[salopman]

Whats the norm for kids? Is it Twins as most goats Ive seen tend to have 2, would be nice to have a sort of customer survey here to show who had what this year ?

[wytsend]

A lot depends on the breed.... ANs tend to have 3+ with 4 being average !!!!

Have had 6 at one time... all survived.

[Hopewell]

Boers seem to have 2 kids more often than not, but then they are expected to rear them and more could be a problem of course.

There was a published scientific paper on twins in dairy cows. It mostly looked at the problems that cows having twins experience eg more likely to retain cleansings, more likely to have metritis etc. But one of the surprising things was that cows that have twins produce more milk despite being machine milked, so not simply a matter of increased demand from two calves suckling. I have wondered if this is true for goats as well, and if so would expect the dairy breeds to have more kids than Boers, Pygmies and Angoras. I think that is the case but it will be interesting to see what replies are posted here.

[wytsend]

A goat definitely produces more milk in a multiple birth..... can be as much as 1.5kg per day.

A goat producing a singleton would be more inclined to dry up earlier.

[ballingall]

It does depend on the breed. The swiss breeds (British Toggenburg, British Saanen, British Alpine's etc) tend to have 2 or 3 on average, but can regularly have single's, and occasionally 4 or even more occasionally 5.

Anglo-Nubian tend to have more multiple births, so I would actually say triplets is pretty normal, with 4 or 5 happening quite often as well.

I would say that a younger animal tends to have less- certainly the first time they kid a single or twins is more the norm.

This year we got quads from a 4 year old British Toggenburg type, twins from 2 AN first kidders, another AN first kidder had 1 kid, plus a bag of bones ( a partially reabsorbed kid). A BT second kidder had triplets, a bT first kidder had twins.

Oh and my 4 year old AN kidded in May- looked like she had at least 4 kids in her (had 4 the previous year)- and she only had twins!

They do produce more milk if they have a multiple birth- but there is ultimately a payoff, TOO many kids might put too much of a strain on them and then result in them not milking as well. Our BT type did this- having 4 big kids just took so much out of her, she didn't hit the 7litres a day production she did as a first kidder. She still gave 5.5litres, but her milk dropped off quicker as well.

Beth

[little blue]

for your "survey" - ours had one the first time, twins this last time
And was mated early & is now looking enormous!

[salopman]

 
Wow
What brilliant information - fascinating thanks

[Anke]

I am not sure if it is similar for goats and sheep - sheep when "flushed" (=put onto good grass and possibly some feed just before tupping) tend to produce more twins/triplets.

One GG (second kidder) had single last year, then twins this year (but one stillborn and she had pregnancy toxeamia), her daughter was a first kidder this year and had (live) twins, but also PT. The AOV BT type had twins again this year, as she had last year as a first kidder. I have also bought a BT, who had triplets as a first kidder this spring. GG's can have triplets too, but they can be quite small kids at birth.

[Lesley Silvester]

I think Flo had twins the first time (just before I had her) but only had Pom the second time.  Pom looked huge and I thought there might be three in there but, as you know, it was just Curry.  I'm hoping she has twins next time.

[fifixx]

I had 2 x triplets and 1 set of twins from my Boer cross mums this year.  Hoping for just twins next year as triplets are a bit much for the mum I found

[Penninehillbilly]

my 2 toggs had twins each (kids are BS cross if that makes a difference)

[jaykay]

My Old English's have always had twins. My friend's Nigerian dwarf had quads this year