Deer Vet
> Mating and Breeding
Breeding and Mating
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Australia
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1
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Are age and/or body weight important factors for a young doe to get
pregnant? |
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There are two fundamental aspects to any animal reaching sexual maturity.
The first is genetic and the second is nutrition (and hence body- |
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weight). There certainly appears that some family lines of deer reach
sexual maturity earlier than others.
With Fallow Deer (Dama dama) the critical body-weight for sexual maturity of
does is about 30Kg. This should easily be achieved by 15mths of age
with good nutrition. |
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2
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Is line breeding recommended for red deer, and if so, for how many
generations? Eg: if a superior stag is purchased, how many generations
of his daughters could he serve without compromising velvet production
and/or soundness in the offspring? |
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I guess geneticists are a bit ambiguous about the use of line breeding -
when does it cross the line into being inbreeding with all the alleged
problems of that situation? I am not a geneticist so I will only say
that my belief is that if you continue to line breed for more than a couple
of generations there is a chance that adverse traits will emerge.
Perhaps best not to push it too hard, on balance. |
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3 |
Do deer mate for life or does a buck service many does? |
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Deer do not mate for life, with gregarious species generally mating a number
of females in the breeding season. Dominance amongst males is established by
body size, antler size, etc, with most males not reaching maturity in the
wild until their 4th or 5th year. How long they remain dominant will
depend on their staying fit and free from injury. Eventually they will
be deposed by a younger, stronger male. |
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4 |
We have 70 pregnant Rusa hinds due to fawn within 2 months. We want to
move them into a greener paddock for |
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3 weeks. Will it be too stressful for them by the time we return them
to their original paddock? This is our first fawning and we are quite
nervous. |
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It is always best to have the females well and truly settled in the calving
paddock well before the first one is due - late changes can be stressful.
You plan does sound OK, but once calving starts you cannot really move the group
about without a risk of mismothering - it's easy to leave very young calves
behind, unless the dams can get back to find them through open gates.
Calving paddocks must have adequate shelter and shade so that the hinds find a
quiet place to have the calf, and then so the young calf can easily find shelter
between sucklings. Try not to disturb them too much during the calving
period, but if they know you well and are familiar with your being in the
paddock you can go in each day and keep an eye out for dystocia, etc without any
dramas. |
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5
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a) We have a 9-10 year old male, which we want to replace. Is he still
able to impregnate females and would anyone still be interested in him?
Our females are also ageing. When does their lifecycle finish? |
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Your 10 year old stag's best years are behind him, but he could certainly
still achieve conceptions for several years yet if he is fit and well.
He may not be able to cover as many hinds as he would have done in his
prime, but I guess it would depend on how much potential a buyer was seeking
in his genes. Your old hinds are very much in the same position - if
they are fit they can certainly still conceive, with many farmed hinds
breeding for up to 15 years and beyond. |
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b) Information regarding consanguinity among deer: What are the
acceptable limits without there being negative consequences? How often
should a male deer be replaced? |
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Intensive inbreeding can bring out deleterious traits and it is a good idea
not to stay with a single stag for too many years. |
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6 |
Does the ejaculation of male red deer take place in the vagina or in
utero of the female red deer? |
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Ejaculation takes place in the vagina - the stag's penis cannot pass through
the cervix of the hind. |
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7 |
a) Exactly how much milk does a doe get before calving? Is it the
same as a heifer? |
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The behaviour of this tame hind may not be exactly the same at calving as in
a less tame animal, but it will not be dramatically different either.
In the later stages of gestation there is always the udder development and
abdominal distension that you have noted, but it can be very difficult to
predict the exact time of calving - some hinds seem to hang on for longer
than you expect, and others get on with it quite quickly. |
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b) What are the tell-tale signs that she might be going into labour?
(I read about the pacing, etc, but she has always done this, she likes to
see what humans are up to!) |
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The first sign of impending calving would usually be separation from the
group, and the seeking of a sheltered place for the birth. They have
evolved over a very long time to doing this without too much help from us,
and in fact the more you leave them alone the better - I would certainly not
lock her up. |
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c) Would it be that much of a problem if she did have the calf in the
paddock? |
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Put her in a paddock with some shelter, and do this now so she has plenty of
time to get used to it. Keep up your daily routine of feeding her, so
you can keep an eye on how she is going. When she does start you many
well miss the whole thing - it all happens quite quickly. Don't rush
in and disturb her until the calf has suckled, since this first feed is an
important part of the bonding process. Calving difficulties are fairly
unusual, although over-fat, sedentary hinds are most at risk. If she
strains for more than 2 hours there may well be a need to assist her, but
don't get involved too early. If there is no malpresentation it may be
relatively easy to deliver the calf with traction, using lots of obstetric
lubricant. If there is a problem with presentation it often results in
a Caesarean, so get your vet involved in good time. She will almost
certainly deliver a live calf with absolutely no help from you - just
monitor her closely and don't fuss too much. She will know what to do.
