6 Ways to Tell if your Goat is Pregnant

Is your doe expecting? Learn how to tell if breeding was a success with diagnostic tools or by recognizing these signs of pregnancy in female goats.

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After exposing my does to a buck, I like to determine the success of breeding as soon as possible. This way I have an accurate estimate of when to expect kids or can decide whether or not to feed an unproductive goat through the winter.

Here are some diagnostic tools you can use, as well as some other signs to look for that indicate that your doe has kids on the way.

Goat Gestation

The gestation period for standard breeds of goats (not miniatures) is 150 days. A pregnant doe could kid five days before or after her due date. The American Goat Society has a free online gestation calculator you can use to determine a kidding date, based on the date your doe was bred.

You will know if your goat is pregnant if she kids within five months of being exposed to a buck. If you want to know sooner, let’s look at some ways to determine pregnancy in female goats.

1. Use a Blood Test to Determine Pregnancy in Goats

Blood testing is an accurate and cost-effective way to determine if your exposed doe is pregnant. This is the method that I personally use on my farm. I pull samples from all of my does 30 days after they have been marked by a buck and mail them in to a certified BioPRYN lab. The lab tests the blood and measures a protein produced by a growing fetus and sends you the results within 48 hours. Results will indicate “open,” “pregnant,” or “recheck” based on the pregnancy-specific protein (PSPB) value observed. You can also have biosecurity disease testing conducted on the submitted samples at the same time.

I choose BioPYRN testing for my herd because it has an accuracy rate of 97 percent. It is also relatively inexpensive as each test costs less than three dollars to run at the lab that I use. This does not include the price of shipping or blood-drawing supplies, but buying in bulk and sending in multiple samples at one time makes it pretty affordable. Early detection and quick turnaround are other advantages of using blood testing to verify pregnancy.

Your veterinarian can draw blood for testing, or you can do it yourself. For more information on how I draw blood from my goat’s jugular vein and the syringes, needles, and vacuum tubes I recommend, click here.

2. Use Ultrasound to Determine Pregnancy in Goats

Ultrasound is another accurate way to determine pregnancy in goats. The best time to conduct an abdominal ultrasound on a bred doe is 45 to 55 days post exposure. During this time frame you should be able to count the number of fetuses before they get too big and overlap one another.

In addition to being able to identify the number of kids present, ultrasound provides information on the viability of the pregnancy because fetal heartbeats can be determined.

While ultrasound is a quick and non-invasive pregnancy diagnostic tool, it is highly technique sensitive. For accurate results, ultrasounds should be conducted by a veterinarian or an individual trained on performing and interpreting sonographic data.

3. Pregnant Goats Don’t go Back into Heat

If you opt not to go the diagnostic route with blood testing or ultrasound, you can observe your goat closely to determine if she is pregnant. A successfully bred doe will not go back into heat. 

During the breeding season, an open doe will go into heat about every 21 days. The fertile period (estrus) is accompanied by signs of heat and lasts only 24 to 48 hours. Signs of heat include vocalization, flagging, swelling of the vulva, and discharge. For more on recognizing signs of heat in female goats, click here to read my other article.

4. Pregnant Goats get Rounder

This will probably come as no surprise, but pregnant goats will get much rounder, especially in the last month of gestation. If your doe has an increased appetite and is packing on the pounds, she could be pregnant. Of course, this is not a foolproof way to determine pregnancy because goats are rather gluttonous and can get fat when overfed.

One way to determine if the extra weight is baby goats is to look at the doe’s right side. As pregnancy progresses, the right side will protrude if carrying multiples or a large kid. In contrast, the left side is where the rumen is. This is the largest chamber of the goat’s stomach and it expands when they eat or drink and will appear full after a large meal.

5. See and Feel Babies Kicking in a Pregnant Goat

If your goat is pregnant, during the last month of gestation you should be able to see and feel babies kicking in her belly. The best site for palpating baby goats is the lower right side of your doe’s abdomen, in front of her udder. Remember on the left side you will probably just feel digestion going on.

It’s pretty fun to feel a quick jab or a prolonged stretch from a baby goat in its mom’s belly. Be patient though, sometimes the kids are sleeping. I wouldn’t be alarmed if you don’t feel fetal movements every time you try.

6. Udder Development in a Pregnant Goat

The last way to tell if your goat is pregnant is to watch for udder development. Some pregnant does start “bagging up” a month before their due date, while in others the udder doesn’t fill until right before giving birth.

In preparation for feeding her babies, a doe’s udder will fill with colostrum (the first milk) and may be tight and shiny, making her a little uncomfortable. Her teats will elongate and she may even leak milk from the orifices (it is normal for the colostrum to be yellow in color).

Now that you know how to recognize pregnancy in goats, get ready for those kids to arrive! To learn about signs of labor, click here to read my other article. For information on what to stock in a kidding kit, click here.

For my newborn kid health checklist, click here!