Breed and gender ID help please?

I was recently given a sweet duck and goose pair. They are buds, and hang out together. Maybe because they are in an entirely new environment, but, also, they seem the get along well. The lady who gave them to me, said that they were "Drop-Off rescue birds". In that someone had dropped them off at her place. She thinks they are this year's TSC or Atwood's special, and just got too big for their original owner, who likely just dropped them off at her livestock rescue farm.
The goose is all white, very sweet and mostly docile. But, will get aggressive, if it thinks it can. It bit my friend's daughter on her belly, and left a small welt. No harm, no foul. She's only four, and didn't cry, so it couldnt have been too bad, she simply came back to us, and said, "That goose is WILD!"
Anyway, I don't know what to look for, on a goose (or duck, for that matter) to determine gender. Can anyone tell me what I should look for?

SharkmanDan said:

I was recently given a sweet duck and goose pair. They are buds, and hang out together. Maybe because they are in an entirely new environment, but, also, they seem the get along well. The lady who gave them to me, said that they were "Drop-Off rescue birds". In that someone had dropped them off at her place. She thinks they are this year's TSC or Atwood's special, and just got too big for their original owner, who likely just dropped them off at her livestock rescue farm.
The goose is all white, very sweet and mostly docile. But, will get aggressive, if it thinks it can. It bit my friend's daughter on her belly, and left a small welt. No harm, no foul. She's only four, and didn't cry, so it couldnt have been too bad, she simply came back to us, and said, "That goose is WILD!"
Anyway, I don't know what to look for, on a goose (or duck, for that matter) to determine gender. Can anyone tell me what I should look for?

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If you post pictures we can probably tell you the breeds and maybe we can tell you, by their posture, if they look more male or female. You could vent sex them, or take them to a vet and have them DNA sex your birds.

Welcome!

I was trying to get the "Full Page Editor" so that I could post photos, but, for some reason, when I'm at home, my ISP doesn't seem to like loading it. It's taken me several tries, and finally, after deleting my cookies, I have it, so I think I'll be able to load some photos.

Looks like you have a Chinese Female goose maybe depending on age her knob isn't very large your duck is a Crested Pekin and I cannot see a curled tail feather is there one? also female ducks quack loudly and drake sound raspy.

@jchny2000 maybe able to help more on sex of your Chinese. They both are lovely.

this is what I mean about the drake feather curled.

I would not let very young children be unattended around a goose of geese. this child could have been nipped in the face and both goose and children need to be taught how to act around one another.

SharkmanDan said:

I was trying to get the "Full Page Editor" so that I could post photos, but, for some reason, when I'm at home, my ISP doesn't seem to like loading it. It's taken me several tries, and finally, after deleting my cookies, I have it, so I think I'll be able to load some photos.

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Looking at this goose I will have to say, gander. I really don't judge by knob as much by neck and legs. My Gee, he is 2 yrs old in this pic. His knob isn't really large but neck is longer, body taller than his hens.

Brown chinese ganders


Babies, here is a goose hen


Gee as a baby, look at that neck.

That pretty much confirms my suspicions.
They have likely been together, since they were only days old (Though being rescue birds, it's difficult to say, with certainty). They seem very attached to one another. But, the first day here, the goose mounted the duck, in the water, and made me think "gander"! Now, if the duck is female, I'll be happy.
Even if it's not, I'm happy. But, I would love to get some duck eggs, at some point, so a female duck, would just be better. Either way, they're sweet, and fun to watch. I need to move their kiddie pool into the chicken pen, today, to keep them in there. They refuse to go in an enclosure at night, and Monday night, my dogs tried to play a little rough with them, and I found white feathers everywhere. No injuries, but LOTS of feathers.

SharkmanDan said:

That pretty much confirms my suspicions.
They have likely been together, since they were only days old (Though being rescue birds, it's difficult to say, with certainty). They seem very attached to one another. But, the first day here, the goose mounted the duck, in the water, and made me think "gander"! Now, if the duck is female, I'll be happy.
Even if it's not, I'm happy. But, I would love to get some duck eggs, at some point, so a female duck, would just be better. Either way, they're sweet, and fun to watch. I need to move their kiddie pool into the chicken pen, today, to keep them in there. They refuse to go in an enclosure at night, and Monday night, my dogs tried to play a little rough with them, and I found white feathers everywhere. No injuries, but LOTS of feathers.

