean teated but they can and will carry the gene and will have it come up again in future kids.

If her kids are registerable, I personally would not want to register them.
Her milking ability as well as feeding kids won't be affected and you may even see that extra recede as her udder grows.


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## goathiker

If you're wanting these girls for home milking use, the easiest way to deal with this would be to breed them boer and sell the does for commercial meat stock and the bucklings for meat.


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## moosemountaingoats

:sigh: 
Now I'm not sure what to do; I was hoping to use these two as starters for a herd of milkers on the road to producing cheese. Please keep the comments coming. I may have to find some new goats. I originally went with these nubians because of the supposedly higher butterfat content in their milk for making cheese, but if any one has recommendations about what goats make the best cheese, I'd love to hear it.


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## lissablack

Goathiker's idea seems good to me, that way you can have the milk and not worry about the gene pool. I guess it messes with your idea about the little buck kid. I also think it is very possible that nubians might keep milking until you dry them up, if you keep milking them. I milked my nubian doe for 18 months and dried her up when I thought she was bred. But she wasn't. Worse luck. I don't know how long she would have kept milking. If I manage to get her bred this fall I will never dry her up. 

If you paid a lot for the two girls you really do need to discuss that with the breeder, she should not have sold them to you as registerable, at least not the one with the teat spur.

Jan


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## nancy d

I would not breed this girl to a Boer. She's a mini breed, no? My Boers are 10 mos AND 100 lbs before breeding to any Boer buck.


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## KW Farms

She's a nubian, nancy d. 

moosemountaingoats: If you want to start out a herd of quality milkers, I would get rid of these doelings and go with clean teated does. The split/spur teats could and probably will show up on their kids at some point. Also, to have a milk doe perform at her best, she really should have normal teats.

Along with that, any kids from these girls that are sold could go on to negatively effect someone else's herd and then your herd could be getting a bad name. 

If you're looking for high butterfat content, nigerian dwarfs have the highest of the dairy breeds.  Not that i'm biased towards them or anything. :laugh:


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## goathiker

Really these are the type of animals that end up in a dairy in America, just being used for milk production.
Remember Canadian registries and standards are going to be different from America. It may not be a disqualification or considered as bad a thing there.


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## moosemountaingoats

I do want to build a quality dairy herd and to sell every kid for meat would go against that plan, as well as break my heart. There's not a huge market for pet goats, nor do I have the space currently to keep goats that aren't going to help me reach my goals of eventually building a quality herd of dairy goats and making delicious cheeses. I love these girls so much... it seriously upsets me to think that all their beautiful babies would be cursed with bad genes.


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## luvmyherd

:shocked: WOW!!!
I just got on here to post a thread like this. I just came home from a two week vacation and my DIL had discovered a teat spur on one of my 7mo Nubian doelings. I am so upset as she and her sister are both beautiful and I was planning to breed them. I own their mother and her udder is fine. In fact, I can get half a gallon out of her in like two minutes. I was hoping for the same from the girls.
I am in the same quandry. I do not plan to show so that is not a problem. I just do not want to breed this trait into my herd. The questions I had have pretty much been answered here though, so thanks.
As of right now I think I will just breed them to our mix buck to see how they milk. We eat our surplus so that will probably be their fate. It is going to disappoint me not to be able to keep any of their offspring though.
Good luck with your herd. I know starting over is expensive and time consuming but I guess best in the long run.
I have heard that Toggenburgs are best for cheese as that is what they were bred for and their milk tastes stronger. I have three and I use their milk for cheese and it is turning out pretty good. (We have just started that.)


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## moosemountaingoats

I spent the day going back and forth in my head over what to do, but I have found out that my doeling is the only one known in her family to have that teat spur, so maybe she's the one in 25 or whatever that it popped up in. Their dam, their dams dam, and the sire's dam all have clean teats, so who knows. Maybe it'll recede as someone said; either way, no one seems to think it'll really affect her milking ability. I just love her, and the thought of either of them not greeting me in the morning is just too sad. I'm probably getting ahead of myself, shooting for the moon with dreams of the perfect dairy goat herd. 
:lovey: :lovey: 
Maybe if I just get one more goat, a proven doe, I could use her to grow my herd instead of relying on these girls, and still have them bred to milk for personal use and cheese-making while I'm learning. I'm sure I'm years away from a fully functioning dairy, or being able to produce cheese others might actually want to eat! I'll have to sell their young pets, and definitely wether all the boys, or even eat them, but I'm not going to give up on such a dear little goat so easily.
onder: 
Unless anyone has any horror stories about how the teat spur adversely affected the health of either the goat or her offspring directly, or her ability to comfortably produce milk, I'll probably work around it.


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## goathiker

I found some reading for you
http://www.myotonicgoatregistry.net/Art ... fects.html


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## moosemountaingoats

Thanks so much for the links and all the great info. I really appreciate having some people to talk to. There's no one around here to really talk goat with.


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## luvmyherd

That was very good. Thank you so much for posting it. So my girls do not necessarily have to be culled. I think I will stick to my original plan and if they milk like their mother maybe find a really good buck for them next season.
Hope this has set your mind at ease as well moosemountaingoats.


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## moosemountaingoats

Yes, I'm feeling better after fully researching the subject. I've found a couple other does that will take the pressure off these girls to supply me with a whole herd of goats. 

I'll wait to breed the little Nubians until the fall of 2012 to avoid any complications with early pregnancy, and find an appropriate clean teated buck for them when the time comes. 

For now, I am considering adding a Alpine doe in milk already and a LaMancha doe who's been bred, unfortunately not sure exactly when she was bred though. Then I'd have milk now, and milk when the LaMancha kids, and I could dry off the Alpine and breed her in the fall for more milk when the LaMancha dries off, then eventually breed the LaMancha and the Nubians in the fall of next year...right? Does that make sense???


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## goathiker

As your making your plans remember that the least amount of time dry is better for your does udder health. Unless they are very thin or have health problems it doesn't benefit them to sit dry building bacteria in their udders and getting fat. Most people dry off a doe when she's 100 days bred. This leaves her resources for when the babies are growing, without leaving her dry for too long.
LaManchas have a great will to milk and may be able to go 2 years without breeding milking the entire time. Some lines of Alpines will do this also.


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