Can a buck deer breed a goat? My old Nubian buck goat died this summer. I am raising a deer for the wildlife management here. He is a buck and he currently in with my two Nubian does. Do I need to seperate them. Can he breed them?

-- Betty Bitner (bitner@pld.com), October 04, 1999

Answers

It depends on what you mean by "breed". He certainly could initiate and complete the "action" of breeding (whether he would or not depends on the availability of deer does and his individual personality). So in that case, yes he can breed them. But the goat does would not become pregnant from such an action. They are different species, and not closely related species at that. So in that case (does won't get pregnant), no he can't breed them. Sorry for the mini-lecture. I like to be thorough.

I would be more concerned about keeping the two unrelated species together in case they injure each other, but you would be the best judge of their temperament and personality. If you have not observed the buck's behavior during rut, I would keep him away from your goat does until you have a better idea of how he behaves.

Just wondering, why are these unrelated species, deer, goats, rabbits, all called bucks and does? And how come baby goats and baby rabbits aren't called fawns? English in an unfathomable mystery!

-- J. E. Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), October 04, 1999.

J.E. is right. The deer might mount a doe and go through the "motions" but she wouldn't conceive.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), October 06, 1999.

Could we please start the rumor that they can cross. Imagine what that would do for meat goat prices. LOL

-- Kendy Sawyer (sweetfire@grove.net), October 26, 1999.

re:rumor of goat/deer crossbreeding, for meat sales. Naw, i don't like goat meat and i certainly don't like deer meat. now, if you're talking about beef-then maybe-if it didn't taste too much like goat!

-- k.d.gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), October 29, 1999.

No, but what a good indicator that your does are ready for breeding.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), November 08, 1999.

I don't know about deer and goats, but friends said when they had goats and sheep together that the ram bred the doe and she did get pregnant but the fetus wasn't viable and she aborted. They didn't have a buck, so it had to've been the ram. What do the scientists say?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 13, 2000.

To answer Kathleen's question about what the scientists will tell you: Yes, it has been documented that a sheep will breed a goat, and vica versa, - and they will impregnate, but they will not carry beyond the fourth month. Some have learned this the hard way when they ran the goats and sheep together during breeding season. Some never figure out what happened because they didn't see the mating. It's a good way to get really messed up with your lambing and kidding schedules.

Doesn't happen much, but it can happen and it has happened.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), April 14, 2000.

Sorry to burst your bubbles, fellows...

But a goat and deer CAN interbreed.

They are quite closely related, although I'm not sure if deer are ruminant as goats are. But it is quite possible for a female goat to become pregnant with the offspring seeded by a male deer.

And how do I know this? Well, not only have I long ago seen a rare photo of the product of such a mating, but we have goats at home. One of them, a white female, had become pregnant. We had recently gotten a young male goat from somebody for future breeding purposes, but he is far too young to be a father. We still thought that was what happened though. At least, my family did. I thought a buck deer, who was always attracted to our female goats when they were in heat, had performed the act.

And sure enough, Crystal has given birth yesterday, right on schedule for a goat's gestation period. However, the babies all appeared premature, their eyes still skinned over and all but one of the three lacking fur. Their legs and profiles were deerlike, and they all had brown splotches, unlike their all-white mother and the only young male goat we posess. They all died shortly after, the weather being too cold and them being too tiny and under-developed to survive outside the womb.

So yes, deer and goats can produce offspring. But the goat's gestation period is too short for the deer half of the fetus, making survival extremely unlikely. It could be possible for it to work the other way around, with a billy goat mating with a doe, but I don't know for sure so don't quote me on that. All I DO know is, for a while, there was living proof it is possible. Just not adviseable or successful.

-- Samantha Kowalsky (fire_saiyan@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.

Samantha, a premature delivery would better be explained that your young buck did indeed breed the doe as soon as he got there, and she kidded early with his kids. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.

Our young billy goat had no brown though; he was a purebreed of a breed that's name eludes me at the moment. It's a pure white breed. So was the mother. And the babies' appearances were deerlike in the legs and facial shape, with black noses as opposed to our goats' pink noses.

-- Samantha Kowalsky (fire_saiyan@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.