Tag Archives: brown liver spots

Goat Kid Liver Spots

Spotted goats are pretty. Black with white spots is very popular. Kids with brown spots are not popular. Such liver spots may turn color.

Some of my kids are born with white spots. There are two doe kids covered with such spots this year. One belongs to Spring and one to Pamela.

Little spotted Nubian doe
Her brother may have liver spots, but this little Nubian doe is covered with small white spots. At about two weeks old, she is tasting everything.

Spring’s little buck has no spots at first glance. His black is intense. Look again and several brown spots are there in the black. These are liver spots.

Drucilla’s brown doe had such spots. As she got older, the spots seemed spotted with white. When I ruffled her fur in these places, the underneath was white. I’m confident her spots will be white when she is an adult.

liver spots on little Nubian buck
The gym steps are as tall as this little Nubian buck is. He goes up the ramp onto the top and lays up there or comes down a step to lay there. He doesn’t sleep much, but watches everything going on. His liver spots are small on the top of his back and few on his left side.

Why do these brown spots turn white? I don’t know. Perhaps someone has studied this.

I do know body temperature can affect color. Siamese cats are not really that ivory with brown ears, tail and paws. They should be all brown.

There is some factor about the brown  on Siamese cats that prevents it from showing when the body is hot. Ears, tails and paws are cooler letting the brown show. As a cat gets older and bigger, its body gets cooler and more of the brown shows there which is why older cats are darker in color than young ones.

liver spots show as little Nubian buck walks away
Already this little Nubian buck avoids having his picture taken. His right side has lots of larger liver spots.

Maybe goat kid liver spots work the same way. The color does change as the kid gets bigger.

Yet, I’ve read that some spots never change color remaining brown on the adult goats. This wouldn’t be unattractive. It would be an interesting color pattern.

Spring’s little buck is barely over a week old. The color of his spots does not concern him at all. Being able to jump up onto the goat gym is far more important.

And, pretty as spots on goats can be, they don’t put milk in the bucket. Those solid brown does can make great milkers. And brown is a nice color too.

Harriet raises goat kids in “Capri Capers”. They keep her very busy and play an important part in the story. Read the sample pages on the “Capri Capers” page.