← Goats H25-04 · Module 4 of 7 · Pages: 21 · Worksheets: 6

Mating, kidding and kids

From the doe in season and the buck to kidding and weaning, day by day, with a kidding table, colostrum, bottle feeding and clear signs for when to call the vet

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Whole series: Goats, €39

Mating, kidding and kids

In short

  • A doe comes into heat every 21 days (18–22), and heat lasts 12–48 hours. The season runs roughly from August to January, strongest from September to December.
  • Pregnancy lasts 150 days (145–155). Dry her off 60 days before kidding.
  • Separate buck kids from doelings by 3 months at the latest, because they can get their sisters and dam in kid.
  • A kid gets colostrum within the first hour, and roughly 15–20 % of its body weight in the first 24 hours.
  • 30 minutes of hard straining with no progress, only a head, one leg or just the tail showing: call the vet.
  • Pregnant women don't help at kidding and don't touch afterbirths or aborted kids (Q fever, toxoplasmosis, enzootic abortion/chlamydia, brucellosis).

What's inside

Chapters

  1. A goat's year
  2. Getting the doe and buck ready
  3. Heat and mating
  4. Pregnancy: 150 days
  5. Getting ready for kidding
  6. Kidding step by step
  7. The first 24 hours
  8. Kids day by day
  9. With the dam or on the bottle
  10. Problems with kids
  11. Common mistakes
  12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Mating and kidding table
  • Mating record
  • Kidding log
  • Kid diary
  • Milk and feed calculator for kids
  • Mating and kidding calendar

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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