The Dating Game

When Mitzi showed signs of being ready to breed, I sent her on a date with Brad Pitt, the handsome young tan-and-white pinto fainter. They spent a couple of days and nights in the alpaca girls' side of the home pasture, with Brad being excused on occasion for inviting himself to the alpaca dinner trough. For a little guy, Brad can reach up to, over, and into wall-mounted feed bins with ease. At one time when Brad was excused, Hugh Jackman entered the dating sphere. Unfortunately, neither of these young bucks showed much of an interest in sweet Mitzi. The photo depicts the one moment when Brad was caught expressing an interest in the shaggy gal; however, he'll need to get much closer if he has any desire to be fruitful and multiply. Indeed, after the first night the two were left together, Brad showed so little interest that I trotted Mitzi over to the fence near BullyBob just to see if my original diagnosis of her being ready for breeding was correct. BullyBob said it was so--vociferously, with much grunting and snorting.

A conversation yesterday with another goat breeder who raises both Nigerian Dwarfs and Fainters helped me to understand better. Apparently the Nigerian Dwarfs have a healthy libido and are eager to fulfill any requests for breedings, whereas the Fainters by nature are less driven. I guess that is why people assume a doe has been bred just because she has been "running with" a buck for a number of weeks. I'm tempted to put BullyBob in with Mitzi just to arouse the Fainter fellows, but expect that the result would be a kid or kids by BullyBob--handsome, but less likely to faint. Since Mitzi is already a Nigerian x Fainter cross herself who rarely stiffens (as fainters do just before falling over in a "faint"), I have no wish to mix Bully's genes into her lineage.

Hmm, maybe if I fenced a small area within a larger area, then placed the fainters I hoped to breed within the smaller enclosure and had BullyBob roaming just outside that fence...maybe that would help to focus the Fainter bucks on task. Since the puppies are now climbing over the fence-within-the-pasture I created for them a few weeks ago, perhaps I'll try using that for goats today. Wish me luck!