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Please yes put them up dogs can kill playing and sounds like it got mighty close there. Even if your goose is a gander and your ducks is a female they can mate with out any problems and what about the pic I showed you do you see the tell tale drake feather on your duck and does it quack loudly or simply make raspy quacks?

SharkmanDan said:

That pretty much confirms my suspicions.
They have likely been together, since they were only days old (Though being rescue birds, it's difficult to say, with certainty). They seem very attached to one another. But, the first day here, the goose mounted the duck, in the water, and made me think "gander"! Now, if the duck is female, I'll be happy.
Even if it's not, I'm happy. But, I would love to get some duck eggs, at some point, so a female duck, would just be better. Either way, they're sweet, and fun to watch. I need to move their kiddie pool into the chicken pen, today, to keep them in there. They refuse to go in an enclosure at night, and Monday night, my dogs tried to play a little rough with them, and I found white feathers everywhere. No injuries, but LOTS of feathers.

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PLEASE for the love of god do not let your dogs around your geese enough to "play" with them. My livestock guardian dog is not allowed to harass the geese, and when I'm not INSIDE the goose yard he can't even be in there. If he walks even too fast towards one I will correct him and take him out of the yard.

NEVER trust a dog, its in their blood.

Miss Lydia said:

Please yes put them up dogs can kill playing and sounds like it got mighty close there.  Even if your goose is a gander and your ducks is a female they can mate with out any problems and what about the pic I showed you do you see the tell tale drake feather on your duck and does it quack loudly or simply make raspy quacks?

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Carrosaur said:

PLEASE for the love of god do not let your dogs around your geese enough to "play" with them. My livestock guardian dog is not allowed to harass the geese, and when I'm not INSIDE the goose yard he can't even be in there. If he walks even too fast towards one I will correct him and take him out of the yard.

NEVER trust a dog, its in their blood.

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I'm not new to birds. Just to ducks and geese. I know that my dogs must be kept separate. But, after 2 nights of the waterfowl going in a secure pen, after being told by the person who gave them to me, how easy to handle they are, they became adamant about not going in anything. And, my dogs need to go outside, occasionally. They're not cats, they aren't litter box trained. They have their needs too. The duck and goose got pretty stubborn, and decided to stay out. After my disabled self was done chasing them for 2 hours, I figured they'd have to deal with their decision.
I didn't want an issue, but, the dogs had to go out. So I limited their time. But, in so doing, they needed to go out more frequently, in the middle of the night, while I was trying to sleep. I got the duck and gander caught that next morning (the morning I posted this thread) and placed into a very large pen 50'x150'', that keeps the dogs away from them. It wasn't my choice, to leave the waterfowl out. They simply refused to go in. I understand. I was told they preferred to roam, so I tried to go with the instructions I was given.
But, sometimes, when an animal refuses to do what they normally do, they just have to deal with it, and we all hope for the best. Sometimes the chickens do that, sometimes the turkeys and guineas do, too.

And, no, I see no curled tail feather on the duck.

SharkmanDan said:

I'm not new to birds. Just to ducks and geese. I know that my dogs must be kept separate. But, after 2 nights of the waterfowl going in a secure pen, after being told by the person who gave them to me, how easy to handle they are, they became adamant about not going in anything. And, my dogs need to go outside, occasionally. They're not cats, they aren't litter box trained. They have their needs too. The duck and goose got pretty stubborn, and decided to stay out. After my disabled self was done chasing them for 2 hours, I figured they'd have to deal with their decision.
I didn't want an issue, but, the dogs had to go out. So I limited their time. But, in so doing, they needed to go out more frequently, in the middle of the night, while I was trying to sleep. I got the duck and gander caught that next morning (the morning I posted this thread) and placed into a very large pen 50'x150'', that keeps the dogs away from them. It wasn't my choice, to leave the waterfowl out. They simply refused to go in. I understand. I was told they preferred to roam, so I tried to go with the instructions I was given.
But, sometimes, when an animal refuses to do what they normally do, they just have to deal with it, and we all hope for the best. Sometimes the chickens do that, sometimes the turkeys and guineas do, too.

And, no, I see no curled tail feather on the duck.

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So you may have a female duck and a gander which will be fine for mating you just won't get any off spring out of the 2. My Embden gander mated with My Muscovy ducks for 5 yrs before I brought in a female goose.
Keep feed and water inside their pen that way when they go into eat and drink you can close the door to the pen
Sorry if we got upset we just see and hear about so many members flock being killed or seriously injured by their own dogs or a neighbors. It makes us nervous.