Hi all, I have someone interested in buying my little Caper, who is FINALLY over that darned coccidia!! Yay!! Anyway, he is just 3 months now, but the potential buyer says she will wether him using the banding process. I feel he is too old now for that and it will be too painful and possibly dangerous, but I'd like some other opinions. I won't sell him to her if y'all think it's a bad idea. She's a really nice person and all, but I want him to be safe. I have another buyer interested but this woman asked first. What do you think? Thanks, Brooke
I've banded at 3 months with no problems, just might take a little longer to fall off. BTW...VERY glad he's doing well now. :leap:
Thanks! I'm glad he's better, too. I thought, for some reason, that the banding should be done much earlier, around three weeks or so.
I normally don't band until they are 6-8 weeks old....seems to be more to get hold of at that time :ROFL:
My vet said if you band them too young (and they are recommending 5 mos. now, but she thinks that's overboard a little), they have an immature urinary tract and can have trouble with calculi build up. I had her do the surgery on our boys at 4 mos., but it's too expensive, so I'll band now at 8 weeks.
I've heard the same thing..to let the urethra grow as long as possible to prevent calculi...when I started to breed I just went by what my mom told me about when she did hers...before I had access to other info, so I've always done it at 6-8 weeks and so far I've not ever had any issues with calculi and haven't heard from owners of my wethers that they've had them either. Theres alot of different opinions on the timeframe but I think that banding can be done any time a breeder chooses to do it and do what works for them....My mom even banded a 2 year old nigi buck with good results, I wouldn't recommend it but it worked for her. The beef farmer here bands his bull calves at 3 months old...you'd think that those "packages" would be significantly bigger than a 3 month old mini goat or any goat for that matter.
I think 3 months is a perfect age for banding. I usually band at about 2 and a half months, no problems. Good luck with your decision!!!
if you can get the band around him then go for it. As mentioned they do band calfs which would obviously be bigger.