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International
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1
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I wonder if you could help me. I'm a third-year BSc Animal Behaviour student in Dorset, England and I am doing my dissertation on a group of a dozen axis deer which the college has in its farm park, having inherited them from a closed-down wildlife park.
The deer are in an enclosure of under a hectare, and in the two years they have been here they have increased in number by 5 (inbreeding from the one mature stag). There are various management concerns, in particular the size of the enclosure, managing the population in the future, whether they should be there at all and if not, what to do with them. It is quite difficult to find journals that relate specifically to axis deer (not being native to Britain obviously) and I understand that you have done extensive work on these deer.
Do you have any advice, pointers, etc that could be useful? I would be very grateful!
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We did do quite a lot of research on chital deer (the preferred name here) and I had 3 PhD projects completed at our Deer Research Unit in the 80s and early 90s. TheDRU is closed now but you will find a reference you can use as follows:
A.W.. English (2007) Reproductive management of Axis deer In “Current therapy in Large Animal Theriogenology" (2nd Ed) Robert S. Youngquist and Walter R. Threlfall (Eds). Saiunders, pp. 975-977.
If you read this carefully it will give you some ideas on where you should go from here.. Key points are:their high reproductive rate (3 calves in 2 years because thet hinds cycle all year round). Stags can produce viable semen when in velvet which no temperate deer can do. The bottom line is that unless you begin to manage these deer and control mating you have an animal welfare disaster looming. You would be better off shooting them all now.. would you not? I wonder. Get back to me with some ideas.
(17 December 2010)
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2
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I have heard that our deer (Vermont, US) have delayed pregnancy. I
know rut is in Sept/Oct and fawn probably born early July. Deer here
have an enzyme enabling them to digest twigs, their only available diet in
winter. Does this diet slow embryo development? |
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I am not aware that white-tailed deer have embryonic diapause. I
believe only roe deer among the cervids can achive this. This is not
in any sense due to diet. |
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3
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Our 2 year old white-tailed deer has recently undergone changes in her
physical appearance. She is bagging up a lot in her udder and we think
she is pregnant. How pregnant is she? How many babies does a doe
usually have in her first birth? |
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Your doe is probably within a month of fawning. WTD can have 1 or 2
fawns. |
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4 |
Can you remove semen from a dead deer for later artificial insemination? |
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Post mortem collection of semen is possible, provided that it is done within
12 hours of death (and the sooner the better). It needs to be
collected and processed by a suitable qualified person. |
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5 |
How many years can a White-tail doe fawn? |
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Many old females have a fawn right up to the end of their life, but
certainly some do not. It depends on their general health and
condition, and on whether their reproductive system has any abnormalities. |
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6
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I am looking for a product to use to "dry up" the milk in an 11 year old
doe. We bottle-feed her fawns but she always carries the milk for at
least 2 months after we pull the fawns. This year, she seems much more
uncomfortable and fuller with milk. Is there anything that we can give
her to dry up the milk?\ |
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There is really nothing that I would recommend apart from perhaps cutting
back on the doe's feed a little, to help her dry off naturally. I
guess this is the consequence of your deciding to bottle-feed fawns from a
health female, so I would be reluctant to interfere with nature even more by
using a drug. |
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7
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We are new to deer farming and we've been raising deer for 3 years now.
The day before yesterday we had a doe give birth. It nursed at first
but yesterday and today she won't go near it, or let it nurse. It
seems to go potty by itself. Of course we wipe it clean and stimulate
it to pee, but the stool is solid white and the smell is terrible. Any help
on this matter would be greatly appreciated. |
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Diarrhoea in new born animals is usually due to infection with a combination
of organisms, and the fawn is much more likely to die if it did not get
adequate colostrum from the mother in the first 24 hours. This seems
very likely in the situation that you describe. Urgent treatment with
fluids and electrolytes may save the animal's life, and you should seek
veterinary attention immediately. |
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