# Permanently fat goat?



## RKAcresGoats (Apr 8, 2014)

I have a 3 year old Nigerian Dwarf Doe that I have raised since she was a baby and as long as I can remember she has had a bulging belly. About 10 months out of the year she gets a daily walk of about 1/4 mile. During the winter she gets maybe 1/2 a cup of Noble goat food and during the summer only 1/4 cup. They get alot of garden scraps and in the evening they are let out into 5 acre orchard, during the day they are in a 1/8th acre pen with lots of "toys".

Her 2 sisters add a little weight in the winter but lose it once we start our walks and get more exercise in the summer. Is it something I'm feeding her that is causing this weight retention?


----------



## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

A big belly is not necessarily a sign of being overweight. All my goats have large bellies. It is a sign of proper rumen development. The way you tell if they are over weight is if you can grab fat around their elbows or by feeling along their spine.
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agricultu...nimal-welfare/accepted-farming-practice-goats
If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you will see some examples of body condition scoring to help you see if your goat is indeed overweight.


----------



## RKAcresGoats (Apr 8, 2014)

Thank you, I have had many a judge tell me I needed to get some weight off of her, but as you said she isn't fat. Just has a big belly.


----------



## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

If you can't grab a handful of fat from behind the elbow, she's fine.

I have ruined some of my Boers before, in the beginning, with too much feed. By the time it hit me it was already said and done, they just keep packing the fat on after I cut them off grain. Had some 300lb does with cantaloupe size fatty deposits behind their elbows in the end there.... of course I know much better now that I've been raising them for years, but never again :nooo


----------



## donadavis (Mar 20, 2011)

I run the goat show at our county fair and there is a nice herd of Nigerians that have one goat with this condition. I think it's healthy...I've seen her since she was a baby and watched her grow, kid, and show and she's perfect. She carries no fat on her back or around her hip bones but her sides stick way out and one side more than the other. I believe it's a well developed rumen...not great for show but perfectly healthy for her and for her kids. This happens to be a rather small doe...is your doe small? I wonder if she didn't develop that way to accommodate babies and forage. Her sister are larger and don't have the big belly.

Dona Davis
Purebred Nubians
Vermont


----------



## quiltstuff (Sep 27, 2012)

I have a LaMancha FF that milks over a gallon a day but looks like she is due to kid any day


----------



## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Meat goat people try to avoid huge rumens. From the little I have gleaned at 4H meetings, it sounds like they walk a fine line with acidosis trying to grain feed for meat and avoid feeding forage to the extent it causes a large rumen. Dairy people know quality forage is milk. We want a well developed rumen to extract all the nutrition possible from our forage. We actually have to be careful to judge condition based on muscle scoring, because a nice rumen can distract from a loss of condition. It still fools me sometimes. I had a doe that legitimately got fat with chub behind the elbows, then I dieted her a bit too much cause I was just looking at her with her big rumen and winter coat, and not feeling her muscling with my fingers.


----------



## RKAcresGoats (Apr 8, 2014)

Thank you so much everyone! I did the fat test and she didn't have excess fat. She's exactly the same size as her 2 sisters that aren't big rumened (20 inches).


----------



## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

swgoats said:


> Meat goat people try to avoid huge rumens. From the little I have gleaned at 4H meetings, it sounds like they walk a fine line with acidosis trying to grain feed for meat and avoid feeding forage to the extent it causes a large rumen. Dairy people know quality forage is milk. We want a well developed rumen to extract all the nutrition possible from our forage. We actually have to be careful to judge condition based on muscle scoring, because a nice rumen can distract from a loss of condition. It still fools me sometimes. I had a doe that legitimately got fat with chub behind the elbows, then I dieted her a bit too much cause I was just looking at her with her big rumen and winter coat, and not feeling her muscling with my fingers.


They do heavily risk it, and I refuse to restrict the hay with my breeding stock, and mine seem much healthier with free choice hay along with their grain. 
All the high protein feed and little hay is crazy bad for them, they don't live much past 6-7 years old if they are fed that way.
I don't see a point in restricting something so crucial to their health just to make them look a certain way. You get all the same muscling if they have a big rumen, so it doesn't make sense to me. You also avoid cantaloupe armpits 
I haven't shown in years so I could care less if my goats are barreled out, and not streamline.
Sorry for the rant


----------



## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I always wondered that - that shouldn't the muscles develop the same even with a nice rumen. I imagine the meat is healthier too - like grass fed beef.


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I used to have Boers with my dairy girls. Didn't have them long and sold them to a freind. I called one of the registries to get a copy of one of the does papers that my friend never transferred but lost. *They couldn't believe the doe was still alive! She was only 6.* I told them I expect my goats to live and produce well into their teens and I care for them with that in mind.


----------



## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

It's amazing isn't it! I have some Boer does who are about 9, still kidding every year. 
The bucks especially live shorter lives, which is why straws and breeding fees from them are $150- $1000!
A lady I met up in Oregon had a Boer buck the size of a large pony, I was stunned! I asked what she was feeding, she said he gets 8-10lbs of a Boer developer per day to maintain his weight, when she wants him bulked up for the shows, she said he easily gets 15lbs a day! This is an 18% kid grower I'm talking about.
Crazy talk I tell ya!


----------

