Are you wondering how to tell if a goat is pregnant? Are you dreaming of fluffy newborn goats and fresh goat milk?!
It can be tricky sometimes to determine if you have a pregnant goat or not. But knowing what to look for will make it much easier! These six signs will help you to know if baby goats are in your future!
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How To Tell If A Goat Is Pregnant – 7 Signs
Breeding goats can be very frustrating sometimes!
First, you need to know when the breeding season for dairy goats is, then you need to figure out when your doe is in heat, and then you need to be able to tell if your goat is actually bred!
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell for sure if your doe is pregnant. But these seven signs will make it a lot easier!
Also, to learn more about breeding, pregnancy, kid care, and everything else you need to know to care for your goats, check out the Raising Goats For beginners Course! This course has step by step lessons, videos and PDFs for everything from goat illnesses, feeding, milking, you name it! It will help you to raise your goats with confidence, as well as provide a group for personal help and support!
Pregnant Goat
Goat Pregnancy Signs
1. The doe doesn’t come back into heat
This is the main sign to look for when trying to decide if your goat is bred.
A doe’s heat cycle will last approximately 21 days. So every 21 days, give or take a few days, your doe will come back into heat.
If you aren’t sure how to tell if your doe is in heat, then please read my post 10 Signs That Your Dairy Goat Is In Heat.
So, if you doe comes into heat and you put her with the buck, and three weeks later she doesn’t come into heat again, then she should be bred.
I would continue to monitor her for a couple of cycles to be sure that she is truly bred and doesn’t have another heat.
Now, something that can occasionally happen is that your doe will appear to be in heat, and then a week later come into heat again!
This is very frustrating, and you might be wondering how this is even possible!
Sometimes when a doe is first coming into heat at the beginning of the breeding season she will have a false heat.
Being around a buck can trigger a false heat as her body is trying to get ready to breed.
Whenever I see any symptoms of heat and I’m trying to breed a doe, I immediately put her with the buck.
I had a doe once appear to come into heat every week for three to four weeks before she finally became pregnant!
She would come into heat and I would be so sure that she was bred, and then a week later it would start all over again!
So keep monitoring your does daily until you are confident that they are pregnant.
Also, as a side note, be sure to write down the date that you believe your doe was bred! Trust me, when it comes close to delivery time you will want to know that date!
2. Being more aggressive
This doesn’t always happen, after all each doe is unique, but some of my does become a lot more aggressive when pregnant.
A doe that is pregnant might start challenging the herd queen, or at least fighting back when provoked.
I guess I can’t really blame her, even people get cranky when pregnant;)
3. Getting fatter
Ok, this is a tricky sign and not super reliable.
You really need to know your doe to be able to rely on this symptom.
Some does can look like they are carrying triplets and not even be pregnant!
While some does will not look pregnant but will be pregnant with multiples!
But, if you know your doe and you realize that she is getting much wider than is usual for her, that can be a sign of pregnancy.
How to tell if your goat is pregnant
4. Milk productions decreases
If your doe is already in milk when she is bred, then her milk supply will probably begin to drop off a couple of weeks after she becomes pregnant.
5. Doe develops a milk bag or her bag fills up
If your doe has never been bred, then approximately a month before her due date she should start to develop her udder.
If she has been bred before, then her udder will fill up before delivery.
However, it could happen a month before, or only a few days before delivery!
So this sign is more helpful if your doe is a first freshener.
6. You can feel the babies’ movements
This is also a sign that is noticed as the pregnancy progresses.
As the babies grow you can sometimes feel the movement and kicks of the babies if you put your hand on the right side of her belly.
Make sure that you are feeling on the doe’s right side and not the left.
Most movements that are felt on the left side will be from the goats rumen!
7. Tail ligaments will loosen
As the doe gets closer and closer to delivery the ligaments around her tail head will loosen.
If the ligaments begin to disappear, this is definitely a sign that your doe is indeed pregnant.
You can read more about some of these symptoms and see pictures in my post 10 Signs That Your Goat Might Be In Labor!
Some additional posts related to goat breeding and delivery that you might be interested in are:
10 Signs That Your Dairy Goat Is In Heat!
10 Signs That Your Goat Might Be In Labor!
How To Care For Your Newborn Goat!
How To Bottle Feed A Baby Goat!
Have you observed any of these symptoms in your goats after breeding? Do you have any additional signs and symptoms to add to the above list? If so please leave me a comment below!
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want to know how to wean the babies when their old enough i:ve kept them away for 2 month and they still go sucking.
I personally pull my babies and bottlefeed them, so I’ve never had any experience leaving them with the mother. I do have friends though that leave their babies with the Dam. They say that once they wean them they separate them for a couple of months. Sometimes they can put the babies back in and they won’t try to nurse, other times they have to keep them separated.
And then some people just leave the babies with the mom always and let her wean them when she wants to. What you choose to do depends as well on whether you are milking the doe for your own use or not.
You can also make udder covers for the momma so they can still be with their little ones but they won’t be able to successfully nurse
How soon can you take the kids a bottle feed them?
You can find a baby goat bottle feeding schedule in my post: https://theorganicgoatlady.com/how-to-care-for-your-newborn-goat/
We tried to breed my Nigerian Dwarf goat doe in November for the first time. I borrowed a young buck from a neighbor for a day and I’m not sure if she is bred. A few days ago I noticed that her teats have gotten bigger but there is no milk sack. She seems to have gained weight but has stopped wanting to eat the pellets we feed her and the other goat (just wanting to eat hay). It’s still winter here in KS and I don’t know if she’s just getting fat. She also keeps spreading her hind legs and squatting like she’s about to pee. Anyways, just wanted to know if these things are normal or if I should be concerned. Sorry for bombarding you with questions and thank you for any answers!
I bought a doe to be butchered for Christmas eve last december. The seller told me that the doe sold to might have have been pregnant since shes with herd with the bucks and mature enough for breeding. So i decided to keep her for 3 months now. She doesnt gets into heat but shes not getting fatter. How many months does it gets a goat from pregnancy to labor and in what month that the a doe is noticeably pregnant?
A does pregnancy will last anywhere from 145-155 days.
My LaMancha doe gets really fat some days and then the next day she is back to normal size. I don’t really know why. She hasn’t been getting into any grain though. I just feed her like normal. I don’t know if that is a sign of being pregnant or, if I should be worried something is not right.
I want to buy goats for my home as small business
My Nigerian dwarf does were bred in September and they still haven’t given birth they look pregnant but they are not kidding should I be worried? I just don’t know.
Goat pregnancy lasts approximately five months. So if they were bred at the very beginning of September they would be due the end of January. If they were due mid to late September then it will most likely occur sometime in February.
Goats are pregnant for 145-155 days. If you bred her in Sept she should have kidded by now
my does aren’t birthing and they should be they look pregnant but just arent making milk
You really need to know what date your doe was bred to determine due date. If you do not know this it’s really hard to tell when they will birth.
Hello. I was wondering if there is a specific testing kit for pregnancy that you use. I have a doeling that I recently purchased that is not 8 months old yet that may have come into contact with the buck. Also what to give her if she is. I know that there are kinds of issue that occur when this happens. I don’t want to lose her. Thank you.