Posted by Vicki McGaugh on December 05, 2000 at 12:13:48:
In Reply to: extra parts posted by paul on December 04, 2000 at 20:41:05:
It is a genetic fault. All sorts of things can be said about it but you don't want extra teats, and folks who will tell you their are Boers with 4 functioning teats from 4 functioning quarters, are full of ickies :)
It is going to hurt nothing for you to breed this doe. (ADGA suggest that animals with faults shouldn't be registered, which is how I handle this at my farm, but it is a private discision) Just remember that you are responsible for telling future buyers that this doe does carry this fault. There is lots of cutting off of teats going on, and you darn well better know which is the correct teat to cut off! If you cut off a true teat and leave a blind teat than the milk can't come out of the udder. Cut off a teat with a true orifice, and it can leak the udder dry because you have opened the spyncther which should be holding the teat closed. Make sure and breed your doe to a completely unrelated animal. Look very closely at the buck you choose and choose only one with two teats, if he has other kids at the farm, check them over also. An extra teat will come back and haunt you at the most inopportune time, so keep this little tidbit on all the paperwork of these animals. And like Sherry said this isn't an animal you would ever want to keep an intact buck out of, to keep you honest, you really ought to castrate them at birth. That's another thing I do :) Vicki