# Question about Polled Goats



## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

OK...So I've never had a polled goat until this year. We leased a polled, blue-eyed buck and bred him to three of my does. The mini LaManchas he sired got the blue eyes. The female mini Munchie developed horn buds and we disbudded her. I expected to disbud her brother, but when we shaved his little head, there were just BARELY any bumps visible. Odd, because in my experience, males usually get bigger buds faster than their sisters. I sold him as is and told the new owner to call me if the "buds" grew ASAP so we could deal with them (assuming she wants to.)

I thought 2 of the Nigerians doelings sired by this buck were also polled, but one developed buds, albeit a little later than I'm used to. We were pretty positive the other one was completely polled. Until now. She is 3 and 1/2 weeks old and my daughters have noticed little horn buds. I'm going to check them here in the next hour or so. But, I've never had a polled goat. Do their heads have zero bud presentation? ie. are they flat and smooth? Or do they get little mounds? Should I need to disbud a doeling who's almost a month old?????

I'd also like to add that these girls had 2 brothers (yes, quads). They did develop horn buds in the first week, but they were SUPER easy to disbud. faster and cleaner than any burn I've done before. Is that also a result of the polled gene???


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

It is my understanding that there are different types of polled goats. Some will have completely flat heads while others will have the little buds. Usually (at least with cattle) polled animals won't have the "hair swirls" where the horns usually come out - the hair will just looked smoothed over. Do you have pictures?


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Are the buds round or pointy? They can be a giraffe poll....wee knobs up there. From all my reading the round knobs are polled and pointy are not. Do they have swirlies up there? Or do they look like their hair is straight and comes down like bangs? No swirlies and bangs is a good indicatir of polled as well. We have a lil buckling that every single day i go feel his knobs now lol. Dad was polled. Bibbins are round so we are pretty sure he is polled... he is bout 6-7 weeks old now. When he got here and a week later he had nadda then at bout three weeks he started gettin the dial turners up there. But nothin has broken through. He did scratch his noggin some and made a scab and i was so afraid that was horn peekin out but newp just him bein a baby goatie.bibbin had bangs from day one.


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## PippasCubby (May 13, 2015)

My polled goats get mounds instead of points. For the polled goats the mounds get bigger, bulge-ier and rounder as they get older where horns will get taller and pointier.

I am kinda kicking myself now for not taking pictures, but I recently disbudded a kid who came from a polled dam and I wasn't sure about it at first. But, when I parted her hair to look closely, you could see the horn bud. It was tiny, pencil eraser sized? and shiny with no hair growth. When I compared her to the kid that I though was polled, it was pretty clear. The polled kid did not have that "clearing" in the area where horns would be.


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## Mossyrock (Mar 21, 2017)

My polled doe (she's a year old) definitely has sizable nubs. Not a totally round smooth head at all.

I've had 4 kids born so far by a polled buck. 3 horned, 1 polled. It was very easy to tell immediately just based on the look of the head which was polled.

This was the polled buck at less than a day old


Vs horned brother


Don't know if that totally shows it but the hair growth is just totally different.

I am no expert at all but that about covers my experience so far with polled goats!


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## shoafplantation (May 18, 2018)

Excellent pics mossyrock. I raise polled Nigerians so I have firsthand knowledge that the polled kids have rounder heads at birth. However most polled kids heads don't stay smooth and round. They get the mounds or nubs, some pretty pronounced, but never a point that breaks the skin. 
Groovyoldlady, your buck was heterozygous polled. Even kids from my homozygous polled buck , all being polled, the kids still have different sized nubs.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Wow...Thanks so much, everyone. I'll post a photo of her tomorrow. From what you're all saying both she and the mini buck we sold are definitely both polled. GROOVY! She has the bangs and the bumps feel smoother than what I'm used to feeling. Huzzah!


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Here's a close up of a horned buckling. You can see how the hair swirls.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Here's Anna's cute little head. What do ya'll think?


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## Mossyrock (Mar 21, 2017)

She looks polled to me! She's super cute 

This is my polled boy currently (at 2 weeks old). Her hair and head shape looks very much like his to me.


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## PippasCubby (May 13, 2015)

Looks polled to me too


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## shoafplantation (May 18, 2018)

Yeah, the round shape and the absence of the hair swirls makes me also think polled.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

Our nigi buck is polled and he has two small rounded mounds. He was bred to 3 of our disbudded girls so we'll see what he throws...hoping for some polled babies.


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## ETgoatygirl (Mar 23, 2012)

Yep! She definitely looks polled. Congrats! My polled doe has those little bumps, and you can feel them on some of the polled kids. I think it's great that you can look at a kid's head, and tell whether they're polled or not. Fascinating!


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I had three bucklings last year with three types of polled heads. It was super interesting. There was 4 bucklings from a polled to polled breeding. 

1 was horned
1 was "giraffe" polled
1 was totally flat headed polled
1 was what I consider "normal" polled. I kept him, and he's homozygous polled from as far as I can tell. 100% of his offspring have been polled this year (20+ kids about 3/4 of the does he was bred to were horned).

The "giraffe" polled was the one that stumped me for a while. I thought he was horned at first as his mounds grew fast and had a bit of a tip to them. The flat headed kid was super easy to tell. His whole head shape was just different. And the kid I kept, the homozyhous one had a very rounded head with two little mounds that were not pointy.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

HI Guys (or Gals), So the lady I sold the mini LaMancha buck to is concerned because his buds are getting bigger. He is a wee bit over 2 weeks old. Here are some pics from when he was maybe 4 days old.

What do you think? Polled? Or late bloomer? (I asked her to send me current photos so I can evaluate him, but she has not done so yet. We shaved his head when I disbudded his sister and there was hardly any growth there at all. His head wasn't "flat", but it was really close to being so.)


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Here's the buckling at 2 weeks. Opinions? His head is shaved here. We shaved it back when we disbudded his sister because I thought we'd need to disbud him as well.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I think they call them giraffe horns. They never amount to much.


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

He still looks polled here. Has she sent any new pics? Our buckling is a giraffe poll... he has lil knobs up there but nothin comin out the skin and they are rounded. You can just see one of his nubs here. He is seven weeks in the pic. And where he rubs his nog on stuff they do get kinda bald.


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## AP625 (May 29, 2018)

Here are some pictures from this weekend.


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## PippasCubby (May 13, 2015)

The pics of him from when he was younger are hard to tell, but the more recent ones, I would say he is polled.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Sfgwife said:


> View attachment 132287
> He still looks polled here. Has she sent any new pics? Our buckling is a giraffe poll... he has lil knobs up there but nothin comin out the skin and they are rounded. You can just see one of his nubs here. He is seven weeks in the pic. And where he rubs his nog on stuff they do get kinda bald.


The very last pics I posted are the up-to-date photos. Also his new owner (AP623) just posted a photo of him right after your post.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

How old is he now?


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

He was born May 12, so a little over 2 weeks.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I would expect more horn growth. Especially on a male.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

ksalvagno said:


> I would expect more horn growth. Especially on a male.


 That's what I thought. So I'm feeling pretty confident that Stratton IS polled! HUZZAH!


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