Does self-sucking in dairy goats develop in the raising period

Abstract

Self-sucking is defined as an animal sucking its own teats. Inter-sucking is defined as an animal suckling the udder of another animal (Keil 2001, Lidfors 2003). Although both inter- and self-sucking are done by dairy cattle most research has only be done to inter-sucking probably because this behavior is more common than self-sucking. Studies to self-sucking for dairy cattle are rare. In goats self-sucking is the most common abnormal sucking behavior but little is known about it. In this research we wanted to get a better view of the prevalence of self-sucking in Dutch dairy goats. We also wanted to know if self-sucking develops in the raising period, like calves, and what risk factors there are. We have visited 15 not randomly selected farms spread over the Netherlands in March and April 2011 and observed both dairy goats and kids. In total we observed 4355 goats of which 68 animals were seen self-sucking. Self-sucking animals were seen on 10 farms and the observed prevalence ranged from 1% till 9%. Self-sucking was seen both standing and lying and frequency and duration of sucking varied greatly between the animals. No kids were seen self-sucking. The youngest animals that were seen sucking were 7 first parturition goats on 6 different farms. The animals did this just a few days before parturition or while giving birth. A questionnaire was made to ask farmers about the raising of the kids and the management of the dairy goats. Unfortunately because of the limited number of farms visited and the small amount of self-sucking goats seen on those farms this data were not useful. However based on our observations and literature we think there is a relationship between stress, boredom and seeing other goats sucking and the prevalence of self-sucking behavior. We also think that the prevalence of self-sucking behavior on Dutch dairy farms is much higher than commonly thought. Further research will be needed to better understand the development of this abnormal behavior.