Heats

 So. You've contacted the breeder, gotten blood tests done, and are all ready to breed. Now, how can you tell when to take the doe to the buck?

A little background

Female goats, like most mammals, only are fertile for a couple of days a month. The rest of the month, her body is either getting ready to be fertile (before heat), or waiting to see if she got pregnant (after heat). 

The fertile period, which comes, in general, every 21 days, is called "heat". There are signs that you can use to tell when a doe is in heat, which I'll discuss in just a moment!

Breeding season is in the fall. Meaning that does will only come into heat in the fall (in general. Nigerians can sometimes breed year-round). I've found that our does only really start coming into strong heat in mid-October, although I can sometimes see Cassie coming into heat a little earlier. On Dora and Misty, I can only tell in October or later. 

Signs of Heat 

Changes to the "rear end". In the interest of not getting spammed, I'm not going to use the technically correct word for the female private parts of goats, but...in general, those areas will stretch, loosen, and turn pink or red during heat. 

Mucus. The "rear end" will often have clear or white mucus coming from it. The color depends on the goat and the stage of heat, and the quantity also depends on the goat. But if it's yellow or brown...she's either going out of heat or not in heat at all. Mucus is not always present all the time, or in early stages of heat.

Vocalizing. The doe's voice may be lower, she may vocalize more and more loudly, and she might make weird snorting noises. This doesn't happen with all goats. Cassie never vocalizes more when she's in heat, and Dora's voice just gets lower and throatier, she doesn't get louder or more persistent. 

Flagging. The doe may shake her tail back and forth more when she's in heat. This is something that's easy to get faked out on, because goats do shake their tails around when they aren't in heat...but they do it more when they are in heat, in general. It's also worth noting that most goats will flag if you scratch their rumps or touch their tails--don't be fooled! She's probably not in heat. 

Behavior. The doe in heat may fight more, or try to mount other goats, or be mounted by them. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's in heat, and who's just getting inflamed by the hormones in the air! So make sure to check which goat is showing other signs before you accidentally take the wrong one to be bred. 

Because of the way these signs vary from goat to goat, it can be hard to detect heats sometimes. And this is where we come to...

The Buck Cloth

The buck cloth is simply a piece of cloth--our current one is an old sock--which has been rubbed all over a buck, paying special attention to the spine and head areas. It's covered in buck smell (Make sure to keep it in a sealed container!) and hormones, and probably pheromones. This is something that has to be acquired from a breeder with a buck. 

When a doe who is NOT in heat is shown the buck cloth, she'll probably sniff it, try to eat it, and wander off. (Or maybe she'll just try really hard to eat it. Y'know.)

When a doe who IS in heat is shown the buck cloth, she'll generally (not always, but often) flag, and be really interested in it, pushing her nose into the jar, and being generally riveted. (She may still try to eat it). Often, she'll pee within 3o seconds. 

Depending on the goat, the reaction may vary--for instance, Cassie will generally push her nose in and wag her tail once if she's in heat, where Dora will generally flag a lot and pee. So it's a good idea to let the doe smell it when she's not in heat first, to get a baseline, and then you'll more easily be able to tell when she acts differently around it. Sometimes, younger does (*cough* Dora *coughcough*) are afraid of it, so they may need a little bit more exposure before they're used to it, and you can get a good reading.

Timing

There's a period during heat called "Standing heat", where the doe will stand still for the buck. It's not always easy to pinpoint this, and not always necessary, even. We've bred does who are in "walking heat" (just before or after standing heat), and they got pregnant. So if you see a doe in heat, just take her up to the buck without worrying about it. At the same time, sometimes it's not a good time. And often, the goat will still be in heat just fine in the morning/later in the day when you go to take her up, since heat is usually 36-48 hours (give or take). Don't worry about it overmuch.

Now...get thee to the breeder!