Determining the age of a goat is easy to do for the first few years of its life. The procedure is called toothing a goat.A goat has no teeth in the upper front of its mouth,besides teeth  it has a hard palate in the upper front.It has eight teeth in the lower front. The size and condition of these eight teeth is the best gauge to determine the goat’s age.

A baby goat has a set of “milk teeth”.  Just like human kids, goat kids will lose this set of teeth as they grows up.You’ll start seeing “adult teeth”  growing in pair after the first year. By the end of three years all of the teeth will have grown in.

When the goat approaches a year of age, give or take a few months, the two center front baby teeth are replaced by two permanent teeth. Therefore, a goat with only two permanent teeth is called a two-toother and is considered at least one year old.

The same procedure occurs again as the goat approaches two years of age. The next two baby teeth, one on each side of the two permanent teeth,are replaced by two more permanent teeth.This goat is called a four-toother and is two years of age.

Similarly a six-toother goat is of three years and eight-toother goat is of atleast 3-4 years old. After four years of age it becomes more difficult to determine the age of a goat.The teeth start to develop gaps between each tooth and as the goat ages some teeth will fall out.
Often if a goat has a tooth or teeth missing it,is over six years old. Animals that have broken or lost teeth are often referred to as “broken mouthed.” “Undershot” is a condition in which the lower jaw is longer than the upper jaw whereas “overshot” is the opposite. Malformed teeth can affect the ability to graze and consume nutrients.

SUMMARY:

1  year old = two permanent teeth (two-toother)
2 years old = four permanent teeth (four-toother)
3  years old= six permanent teeth (six-toother)
3 to 4 years old=eight permanent teeth (eight-toother)