Behavior of the Murciano-Granadina goat in the hour before parturition

Abstract

The preparturient behaviour of 90 Murciano-Granadino goats (33 of which had single births and 57 twin births), was studied during the last hour before parturition. The goats were under free-stall management with access to an adjacent outdoor enclosure. The main activities performed by the goats in the last hour prior to parturition were: standing (9.5 ± 1.5 times), grunting (15.1 ± 1.9), kicking (9.7 ± 1.9) and nodding (7.2 ± 1.5); they also licked their backs (4.5 ± 1.4), butted conspecifics (3.1 ± 0.8) and pawed the earth (3.8 ± 1.1). Significant increases also occurred within the hour in the frequencies of standing, grunting, kicking, moving their head and neck, licking their back and pawing the earth as parturition approached. With regard to posture, goats stood for 31 ± 3 min, lay for 28 ± 3 min and walked for 1 ± 0.5 min. The majority of goats isolated themselves from the herd more than 1 h before giving birth and most of the others did so between 60 and 30 min before parturition. Eighty-three goats gave birth by the wall or in a corner of the stall area rather than in the centre of this area or outside. None of these measures differed between goats having single births and those with twin births. However, 30 twin-bearing goats (53%) showed early enlargement of the udder more than 1 h before parturition, whereas only ten with single kids (30%) did so ( P < 0.05).