KIKO's..."Texas Long Horn of Goats"

[Nanno]

Boy, if you hadn't told us he's a Kiko I'd say that brown wether was an Alpine/Nubian cross! He's an absolute dead ringer for the "type", although in his case he looks a little more inclined toward the Nubian. The legs, body, chest, horns, and even the frosted nose are all very Nubian in appearance. Lovely boy.

[KCanyon]

   
Wilbur - the wether in the post with the Sannen - is a perfect example showing that Kiko appearance can't be generalized... 
and that wethers are much different than bucks. 
We have Kiko that "look" Saanen, Oberhasli, Nubian, Alpine...the only thing they don't "look" is Boer  
Some Kiko are very large - others are small - tall, short, stocky, fine...so many "looks"!
Wilbur is purebred Kiko - DNAed. Sire was original importation New Zealand, dam is purebred with a New Zealand sire. 
Here is a picture of his sire, Dutch, at the same age - his younger brothers as bucks are featured on our website buck page.
You can see - uncastrated, they are much stockier...but again - not all...

[Nanno]

I'm glad Kiko don't look like Boer! I don't particularly care for Boer goats (personal prejudice).

Bucks are definitely stockier than wethers (or should be!). They are usually shorter as well. In fact, wethering a goat on the early side results in a taller goat. Hormones affect bone growth during puberty and in particular the long bones. With intact males, the testosterone directly affects bone density and development. Wethering delays the closure of growth plates, allowing a wether's long bones to continue growing for several years after an intact buck's growth plates have already closed. This happens with other mammals as well. For example, geldings are taller than stallions.

[Charlie Horse]

Man those are kiko horns for sure. I dont have anything like that in my collection. Yeah bucks are pretty goofy looking. And check out the coat on that guy. He looks like the daughter's boyfriend that rides a motorcycle and wont talk about where he gets his money. I'd love to see that same goat from a different timeline where he was a wether and looked more like the college student that wears a flannel shirt and glasses and is a member of the chess team.

[KCanyon]

Man those are kiko horns for sure.  I dont have anything like that in my collection.  Yeah bucks are pretty goofy looking.  And check out the coat on that guy.  He looks like the daughter's boyfriend that rides a motorcycle and wont talk about where he gets his money.  I'd love to see that same goat from a different timeline where he was a wether and looked more like the college student that wears a flannel shirt and glasses and is a member of the chess team.

That would be his son Wilbur - the wether - a couple of posts above...next to the Saanen

[blackie's maiden]

We have two kikos in our string. If we had it to do over again, we would have chosen differently but not for personality reasons, mostly the physical traits of the breed. 

One of our wiser members here had said they are not especially desirable for packing because they are bred to be meat goats and therefore bred to put on a lot of weight. That has turned out to be true of our white Frankie. He's got a belly on him that won't quit and would make long-distance endurance pretty hard on him. This is just on pasture and very little goat feed. We really expect to lose him before his time, his.weight gets that out of control.

The other, Butterscotch, has somehow managed to hold a somewhat athletic figure but he has developed.the classic kiko horns, like a Texas Longhorn bull, which would make traversing narrow mountain passes or narrow rocky crags difficult. For these reasons, I would not recommend kikos to serious packers planning on challenging hikes or hunting trips.

Having said that, their personalities for the job seems fine. They are both friendly and cooperative and carry their packs well, both still too young for a full pack however. Growing up, they did challenge us more.than any of our la manchas and  nubians ever did. Both would playfully pin us to the gate when our backs were to them opening or closing the gate and they saw the opportunity. At that point, it was gentle squashes but we needed to nip it in the bud. We followed Mark Warnke's suggestion of throwing them on their keisters and holding them upside down for 10 minutes. We are both very short people. It was not easy but we did it. Frankie learned fairly quickly. Butterscotch with an ego as long as his horns took a lot longer and he was pretty big before he finally gave up the practice. We love their personalities now but because of weight issues and horn width, we wish we had it to do over again.

We will live and cope with our decision however. We're not big on replacing animals...we get too attached. And so far, inspite of wanting to be serious hikers, have not done any packing that is as challenging as many people here. As a result, so far the two kikos have served us for our needs so far.

Hope this helps.

[Nanno]

I think it's important to keep in mind that, as Karen said, there is no particular breed standard for Kikos so they come in a wide variety of body types. I think someone who breeds specifically for more athletic packstock type goats is going to start consistently having longer, leaner goats within a few generations.

[blackie's maiden]

Here are pics of our two kikos, bottle babies, so we did not know.the weight and horns would turn out this way. See how big Frankie's stomach is, terrible, and Butterscotch's wide-spaced horns. And neither are mature yet.

[blackie's maiden]

Couldn't get both pics in one post. Here is Frankie and his big belly.