[DizzyandDave]

My pygmy went to the Billy in Jan/Feb and I was wondering if she is pregnant? Her personality has changed slightly and her teats seem to be lengthening. Haven't been able to feel any movement on her right side but she has grown a bit though not hugely. Here is a pic of her nether region...…..any idea if she is pregnant or not?

[Scarlet.Dragon]

She's looking nicely rounded but that could just be her shape.  I don't think you can tell from her nether regions at this stage; I certainly couldn't with mine until about a week or so before they dropped. 

If she was covered in January she'd be due in June and February would be July.  Do you know exactly when she was in season/covered?  Did you see any sign of a season before or afterwards that would help you work out dates and/or whether she held?  They cycle every 3 weeks so if you had seen a couple before she went to the billy you could work out likely dates from that.

The kids tend to put on the bulk of the weight in the last month so she wouldn't be huge at this stage.  Have you seen any kicking?  It was visible with most of mine by this stage, particularly when they were eating their feeds.

Have you done the "divining" test - nail or ring on a bit of string and ask the question if the goat is pregnant or not... you have to work out how the metal responds in terms of yes, no and don't know first so ask a question such as "Is this goat female?"; then "is this goat male?" and see if you get different movements.  Repeat the questions a few times until you're sure you know what the "response" is and then move on to whether or not the goat is in kid.  You can also try asking how many kids and whether they're male or female but as it only answers yes or no you have to phrase the questions to give those answers e.g. "are there 3 kids?" "are 3 kids female?"  Start with high numbers to get a no, then work back to get yes answers.  It may just be a bit of fun, but it's worth keeping a note of the answers and comparing to what you land up with in due course...

[DizzyandDave]

Many thanks, do not know exact dates but will definitely give divining a go later today and see what happens.

[Scarlet.Dragon]

Out of curiosity, what did the divining say?  And have there been any further developments or "outputs"?

[DizzyandDave]

Hi Divining was very successful as didn't have the correct equipment and it was rather windy so the string I was trying to use kept blowing in different directions. Though I am pretty sure she is pregnant now as have definitely felt kicks and she has started to put on lots of weight in a very short amount of time. So fingers crossed all will go well. I am sure I will be checking this site for lots of pre-birth help.

[nessjw]

I thought I would try divining on my last goat to kid....Due approx. 14th June...


According to this method, Summer is expecting twins ….One of each  its wrong and both kids are


girls  ........ As long as Summer and what ever she has is ok... I will be happy.

[Bramham Wiltshire Horns]

She's looking nicely rounded but that could just be her shape.  I don't think you can tell from her nether regions at this stage; I certainly couldn't with mine until about a week or so before they dropped. 

If she was covered in January she'd be due in June and February would be July.  Do you know exactly when she was in season/covered?  Did you see any sign of a season before or afterwards that would help you work out dates and/or whether she held?  They cycle every 3 weeks so if you had seen a couple before she went to the billy you could work out likely dates from that.

The kids tend to put on the bulk of the weight in the last month so she wouldn't be huge at this stage.  Have you seen any kicking?  It was visible with most of mine by this stage, particularly when they were eating their feeds.

Have you done the "divining" test - nail or ring on a bit of string and ask the question if the goat is pregnant or not... you have to work out how the metal responds in terms of yes, no and don't know first so ask a question such as "Is this goat female?"; then "is this goat male?" and see if you get different movements.  Repeat the questions a few times until you're sure you know what the "response" is and then move on to whether or not the goat is in kid.  You can also try asking how many kids and whether they're male or female but as it only answers yes or no you have to phrase the questions to give those answers e.g. "are there 3 kids?" "are 3 kids female?"  Start with high numbers to get a no, then work back to get yes answers.  It may just be a bit of fun, but it's worth keeping a note of the answers and comparing to what you land up with in due course...

sounds a bit crzy to me!
does it work?

[Anke]

She's looking nicely rounded but that could just be her shape.  I don't think you can tell from her nether regions at this stage; I certainly couldn't with mine until about a week or so before they dropped. 

If she was covered in January she'd be due in June and February would be July.  Do you know exactly when she was in season/covered?  Did you see any sign of a season before or afterwards that would help you work out dates and/or whether she held?  They cycle every 3 weeks so if you had seen a couple before she went to the billy you could work out likely dates from that.

The kids tend to put on the bulk of the weight in the last month so she wouldn't be huge at this stage.  Have you seen any kicking?  It was visible with most of mine by this stage, particularly when they were eating their feeds.

Have you done the "divining" test - nail or ring on a bit of string and ask the question if the goat is pregnant or not... you have to work out how the metal responds in terms of yes, no and don't know first so ask a question such as "Is this goat female?"; then "is this goat male?" and see if you get different movements.  Repeat the questions a few times until you're sure you know what the "response" is and then move on to whether or not the goat is in kid.  You can also try asking how many kids and whether they're male or female but as it only answers yes or no you have to phrase the questions to give those answers e.g. "are there 3 kids?" "are 3 kids female?"  Start with high numbers to get a no, then work back to get yes answers.  It may just be a bit of fun, but it's worth keeping a note of the answers and comparing to what you land up with in due course...

sounds a bit crzy to me!
does it work?

I prefer the 21st century method and scan after 35 days post-service. It gives a definite yes or no, and possibly number of foetuses developing, and as I am starting off early in autumn usually gives me time to re-mate anything that's empty and heading towards cloudburst (which seems to happen more often after unsuccessful AI and you don't know about it until goats is near due date and all you get is a whoosh of water...)

[Scarlet.Dragon]

sounds a bit crzy to me!
does it work?

We've lost a lot of the old knowledge with our modern methods.  When I've done it, I'd say the results were about 85% accurate on sex and 95% accurate on numbers (I had one that produced triplets when I was only expecting twins but it looked like they'd come from different services about a week apart as the "runt" was premature by comparison to the 2 full term foetus at birth).

 prefer the 21st century method and scan after 35 days post-service. It gives a definite yes or no, and possibly number of foetuses developing, and as I am starting off early in autumn usually gives me time to re-mate anything that's empty and heading towards cloudburst (which seems to happen more often after unsuccessful AI and you don't know about it until goats is near due date and all you get is a whoosh of water...)

There's one goat keeper not too far away from here who tried it for some fun - both her and her daughter on the same animals. They got slightly different results but they were all written down and sealed in envelopes before the scanner came.  If I remember correctly the daughter got the closest with about 80%; the mum got 75% and the scanner got 40%.  That was in terms of the number each was having.  The daughter was also closest on the sexes.

I think that probably says more about the person scanning than the divining method though!

I've been fortunate so far never to have had a cloudburst.