My saanen milk doe seems to have a much thinner coat than my kindergoat doe. You can see pink skin through the hair on her backbone. I don't recall her coat being quite this thin last year. Other than being thin, her coat is shiny and smooth. I got her from a friend last July, so I wasn't milking her until about this time last year. I brush her at each milking and I know the last owner didn't. Is this causing her to shed more? I would have thought that stimulating the coat would make it grow more, and it certainly hasn't affected my other doe this way. She isn't really bald, just has a much thinner coat. Is this a saanen thing? Any ideas? Won't a thin coat like this cause her to sunburn? She has plenty of shade she can get into as well as sun.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), July 23, 2001

Answers

Your Kinder is going to carry more hair because of the pygmy in it. Are you feeding a good loose mineral free choice? Especially if you live on the west coast you should go over to saanendoah.com and read Joyce's articles on copper defficency. We use a loose cattle mineral which is higher in copper, and with it have no need to bolus our girls. Without this increase of copper our girls show classic symptoms of longer hair, bucks with sparse hair, a "bad perm" look to this hair, and higher than normal worm burdens. Zinc is also important, make sure it is either in your grain mineral or in your loose mineral. Mineral blocks simply do not give your animals enough minerals. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 23, 2001.

I agree with Vicki. If the hair is healthy, and barring a mineral deficiency ( which includes cobalt where I live), a short, fine hair coat means she is a good quality dairy goat in hot weather. I prefer this type to the ones with long, shaggy hiar like a yak.

-- Rebekah (daniel@itss.net), July 23, 2001.