Two Does: Which to Keep?

Both does are two months old. The doe on the left has good curvature of skull, nice squared muzzle and width of face, good crown placement, nice short well rounded thick ears, good depth, short front legs, short feet, great topline and short compact body. These are the things we look for at this age in determining whether to keep or cull the junior. The doe on the left has shorter, wider feet which typically means this
doe will be a nice balanced show doe, compared to the doe on the right.

In comparison, you can see that the doe on the right has a narrow face, pointed muzzle, long front legs, slipped crown, long pointed thin ears, and lacks curvature of skull. Her skull is flat from muzzle to crown. You can also see her feet are much longer and narrower than the doe on the left. We would consider the doe on the right to be a normal doe which means she lacks a dwarf gene and will be larger, and longer than the other doe.

We do not use normals does in our breeding program although many breeders do. Usually the normal doe would have bigger litters but we have not found this to be true in our herd.