Reproduction
Pygmy goats are precocious and polyestrous breeders; bearing one to four young every nine to twelve months after a five month gestation period. Nannies are usually bred for the first time at about twelve to eighteen months, although they may conceive as early as two months if care is not taken to separate them early from male kids. Newborn kids will nurse almost immediately, begin eating grain and roughage within a week, and are weaned by three months of age.
Polyestrous sexual behavior means that they experience heat and can be freshened (made to come into milk production) year-round. If milking is a priority, a continuous supply of milk can be obtained by breeding two or more pygmy does alternately. Some full-size dairy breeds are also noted for polyestrous sexual behavior.
Read more about this topic: Pygmy Goat
Famous quotes containing the word reproduction:
“The atmosphere parents wish to create when talking with children about birth and reproduction is warm, honest, and reassuring, one that tells children they are free to ask questions as often as they need to, and you will answer them as lovingly as you know how.”
—Joanna Cole (20th century)
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“Although Samuel had a depraved imagination—perhaps even because of this—love, for him, was less a matter of the senses than of the intellect. It was, above all, admiration and appetite for beauty; he considered reproduction a flaw of love, and pregnancy a form of insanity. He wrote on one occasion: “Angels are hermaphrodite and sterile.””
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