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Input on Flushing

2580 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  janeen128, 
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I was disappointed this year when two of my Nigerians had singles and the third had twins. They're normally producers of twins or more than that without issues. I heard about flushing from another breeder, and I got the general jist of it, but I wanted to see what everyone else does to "flush " their does before breeding. I normally don't feed any grain to my girls after they're dried off in July or August, but I'll continue it this year. I feed blue seal caprine challenger, and they're out on pasture. I also provide Manna Pro Goat Mineral and a selenium block. I'm located in upstate NY and were selenium deficient.
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goathiker
You actually want them on a rising plane of nutrition. You would quit their grain at dry off and then start giving again slowly increasing the amount about 4 weeks before breeding. Keep giving it until the eggs are well implanted about 4 weeks after breeding and then slowly wean them off it.
In a Selenium deficient area a Bo.Se shot 2 weeks before breeding will increase the number of eggs the doe throws. Do not however give your buck a Bo.Se shot so close to breeding. His should be 40 days before breeding season as Bo.Se can cause mobility issues in the sperm.
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L
About a month before potential breeding time, I change them from a 16% dairy feed to a 20% and keep them at that until a month after breeding. When I used to do that, my Nigerians would give me 4-5 healthy kids in a litter and my standard does would pop out trips and quads. Since i really din't want more than twins, I stopped flushing and the litter size decreased. I plan on flushing this year to get larger litters for resale.

You do need to keep the nutrition levels up after breeding, though not as high as for flushing. Does have the ability to absorb any embryo's that their body cannot support, so if they conceive 4 due to flushing but the feed is decreased too much for them to support those 4 to delivery, the overloads die and are absorbed.

I have been told by a lot of experienced breeders that giving a BO-SE injection 2 weeks before breeding will help to increase litter size.

Some people add Calf Manna (or a generic version).

What you need is to raise their nutrition, especially the protein, 2-4 weeks before the target breeding time.
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toth boer goats
goathiker said:
You actually want them on a rising plane of nutrition. You would quit their grain at dry off and then start giving again slowly increasing the amount about 4 weeks before breeding. Keep giving it until the eggs are well implanted about 4 weeks after breeding and then slowly wean them off it.
In a Selenium deficient area a Bo.Se shot 2 weeks before breeding will increase the number of eggs the doe throws. Do not however give your buck a Bo.Se shot so close to breeding. His should be 40 days before breeding season as Bo.Se can cause mobility issues in the sperm.
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I am wondering, how a vitamin(Bo-se) can increase fertility in a Doe or mess with a bucks sperm? I don't see that as logical, it doesn't make sense to me. It isn't a hormone
If a Buck and doe are deficient, it will make them healthier.
It brings their selenium levels to a normal or close range, depending on severity. Just a bit confused :chin::scratch::crazy:
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J.O.Y. Farm
I milk up until November most times, sometimes I stop in October when we breed the girls.. Depending on how cold it is by then lol!
I feed Blue Seal Premium Dairy Goat Pellets, Alfalfa Pellets, BOSS, and Beet Pulp Shreds... I have taken out the beet pulp as I have gone to once a day milking and I wanted to cut their production down a bit..
Any way... We start flushing a month before breeding, everyone gets their Bo-Se shot, and copper(if needed) and I add Blue Seal Sunshine Plus to their diet. (About 1/4 cup) and we have had good success with that (two sets of Trips from FF, a set of quads, and twins) this past year I didn't flush them and I got a set of triplets, a set of twins, and two singles. I don't know if it was due to the lack of flushing or they just had a 'down' year.. :shrug: better safe then sorry though right ;) lol!
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Little-Bits-N-Pieces
toth boer goats said:
I am wondering, how a vitamin(Bo-se) can increase fertility in a Doe or mess with a bucks sperm? I don't see that as logical, it doesn't make sense to me. It isn't a hormone
If a Buck and doe are deficient, it will make them healthier.
It brings their selenium levels to a normal or close range, depending on severity. Just a bit confused :chin::scratch::crazy:
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Selenium defficient does will have a hard time cycling, dropping eggs, settling etc. So giving a shot of BoSe can help with a slew of fertility problems.

With a buck, it is said that is slows the sperm for a while, so the motility is just decreased. They are however, still fertile.

Copper helps the fertility as well.

~~~~

I flush my does with calf manna (or a substitute) about 3-4 weeks prior to breeding them, and continue it about 3 weeks after they are bred.
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toth boer goats
Thank you Littlebits. ;)
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kbluebkeman
Lottsagoats,

How much grain are you feeding your Nigerians before you starting increasing their amount and what is it when it is increased?

I feed all my girls the same amount and one consistently throws quints, another always throws quads (others are usually triplets) and then one of my best does has only ever thrown twins.......so I thought this was just the norm for each of them. I didn't know anything about flushing until joining this forum......

Karen
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janeen128
Okay, in reading this thread I am more confused now. I have been feeding only my milking does and youngsters in the morning, everyone else is let out to browse. I still have a lot of browse and I rotate them to different fields. At night they all get a cup of grain, and a half a cup of alfalfa pellets. If it raining hard then they get hay too. I have 2 almost 6 year old does that are having a hard time getting preggo, the last 2 season nothing. One had severe copper deficiency, took care of that, now I'm treating her for her worm load... So if I was going to flush them both... Should I increase grain first, or should I give the BoSe first, or all at once... I will probably increase grain here come October, sense my vet is back at the end of this month, and I can have him run a fecal at the same time, just to make sure we are clear on the worm load. I've ordered the Replamin plus too, I just want to give these two every opportunity to conceive. Both my buck and buckling are already eager, so maybe I should give the BoSe shot to them too.
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Little-Bits-N-Pieces
I would do the BoSe and up the grain at the same time.

For the buck, giving him a shot of of BoSe 40 days or so before breeding would be best, as its said that a BoSe shot will slow sperm motility for a while. But if you are breeding in October I'm sure it would be fine to give him a shot now.


If the does still don't settle after this season, I would have your vet do an ultrasound on each of them, as they could be cystic.
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L
I don't have Nigerians any more, haven't for several years (since I got the Malamutes 8 years ago). I don't remember how much grain I gave them, but I do feed grain 365 days a year.

Mine does are all still milking, so instead of increasing the amount of grain they get to flush, I go from a 16% high energy feed to the 20% version of the same grain, with them getting the same poundage. It works for me. Last year I started adding selenium/Vit E powder (made for horses) to their feed twice a week instead of the BO-Se injections. It seemed to work just as well.
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janeen128
lottsagoats said:
I don't have Nigerians any more, haven't for several years (since I got the Malamutes 8 years ago). I don't remember how much grain I gave them, but I do feed grain 365 days a year.

Mine does are all still milking, so instead of increasing the amount of grain they get to flush, I go from a 16% high energy feed to the 20% version of the same grain, with them getting the same poundage. It works for me. Last year I started adding selenium/Vit E powder (made for horses) to their feed twice a week instead of the BO-Se injections. It seemed to work just as well.
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Where did you get the selenium/vit e powder? Did you order it online, or did you get it from your feed store? I kind of want to avoid the shots honestly, especially for the one girl.
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