Aging goats by teeth
Goats don’t have top front teeth. Instead, they have a hard dental pad that their bottom incisors bite against.
You can estimate a goat’s age by looking at the replacement of its milk teeth with permanent incisors. These appear in pairs, starting from the centre and moving outwards.
Be cautious though. While the average ages of eruption can be helpful, there is a lot of variation between animals.
Tooth eruption stages
Kid – has 8 temporary incisor milk teeth
Hogget – centre pair of permanent teeth erupt around 12 months
2-tooth – central pair fully erupted at 13 to 15 months
4-tooth – second pair present at 18 to 21 months
6-tooth – third pair appear at 22 to 24 months
Full mouth – all 8 permanent incisors present at 27 to 32 months
How to check a goat’s teeth
Most goats don’t appreciate a dental exam, so you’ll need to restrain the animal firmly. These tips can help:
Sit the goat upright in the shearing position
Use both hands to open the mouth
Cup your left hand around the jaw and lift the top lip with your thumb
Use your other hand to pull down the bottom lip
This should give you a good view of whether the teeth meet the dental pad correctly. If the teeth meet behind the pad, this is called a parrot mouth. If the teeth extend past the pad, the goat is overshot and the teeth can be sharp from lack of wear.
You can also slide your thumb behind the incisors (in the gap before the molars) to open the mouth more fully and view the top of the teeth.
If you can’t tip the goat up, you can restrain it against a fence or corner of a pen and check the lips as described. You won’t get as good a view, but it may be enough.
What to expect when you look
Goat teeth go through a lot. Grazing fibrous herbage puts huge mechanical stress on them. You might find:
Overshot or undershot jaws. Sometimes the teeth are only partially overshot and form sharp, lance-like points.
Gum cavities with both old and new teeth present and inflammation around the site.
Missing permanent teeth, especially the central pair which are vital for grazing.
Long, loose teeth that wobble in the gum, often caused by periodontal disease.
Very worn or missing teeth. A goat with no permanent incisors is called broken mouthed or gummy.
Teeth worn right down to the gum, making it difficult to tell if they were temporary or permanent.
Grass worn gaps between teeth causing damage.
If you’re dealing with some of these issues on your block, our Teeth and Tooth Problems course explains the most common conditions and what you can realistically do about them.
Goats with no teeth can still graze if pasture is abundant, since grinding happens with the molars. But they may struggle with hard feed like turnips or when browsing tough woody plants.
Managing tooth problems
If a goat has a single long, loose tooth left, it is often better to remove it so the animal can eat more evenly. On pumice soils, tooth wear can be particularly severe due to abrasiveness.
Tooth health is largely genetic. Sheep breeders have shown that tooth soundness can be improved through selective breeding and culling. The same principles apply to goats.
If you’re new to goats or just want a refresher, our Keeping Goats course covers all the basics, including nutrition, pasture needs, behaviour, and general health care.
