The Nigerian dwarf goat is a miniature dairy goat breed of West African ancestry. They are popular as pets and family milkers due to their easy maintenance and small stature. These goats live about 10 years.
Understanding the reproductive capabilities and milk production of Nigerian Dwarf goats is crucial for successful breeding and raising healthy kids. Let's delve into the average number of kids, milk production, and other important factors.
Average Number of Kids
Quads are fairly common with Nigerians. However, the doe’s ability to produce milk is only part of the equation. The doe’s temperament and the kids also play an important role.
Goats only have two teats. Because does have to be standing for kids to nurse, that means a doe with four kids will have to spend twice as much time standing as a doe with only two kids. Having only two teats also means that bigger, stronger, and pushier kids have the advantage. Baby goats want to nurse all the time, so if their mama is standing, they think they should be nursing, and they will not hesitate to knock a sibling off the teat so they can nurse longer.
Milk Production and Nutritional Needs
Nigerian dwarf goats can produce up to two quarts of milk each day. Their milk has 10 percent more protein and butterfat than is found in most dairy goats’ milk.
Read also: Balancing Career and Family: Egypt Sherrod
Consider the milk requirements when a doe has multiple kids. This is a Nigerian dwarf, and when bottlefeeding kids of that breed, they need 24-32 ounces per day. Four kids multiplied by 24-32 ounces a day is 96 to 128 ounces - or three to four quarts a day! My best milker in her prime peaked at 6 to 6.5 pounds a day, so she would have produced enough milk to feed four kids, but based upon milk test lists that I have seen, I would assume that only about 10-20 percent of does can produce that much.
It is highly unlikely that a doe can adequately nourish five kids. Multiply that times five, and a doe would have to be producing 120 to 160 ounces, which is more than a gallon a day!
It is important to monitor the kids' growth to ensure they receive adequate nutrition. Nigerian kids can survive on about 16 ounces of milk a day, but they don’t thrive.
How to Properly Care for Nigerian Dwarf Goats | Care Tips for Beginners | Goat Care
Challenges and Solutions
When we had our first set of quads in 2004, we naively assumed that the doe would feed the kids, even though one of them was much smaller than the other three. At two weeks of age, my daughter found the smallest kid almost dead. We wound up having to tube feed her to bring her back, and she became the second bottle baby ever raised on our farm.
With our last set of quintuplets, we watched the kids nursing several times a day, weighed them, and offered them a bottle of fresh milk from another goat. Within two days, one of the quintuplets had completely given up on trying to nurse from her mother.
Read also: Parishes of Uganda Explained
Her siblings had all doubled their weights by then, which meant gains of 3-4 pounds each. Clearly she was not able to get her fair share of the milk! We had been trying to give her a bottle for those first two weeks, but like some kids who still have access to mom, she was completely refusing to take the bottle. So, at two weeks we had to take her away from mom and spend a lot of time getting her switched to a bottle.
Today, I would not wait that long to take a kid away from mom if it was not on track to double its weight by two weeks - or at least be very close to that target.
Intervention Strategies
- Monitoring Weight: Regularly weigh the kids to ensure they are gaining weight appropriately.
- Supplemental Feeding: Offer supplemental bottle feeding with fresh milk from another goat if the kids are not getting enough from their mother.
- Early Intervention: If a kid is not thriving, separate it from the mother and siblings to ensure it receives adequate nutrition.
Factors Affecting Kid Size and Health
Over the years I have become increasingly skeptical about the ability of does to raise more than three kids. Unfortunately there are quite a few people online who happily share that they had a doe raise four or five kids.
However, I also see a lot of sale ads that say a kid is small “because it was a quad.” Being a quad is not a reason for a two- or three-month-old kid to be small. By that age, kids are small because of genetics, parasites, or not getting enough to eat.
Females can be reproductive by 4 or 5 months of age, and males perhaps as young as 2 months.
Read also: Overview of Chad ISPs
As the name implies, these are small goats with a short, straight coat in a wide variety of black, white, brown, red and gold color patterns.
General Care
Goats were among one of the very first domesticated animals and have been part of human life as companions and a source of hides and food for millennia. Many thousands of years of selective breeding have produced a large number of breeds specialized for different purposes and climates.
Nigerian Dwarf Goats
Contact yard animals always have access to a quiet time area when they need a break from human affection. Viewing Hints: Contact yard animals always have access to a quiet time area when they need a break from human affection.
Scientific name: Capra aegagrus hircus
Diet: Herbivore
Habitat: Urban Areas
