Wednesday, July 10, 2013

What is a Mini Silky goat?

I've been seeing a lot of confusion over what a Mini Silky goat and a fainting goat is.....thought I'd help clear it up a bit.

The mini silky goat (often referred to as mini silky fainting goat) is a created breed, using long coated fainting goats and nigerian dwarf goats to create a small breed of goat with a long coat, bangs, and short, up right ears. However they do allow any goat that has a long coat and meets their requirements to be considered for foundation status.

Many people believe that a mini silky is a purebred fainting goat, but that is often not the case. Pretty much any silky with Sol-Orr bloodlines has nigerian in it, and Bayshore has Nigerian in some of their lines as well. Here is an excellent case of a Nigerian registered as a purebred fainting goat.
Sol-Orr's Rembrandt
Unfortunately the MGR no longer displays the breed % on their online pedigrees which I think is a huge drawback....

Here you can see the goats listed on the pedigree above. Some are below as well. These are not purebred fainting goats.
The goats listed above are Nigerian dwarfs.

 Here Renee states she crossed the Nigerian and fainters to produce color patterns not found in fainters and to breed for a longer coat. As you see, they put no value on purebred animals, because they are breeding for a certain look....this is a created breed.

Again, clearly states that silkies can have Nigerien in them.


Also check out the Visual Standard on the MSFGA site, it clearly shows how the extreme mini silkies have more Nigerian Dwarf characteristics and how the acceptable and promising show the difference between the fainters and Nigerians. 

I'm not against anyone who breeds mini silkies but think people need to educate themselves about them more or they will end up buying goats with crossbreeding while thinking they are purebreed. The mini silky goat is a created breed that allows any goat with a long coat who meets what they are breeding for to be considered foundation. If you are not sure, contact Renee via the MSFGA and ask her, she can tell you what precenage the goat you are looking at is. Personally I have sold the couple goats I had with Sol-Orr as pets once realizing this, and because of this and the fact Nigerian is used in silkie programs, I do not knowingly have any silky goats in my herd and I do not buy them. I research bloodlines thoroughly before adding them.

In the future, there will be a lot of interest in the DNA testing that they now do for dogs to tell what breeds are in the background to be done on goats, and many people will find out that their so-called purebred silky fainter has Nigerian in it. Hopefully this will make breeders more honest about the backgrounds on their goats. Always research and ask questions when buying goats if they are being sold as purebred mini silky fainters-if you don't want a crossbred goat.

Again, nothing against MSFGA breeders AT ALL. However many people are uncertain about what this breed is about and don't realize it's created breed and not always purebred.
I spoke with a registry owner who states Sol-Orr Rembrandt has 94 offspring listed as "100%" when Rembrandt himself is at most 25% fainter. Again, check your bloodlines, and do your research. While the myotonic goats have been heavily cross bred in the past, and most contain 1-2% of another breed, dedicated myo breeders should strive to keep out other breed influence as much as possible.