When goats start to grow horns: what they look like and when they appear

Farmers and breeders of small ruminants are often faced with the question of when horns begin to grow in newborn kids, because horned offspring can be expected from a polled female or male. It is possible to determine the presence of future horns already in the first days after the lambing of a goat by a number of external signs. The timing of the appearance of the horns is also highlighted, obvious deviations from which are not common.

How baby goat horns look

The rudiments of horns in newborn cubs are felt at an early age - 7-14 days. Pronounced seals are clearly visible on the 21st day of life of the young. Later, tubercles on the skull can also be visualized in comologo offspring, but by that time small keratinized cone-shaped outgrowths already appear in horned breeds.

In practice, characteristic curls of wool on the sides of the upper part of the head are considered the first sign of horns. Another sign is the direction of hair growth. In horned animals, there is usually a parting in the center of the head, while in polled ones, the hair grows from the top of the head in a circumferential direction.

At the initial stage of the eruption of the horns, they can only be detected by touch and noticed by the enlarged tubercles on the head. As the goats age, the horns grow quite quickly, becoming more noticeable with each subsequent week.

In young animals that have reached the age of 1 year, the horns usually have a regular, even shape, grow in parallel, slightly diverging at the tips to the sides, rush upwards.

The pattern on the horns is visible, but the surface is still smooth. In mature individuals, the horns begin to bend, growths may appear. The degree of curvature depends on the heredity and individual characteristics of the cattle.

At what age do horns begin to grow

In most cases, goats erupt horns when they reach the age of one month. Sometimes the period of appearance is shifted by 1 week in one direction or another, rarely the first outgrowths appear in the early period, on the 15-20th day of life.

Two-month-old kids have horns 5-7 millimeters long. At this age, the horns become clearly visible and begin to show through the coat.

Six-month-old young horned breeds have impressive horns, reaching a length of 7 to 10 centimeters. In exceptional cases, as a result of incomplete dominance of the trait at the genetic level, in the presence of horns in the genus, animals may develop fake, small horns, which the kids often knock down on their own.

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