I have owned goats all of my life but this is my first experience with pygmy goats. I have two yearling pygmy does that were bred to a Nubian/Alpine buck. Should I be expecting kidding problems? I normally wouldn't be worried but these are small yearling does. Does anybody have experience with crossing pygmies and Nigerian dwarfs with standard size dairy goats? How about with Boer and other meat type goats?

-- Casey Weiss (caseyweiss@yahoo.com), December 07, 2000

Answers

The only experience I have had was what my friend experienced. Disaster, all pygmy does had to have c-sections or be put down. No live kids. Hope your experience is better.

-- Diane Green (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 07, 2000.

I acquired a Pygmy doe last year who had been bred to a big Nubian mix buck. She was not a first time mother. I had to pull the first kid, and the second was born fine. They were both big, beautiful babies. If your Pygmies are the very small type, I would think they might have kidding difficulties. Kid size sometimes seems to be somewhat limited by the mother's size, but some Pygmies have been made so small that I don't see how they could not have kidding problems.

-- Teresa in TN (otgonz@bellsouth.net), December 07, 2000.

I would recommend terminating the pregnancy unless you are either willing to loose the yearling pygmy does, or have the money to have a vet standing by for a C-section. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 07, 2000.

I agree with Vicki. Get a lutelyse shot for them. It will not cost much, and it won't hurt the does at all. If they were big mature pygmy does they might have a chance, but not as snmall yearlings.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 07, 2000.

I would not recommend breeding any goat to a buck that is very much bigger than they are. You're just asking for problems. Always try to breed to a buck of the same size or smaller. A lot of Pygmies seem to have difficult deliveries anyway, you don't need big kids making it even harder.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), December 07, 2000.

We had Pygmies for a while and had problems with kidding.This was using a Pygmy buck.Can't imagine deliberately breeding one to a full size buck.Expect problems.Finally got rid of the pygmies(those that lived).Pygmy does seem to want to have their kids upside down crossways and backwards.

-- whiskers (gone2seed@hotmail.com), December 07, 2000.

I agree with Vicki, as well. In any kind of breeding the male should be close to the same size, certainly not grossly larger. I have seen dogs die in the birthing process because of mismatched breeding. Good luck.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), December 07, 2000.

I have bred and raised goats for a while myself and alsways said I would never have Pygmies or N Dwarfs for this very reason. However, we 'inherited' an orphaned dwarf doeling last January. I do not agree with the respondent that stated you should only use the same size or smaller buck for breeding. This would only degrade your herd in the long run. I have very successfully bred my smallish dairy does to very large Boer bucks and had no problems. But we are not ever going to breed little Jazz to our Boers (the only bucks we keep) and have even considered spaying her to be positive she does not accidentally get bred. Pygmies and Dwarfs are not just a different size, they are a different class from standard size goats.

-- trish (pmmobley@pbmo.net), December 11, 2000.