Why Do Goats Spit? (And How They Plant Trees in the Process)

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Goats are cute animals that many people love taking care of. If you’ve decided to take care of goats on your property recently, then you’re probably having a good time with it.

It can be fun watching the goats jump around and play during the day. You might also notice that goats seem to spit a lot.

Many new goat owners get confused by goats and how often they spit. Why is it that goats spit this way anyway?

Read on to get information about goats and why they spit. It should help you to gain a greater understanding of goats, and you’ll know exactly why they spit as often as they do.

Spitting Is Related to Mating Rituals

For the most part, goats spit because that action is related to goat mating rituals. As you likely know, different animals perform different actions when they’re trying to attract mates.

It just so happens that goats attract mates by spitting and doing a weird thing with their tongues. Male goats are going to try to get the attention of female goats by doing the spitting motion that you will see them do sometimes.

Occasionally, female goats will do a spitting motion back at the male goats. In a way, you could consider this to be a type of flirting.

It isn’t unusual for goats to do this at all, and you’ll likely see goats doing it more often during mating season. Rutting goats will be trying to attract mates often, and you’re going to notice a lot more spitting than usual.

You might have assumed that spitting would be related to something else, but it really is mostly associated with goat mating rituals. There are still some interesting aspects of goats and spitting to consider, though.

When Is the Goat Mating Season?

Goat mating season generally starts in the late summer and it will last until the early parts of winter. You’ll commonly see goats mating in the autumn.

During this period of time, does will experience estrus every 18 to 22 days. This will be the period of time where a male will have a chance to mate with a female.

So if you have noticed that your goats are spitting and doing weird things with their tongues during the autumn, it’s most likely that you can chalk it up to it being the mating season. Goats just do stuff such as this during mating season to flirt and pair up.

The mating season will be over at some point in February, and you’ll likely notice less goat spitting after the mating season has ended. When September rolls around once more, the goats will be back at it again.

It’s a funny thing to see your goats do, but it’s totally a normal part of how they interact with each other. Goats aren’t the only animals who have funny mating rituals, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t find the humor in your goats flirting in this fashion.

Goats Sometimes Spit While Eating

If you have been paying attention to your goats, then you might have noticed them spitting while they’re eating. There might be certain times when goats will be more likely to spit than others.

Goats will spit when they’re chewing something and they decide that they don’t want to eat it. There might be parts of certain foods that goats will decide not to eat.

For example, a goat might choose not to eat a hard portion of something that it has found on the ground. It might chew it a bit to get what’s inside and then spit out a hard shell.

It isn’t too strange to see goats spitting while they’re eating or grazing. This means that spitting isn’t 100% related to mating rituals since it can still be just a normal action for them under the right circumstances.

Goats Often Spread Seeds by Spitting

Did you know that many goats are responsible for spreading seeds in certain areas? In certain parts of the world, goats that climb trees have been known to eat the foliage at the top of the trees.

Most famously, these goats will eat the foliage on the top of argan trees. While doing so, they’ll be chewing the foliage and will sometimes wind up taking large nuts or seeds into their mouths.

The goats like to eat the tasty fruit of these trees, but they don’t like the seeds. Therefore, while they’re chewing, they’ll wind up spitting out the seeds.

Those seeds will go flying downward and will land somewhere on the ground away from the tree. This means that goats are inadvertently helping the argan trees to spread and thrive.

For goats, they’re just spitting because they don’t want to eat the seeds. But it’s interesting to note that things sometimes turn out this way where one species in nature will wind up being beneficial to another.

Final Thoughts

There really aren’t too many reasons why goats spit when you get down to it. For the most part, goats are going to spit as a part of mating rituals at different times of the year.

Goats will do this so that they can attract mates and copulate, and spitting can be seen as a type of flirting. It might not be the answer that you expected to get when you started looking up information, but it really is the most likely reason why your goats are spitting.

Of course, sometimes goats will need to spit for practical reasons as well. You might notice a goat spitting when it is eating certain food items.

This might be necessary sometimes because a goat won’t want to eat a type of food that is too large or one that just doesn’t appeal to it. So you might see your goat spit out food or other things such as that from time to time.

It’s even well known that goats help to spread tree seeds in nature in certain parts of the world. Goats climb trees seeking foliage and wind up helping the trees to thrive by spitting their seeds out and spreading the seeds to new spots.

Goats are fascinating creatures no matter what way you look at it. Continue to care for your goats properly and don’t worry so much about the spitting because it’s completely normal behavior.

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