When and at what age horns begin to grow in kids, how do they look
Farmers and breeders of small ruminants often face the question of when horns begin to grow in newborn kids, because horned offspring can be expected from a hornless female or male. It is possible to determine the presence of future horns already in the first days after lambing a goat by a number of external signs. The timing of the appearance of horns is also highlighted, obvious deviations from which are not common.
What horns look like in kids
The horn buds in newborn babies are felt at an early age - 7-14 days. Pronounced compaction is clearly visible on the 21st day of life of young animals. Later, the bumps on the skull can be visualized in hornless offspring, but in horned breeds, small horny cone-shaped outgrowths already appear by that time.
In practice, the first sign of horns is the characteristic curls of hair on the sides of the top of the head. Another sign is the direction of wool growth. In horned animals, there is usually a parting in the center of the head, while in hornless breeds, the hair grows from the crown in the direction of the circumference.
At the initial stage of the eruption of the horns, they can be detected only by touch and noticed by the increased size of the bumps on the head. With age, the kids' 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 with their tips to the sides, rush up.
The pattern on the horns is visible, but the surface is still smooth. In mature individuals, the horns begin to bend, the appearance of growths is possible. The degree of curvature depends on heredity and individual characteristics of the cattle.
At what age do horns begin to grow
In most cases, horns erupt in kids when they reach one month of age. Sometimes the appearance period shifts by 1 week in one direction or another, rarely the first outgrowths appear in the early period, on the 15-20th day of life.
The half-year-old young growth of horned breeds has impressive horns, reaching a length of 7 to 10 centimeters. In exceptional cases, as a result of incomplete dominance of a trait at the genetic level, in the presence of lumps in the genus, animals may have fake, small horns, which the kids often knock down on their own.
