Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Kid 4 and 5


Today two kids came out of the huge bulging belly of ten month old Tita. Last Autumn I haven't seen her in heath so it was a surprise when the kids would come and who had sired her. Clearly Smurdy our white billy-goat is the father of these two all white baby goats. Because of inbreeding they wont stay for ever with us. Now the lambing stable with 5 kids, 2 lambs and 3 adult goats is rather full. But it has snowed again so they will all stay inside for a few more days.

2 comments:

skannie said...

Aren't they gorgeous! The colour of the kids doesn't necessarily indicate the father. When I bred a white saanen goat to a brown anglo-nubian sire the kids were pure white, but their ears were more floppy than a saanen. It looks like white is a genetically dominant colour in goats. So they would only be coloured if they inherited the colour gene from both parents, which would mean the mother carried a hidden recessive gene for colour. The mother of your non-matching twins obviously has a hidden recessive and possibly may not be a pure-bred Slovak white short-haired goat. So if you want to know the father, it's the ears you need to pay attention to.

Unknown said...

Hi Skannie
Our white goats are certainly not pure, I indeed think that the mother of the two-colored twins has a hidden recessive gene for color. And I am certain that the colored kid has AN blood. The other twins??? Doesn't really matter since the might-be-inbred-kids are both males (or at least not females).